According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), 4,836 workers were killed on the job in 2015—that means, if you break it down, that more than 90 workers lost their lives each week on jobsites. These jobsite deaths were more likely to occur in industries such as construction, inspection and mining. In addition to this horrifying statistic, workplace injuries and illnesses cost U.S. employers approximately $1 billion per week in workers’ compensation costs alone, with lost productivity, staffing replacements and repairs to damaged equipment resulting in additional loss. Because of these staggering statistics, many companies are turning to drones to inspect jobsites and identify potential hazards before they become dangerous.

Drones can help improve overall safety for workers on more dangerous jobsites. For example, many industrial accidents occur from slips, trips and falls (as opposed to falling debris or malfunctioning equipment). Falls were actually the leading cause of death on industrial jobsites in 2015 with over 800 OSHA-reported fatalities. With drones, it can allow jobsite crews to perform remote inspections with real-time information. Drone mapping ultimately helps reduce the need to have workers on-site in potentially dangerous areas. Moreover, by reducing the time it takes to physically walk around a jobsite to inspect it for safety concerns, managers can generate real-time jobsite maps more often and with greater detail.

Beyond jobsites for construction projects, drones can help to inspect bridges to power lines to cell towers. Drones can actually improve the data received from the inspection, collect the data twice as fast, and increase safety of workers by reducing the change of falls (or fatalities) on the job.

Companies that are invested in reducing jobsite hazards and increasing efficiency may want to consider implementing drones into their operations. Drones can help to keep workers out of harm’s way and create more cost-efficient ways of capturing information and images from dangerous work zones.