Not in all cases, but in many instances people disregard warnings and training and fail to take personal accountability. People do not assess the situation and weigh the consequences. The little sign at the intersection turns white with the little figure that says its ok to walk to the other side and we stop taking the personal responsibility to still look both ways before we cross. Our culture is instant gratification, so we are all in a hurry and get distracted from caution.

I believe a combination of items. Some due to non industry workers (the public), some are due to manual load, some due to lack of a "safety" culture among workers and employers. I would opt that the problem may lie more with the "public" as not paying attention to the workers. There are too many "near" misses caused by inattentive customers/public.

In the case of city commercial collection I feel noise bylaws and time limited streets for heavy trucks have lowered the time availiabe for the heavy trucks to do their collections while both the increased number of people rushing on foot and extended rush hour trafic both add panic to the cars and coupled with more waste trucks at these times have resulted in more fatalities

Training is key. Detailed, qualified training with regular refresher sessions. Also a company that will accept nothing less than complete awareness and compliance.