Paris Olympics construction sites safer than industry average, French presidency says
Building sites for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games have had no fatal accidents, according to the French presidency, which told French media that the sites are “five times less accident-prone” than the construction industry average.
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Ahead of a meeting Wednesday on the progression of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris, the office of the president confirmed reporting from the Le Monde daily that said Solideo, the public company in charge of building sites for the games, had recorded 130 work accidents – 17 of them serious – on the 12 sites under construction.
The Olympic sites are “five times less accident prone than the construction industry average”, the Elysée told Franceinfo.
Construction is France’s most dangerous industry, and the labour ministry recorded 129 fatal accidents across the Paris area in 2021.
But while Olympic construction sites have had no fatalities, five people died between 2020 and 2023 working on projects in the greater Paris area, including the Grand Paris Express extension of the metro and the Austerlitz basin project to open the Seine River to swimming.
One 16 June a 51-year-old mason, Amara Dioumassy, died after being hit by a vehicle on the Austerlitz basin site, which is managed by the Fayat group.
Some 4,000 to 6,000 people are working on the Olympic sites and up to 8,000 people on the greater Paris projects, which are more technically challenging.
(with newswires)
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