December 2026 Safety Topics for Construction

Key Takeaways

• December tends to bring hazards most jobsites don’t face the rest of the year: holiday events, snow at height, the first deep freeze in the ground, and a site that sits empty over the break.
• Substance use reaches well past the drive home from a holiday party. Construction and extraction workers had the highest drug overdose death rate of any occupation group in 2020, and holiday events can add alcohol to the mix right before workers drive home or report for a shift.
• Falls cause the most deaths and injuries during rooftop snow removal, so clearing snow from the ground whenever possible should be the default.
• A storm plan only works if every employer on site gets the call, which makes communication across subs the general contractor’s job.
• Freeze-thaw cycles can weaken trench walls overnight, and the days before a holiday shutdown are the time to protect the site from fire, frozen pipes, and theft.

Keep December Safe With These Safety Topics

Most projects are pushing toward the holiday break by mid-December, often with fewer people on site than they had a month ago. The work hasn’t slowed down, and attention starts to split between finishing strong and getting everyone home for the holidays. These December safety topics focus on the hazards that tend to surface in that stretch, when the pressure to wrap up runs into winter weather and a site that will soon sit empty.

Our November safety topics guide covers cold stress and temporary heat, and both are worth a quick refresher for anyone who joined the project since then. This guide picks up where November leaves off, with talking points for toolbox talks and morning huddles, plus related talks from our toolbox talk library.

Holiday Events, Impairment, and the Drive Home

December is National Impaired Driving Prevention Month, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration typically runs its “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” enforcement campaign from mid-December through New Year’s Day. The national numbers are hard to ignore. NHTSA reports that 11,904 people died in drunk-driving crashes in 2024, about 30% of all U.S. traffic deaths. Another 2,028 people died in crashes where a driver had a blood alcohol level below the legal limit, which shows that “I only had a couple” still carries real risk.

The bigger issue for a contractor tends to be what impairment looks like on the jobsite itself. Workers in construction and extraction occupations had the highest drug overdose death rate of any occupation group in 2020, at 162.6 deaths per 100,000, compared with 42.1 for all workers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Alcohol shows a similar pattern. Federal survey data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that 16.5% of full-time construction workers reported heavy alcohol use in the past month, nearly double the 8.7% average for full-time workers. That data covers 2008 to 2012, so it’s dated, but the industry still wrestles with the same pattern today. If an impaired worker gets hurt operating equipment or working at height, the questions that follow can quickly turn to what supervisors noticed and what they did about it.

Holiday events can pile onto that risk at the worst moments: right before someone drives home, or the morning before they climb into a lift. Here are a few ways to address it before the season starts:

• Set expectations for company events. If the company serves alcohol at a holiday party, arrange sober rides home and make it clear that nobody drives impaired, no exceptions.
• Treat the next shift as a fitness-for-duty checkpoint. Remind foremen and superintendents what impairment can look like, from slowed reactions to poor coordination, and who to call if they’re concerned about a worker operating equipment or working at height.
• Keep the conversation supportive. Many workers who struggle with alcohol or drugs are also dealing with pain, stress, or time away from family. Point crews to your Employee Assistance Program and other confidential resources, and make it clear that asking for help won’t put their job at risk.
• Cover every kind of impairment. Prescription opioids, cannabis, and some over-the-counter medications can also affect a worker’s ability to drive or run equipment safely.

For more on supporting crews through the stress of the season, see the mental health section of our April safety topics.

Toolbox talks for this topic: Substance Abuse · Vehicle and Equipment Driving

Snow and Ice Removal at Height

The first snowfall of the season tends to create a new task that nobody planned for: clearing a roof, a deck, or an elevated slab so work can continue. The job can look simple, which makes the risk easy to underestimate. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration warns that workers removing snow can fall from roofs and roof edges, through skylights, or from ladders and aerial lifts, and that a roof collapse can injure or kill them. Falls cause the most deaths and injuries during this kind of work.

Snow makes already-present hazards harder to see. A blanket of snow can hide floor openings, skylights, roof drains, unguarded edges, and extension cords. Snow on a building that’s still under construction can also hide incomplete decking or penetrations that were open the day before.

Work through these steps in order before anyone starts working at heights:

1. Try to clear the rooftop snow while standing on the ground first. Snow rakes and drag lines can handle a lot of roof snow without putting anyone on the roof.
2. If someone has to go up, have a competent person confirm the roof or elevated surface can carry the weight of the snow plus the workers and equipment.
3. Locate and mark skylights, penetrations, and edges, ideally before snow covers them.
4. Set up fall protection. OSHA’s construction standard requires it at 6 feet or more above a lower level.
5. Rope off a drop zone below so falling snow and ice don’t hit workers on the ground.
6. Check for overhead lines and buried temporary power cords before anyone walks, shovels, or plows.
7. Remove snow evenly across the surface, and avoid making piles that concentrate the load in one spot.

Toolbox talks for this topic: Slips, Trips and Falls · PPE in Construction

Winter Storm Stop-Work Plans Across Subs

Most crews know what to do when a storm hits. The harder part on a large project is making sure every crew knows at the same time. When the electrical sub hears about a stop-work call at 6 a.m. and the drywall crew finds out at 7:30, people can end up on an icy deck or in a lift during high winds without anyone meaning for it to happen.

That communication gap also matters for liability. OSHA’s multi-employer citation policy allows the agency to cite a general contractor that controls a worksite for hazards affecting other employers’ workers if the GC could reasonably have prevented or corrected them. A clear, documented storm plan helps protect crews, and it can also show that oversight was in place if something goes wrong.

A working plan answers a few questions before the first storm:

• Who watches the forecast? Assign one person to track National Weather Service updates. A winter storm watch means a storm is possible, while a warning means it’s expected or already happening.
• What conditions stop which work? Write down the triggers ahead of time, such as ice on elevated surfaces, wind above equipment limits, or visibility too low to run equipment safely, so the call doesn’t depend on who’s on site that morning.
• How does the call reach every employer? Decide whether it goes out by text, radio, app notification, or a phone tree, and confirm each sub has a current contact who will pass it to their crew.
• What happens before restart? Require a walk of the site after the storm to check for snow-hidden openings, damaged temporary power, and weakened protections before anyone goes back to work.

Walk subs through the plan in a morning huddle before the first storm, so every crew hears it straight from the GC.

Toolbox talk for this topic: Near Miss Reporting

Frozen Ground and Excavations

Frozen soil can look solid, but its inconsistency can be a major issue. A trench wall that’s frozen hard at 7 a.m. can start to thaw and slough by early afternoon. Snowmelt and freezing rain can also add water to the soil, and freeze-thaw cycles can open cracks that weren’t there the day before. Each of those changes can weaken a wall that passed inspection the previous morning.

OSHA’s excavation standard, 29 CFR 1926.651, requires a competent person to inspect excavations daily before work starts. It also requires another inspection after a rainstorm or any other occurrence that increases the hazard, and a thaw after a hard freeze is the kind of change that can call for one. Trenches 5 feet deep or more also need a protective system, such as sloping, shoring, or a trench box, unless the excavation sits entirely in stable rock.

The most important habit this month is treating frozen soil as a condition that will change during the shift. That means making the weather-triggered re-inspection as routine as the daily one, and documenting it the same way. It also means keeping the competent person close to the work, so the call to pull a crew out can happen on the spot.

Water and edges deserve extra attention, too. Pump out snowmelt and standing water, and watch the walls for seepage as the ground warms. Frozen spoil piles can slide as they thaw, and ice along the edge of a trench can send a worker or a piece of equipment toward the opening.

The End-of-Year Rush Before Shutdown

The week or two before a holiday shutdown tends to be one of the busiest stretches of the year. Owners push to hit a milestone before year-end, inspections need to happen before the break, and crews are thinking about travel and time with family. Add a few people out on early vacation, and the work that remains can fall on fewer hands with less time.

That’s when schedule pressure tends to show up in small ways: a crew filling out a Pre-Task Plan after the work has started, an operator setting up a lift without a full inspection, or two trades stacked in the same area to finish faster. None of those choices feels like a big risk in the moment, but together they can turn a routine day into an incident.

A short reset early in December can help:

• Be honest about what can get done. If a milestone is slipping, raise it early and adjust the plan so the last two days before the break don’t end up overloaded.
• Hold the line on planning. Make it clear that a PTP review, a lift plan, and a permit still come first, even on the last day before shutdown.
• Watch staffing gaps. Pair new or fill-in workers with experienced crew members, and check that each area still has a competent person when people start taking time off.
• Coordinate the trades. Look ahead at which crews will be working in the same areas during the final push, and sequence the work to avoid stacking.

The end of the year is also a natural time to review what happened on the project and set goals for the next one. Our January safety topics guide covers how to kick off the new year with a review of your safety program.

Toolbox talk for this topic: Fatigue Management

Securing the Site for the Holiday Shutdown

An empty jobsite carries its own set of risks over a week-long break. Nobody is around to notice a tipped heater, a frozen pipe, or an open gate, so the last few days before the break are the time to plan for them.

Fire

Fire departments respond to an estimated 4,300 fires in buildings under construction each year, according to the National Fire Protection Association. Intentionally set fires are among the leading causes, which can make an unattended site an easy target. NFPA 241, the association’s standard for construction sites, calls for a fire prevention program and a designated program manager on every project. That program manager’s plan is what keeps the building protected during a shutdown, while nobody is there to watch it.

Frozen Pipes and Sprinklers

A frozen sprinkler line can fail twice. It floods the building when it thaws, and it leaves the building unprotected if a fire starts in the meantime. FM Global recommends keeping areas with wet-pipe sprinkler systems above 39°F (4°C) and draining low points on dry-pipe systems before winter.

Theft

The National Equipment Register, which tracks heavy equipment theft, warns that thieves stay active over the holidays and that jobsites are common targets.

Pre-Shutdown Checklist

Have the superintendent sign off on a one-page checklist, so the last busy afternoon doesn’t depend on memory:

• Shut down temporary heaters, or assign someone to monitor them
• Haul off combustible waste and debris, and keep fire apparatus access roads clear
• Keep heated areas with wet-pipe sprinklers above 39°F, and drain dry-pipe low points
• Drain or protect water lines in unheated areas
• Lock up small tools and materials, or move them off site
• Disable or secure equipment that stays on site, and keep serial numbers on file
• Check fencing, gates, and site lighting
• Assign someone to walk the site during the break, and share an emergency contact list

Toolbox talks for this topic: Fire Prevention · Good Housekeeping

Strengthen Your December Safety Program

Many of December’s hazards come down to timing, since conditions on a busy site can change faster than information moves across it. Visibility and documentation help close that gap by getting the right details to the right people while there’s still time to act.

Here’s what that looks like in practice, using Safety Mojo as an example:

• Catching weak plans for snow removal and excavation work. Flex PTP is Safety Mojo’s digital Pre-Task Plan tool. It scores the quality of submitted PTPs and permit requests, so a safety manager can see which ones need a closer look. A PTP for rooftop snow removal that lists “fall hazards” without naming the fall protection system, anchor points, or hidden skylights might score lower, flagging it before anyone goes up. If someone is hurt, that record can also show oversight was in place.
• Documenting the inspections that weather triggers. Conversational Forms lets a foreman or superintendent fill out inspections and observations by voice. That makes it easier to capture the post-storm site walk or the trench re-inspection after a thaw while standing at the edge, when the details are still fresh.
• Seeing what’s still open before the break. My Day Dashboard gives safety leaders a real-time view of open items across their projects, including corrective actions. Reviewing it in the days before shutdown can help make sure nothing urgent sits unresolved while the site is empty.

If you’re heading into the year-end push and want to see how this works on your projects, book a demo.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the most important December safety topics for construction? Key December topics for construction crews include impairment around holiday events, snow and ice removal at height, winter storm stop-work plans, frozen ground and excavation safety, the end-of-year rush, and securing the site for the holiday shutdown.

What safety observances are in December? December is National Impaired Driving Prevention Month. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration typically runs its “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” campaign from mid-December through New Year’s Day.

How should crews remove snow from a roof safely? Remove snow from the ground with rakes or drag lines whenever possible. If workers must go up, have a competent person confirm the roof can carry the load, mark hidden skylights and openings, use fall protection at 6 feet or more, and set up a drop zone below.

Does frozen ground make excavations safer? No. Frozen soil can look stable, but it can thaw and weaken during a single shift. OSHA requires a competent person to inspect excavations daily and again after storms or other events that increase the hazard, which can include a thaw after a hard freeze.

What should a construction site holiday shutdown checklist include? Cover fire risk (heaters, combustible debris, and access for fire apparatus), freeze protection for water lines and sprinkler systems, and theft prevention for tools, materials, and equipment. Assign someone to check the site during the break.

Why does a general contractor need a storm plan that covers subcontractors? OSHA can cite the controlling employer on a multi-employer site for hazards affecting other employers’ workers if it could reasonably have prevented them. A documented plan that reaches every sub helps protect crews and shows oversight was in place.