Lecce construction company owner dies in workplace accident

Bashkim Rushani, a 61-year-old construction company owner residing in Casarano, died after being struck by a sliding gate while working on the reconstruction of pillars in the Lecce province of Italy.

Tommaso Moscara, the general secretary of the CGIL union in Lecce, identified this as the ninth workplace fatality in the Salento region in 2026. He described the situation as a daily emergency, noting several other recent serious accidents in Maglie, Porto Cesareo, and Galatone that did not result in deaths.

Data from Inail indicates a high frequency of workplace accidents in the province, with 3,589 reported injuries in the first nine months of 2026, averaging nearly 14 reports per day. In the Salento area, 149 workers have died due to workplace accidents over the last decade, while the Puglia region has seen 818 deaths in the same period.