Articles Tagged with workplace

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Nursing Home IncidentA repairman arrives to your house in a company van. He rings the doorbell. You answer and let him into your home. You expected him. Your cable is not working and you called for service. Instead of making repairs, the repairman pulls a knife and attacks you. This is the tragic set of events that recently happened to an elderly lady in Texas. When her family later went to check on her, they found her stabbed to death. Yes, the attacker was eventually convicted and sentenced to life in prison. But, no criminal punishment will ever bring back a loved one.

We live in angry times. In the last couple years, we’ve seen a huge rise in workplace assaults where someone suffers a personal injury. I’ve written in the past few months about Alabama law related to workers’ compensation for assault-related injuries. By that, I mean an employee is the one injured in an assault. One well-known recent workplace assault case even occurred here in Madison County. If you want to know more about whether or not employees injured in workplace assaults are covered by workers compensation in Alabama, you can read some of my past posts on the topic.

I wrote last week about a different assault topic. If a customer is assaulted and injured by another customer (or guest) at a business, can the injured customer pursue a personal injury claim against that business? When is a business liable for assault-related injuries where a guest injures a customer? It’s a tricky issue. It’s often difficult to pursue a personal injury case in these situations. In my post last week, I discussed a hotel injury case where an angry person in the parking lot shot someone. It can be very difficult to hold a business liable for a criminal act committed by a guest or customer who simply comes on to the property. You can read my post from last week if you have questions about that issue.

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In the last couple years, we’ve seen a tremendous increase in workplace injuries due to assaults. Usually, it’s a service industry worker assaulted by some irate customer. The customer gets angry because they had to wait for a table at the restaurant, or maybe they could not get their favorite table. So, the person become irate and hits the hostess. It’s all too common. It’s shameful behavior.

Over the last couple years, I’ve written several articles on the issue. My articles include the two below that discuss several serious workplace assaults:

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I recently wrote a post that discussed four of the most common accidents involving worksite trenches. You can read the post by clicking HERE. I wrote my earlier article because of the frequent number of deadly trench-related accidents across Alabama. In just the last couple years, we’ve suffered deadly trench collapses in Huntsville, Madison and Hoover. In addition to those fatal accidents, a Tuscaloosa company lost workers when a trench in Mississippi collapsed.

With a little safety effort, most deadly trench accidents could be prevented. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has published standards and a clear fact sheet related to trenches on worksites. Safety professionals are well-aware of the hazards and the easy steps which would prevent disasters.

For detailed information, you can read my prior article. After writing that earlier article, I created the following slideshow on the issue:

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Protect Alabama Workers From Occupational InjuryA flash of light. A clap of thunder. Lightning strikes a construction worker in Athens. While the worker lived, he is now disabled. He can no longer work or support his family. Can he recover Alabama workers’ compensation benefits for his disabling injury?

This is the issue faced by a recent client of mine. The worker survived only because two co-workers performed CPR until paramedics arrived. His physical injuries and rehabilitation were only part of the nightmare. When hospital personnel contacted the work comp insurance company, the adjuster immediately denied the claim on the basis it was an “act of God.” Think about the worker’s family. They stayed at his bedside for weeks not knowing whether he would live or how they would pay for his care. But, this injury SHOULD have been covered by work comp in this case.

Is lightning a work-related hazard? The short answer is that in the case of this outdoor construction worker struck while helping build the new Athens High School, it was. We were able to get work comp benefits for him. But, it took a fight to get him the workers’ compensation benefits he deserved. In most cases, the answer depends on the job.

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BLACKWELL-LAW-FIRM-ALABAMA-WORKPLACE-SAFETY-LAWYERS-300x300The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently announced the Top 10 most frequently cited workplace safety violations for 2019. What were they?

  1. Fall Protection – General Requirements
  2. Hazard Communication
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Alabama Accident & Injury LawyersWorkers at meat and poultry plants suffer some of the highest rates of occupational injury. In his 1906 book, The Jungle, Upton Sinclair wrote of the occupational dangers within Chicago’s meat processing plants. A hundred years later, food processing plants still function as if human labor and lives are expendable.

Chicago is famous for the meat-packing industry. In Alabama, these plants are typically chicken processing plants. They are places that employ people at low wages and expose them to non-stop processes. You don’t need me to tell you that many of these plants have a shameful history of workplace injuries and deaths. The numerous news stories already tell that history. Too many of these plants view people as cheap and expendable labor. But, that’s NOT how we should value human lives.

Over the last twenty years, I’ve represented numerous workers injured in Alabama poultry plants. Shoulder, arm and hand injuries are rampant. The assembly line moves too fast for any human to work long-term without injury. Yet, it’s more than just rapid assembly line injuries. The lack of safety concern also produces many injuries from falls, forklifts, and heavy lifting without proper equipment.

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safety-44441_1280-300x150Last year, a flash fire at an Alabama car dealership in Jasper killed one employee and severely injured several others. What caused that fire? Flammable chemicals being stored improperly. After the flash fire, OSHA inspected the dealership and issued several serious citations for improperly storing a flammable chemical in a dangerous location. Plus, OSHA cited the dealership for not even developing a hazard communication program for its dangerous chemicals.

For the families of these dealership employees, no penalty or punishment will ever restore their loved ones. Hopefully, OSHA’s action will spur other local companies to take needed safety steps.

Does your workplace handle chemicals safely? For me, the question is front and center. Why? I’ve spent several days this month in deposition over a Huntsville injury case involving the issue.

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Blackwell Law Firm - Huntsville Personal Injury AttorneysIs the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) failing American workers? Are workplace safety standards actually decreasing? Are more workers suffering personal injury or death due to fewer inspections? These are important questions.

Recently, A Congressman wrote the Secretary of Labor to address his concerns with declining workplace safety. Here are a couple facts about the rising rates of serious injury that concerned the Congressman:

  • Over 5,000 people died from workplace injuries in 2016, a 7% increase from the prior year.
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Workplace horseplay is not simply harmless fun. Horseplay can lead to serious accidents and injuries. What if I suffer an injury in a horseplay incident at work? Can I get workers’ compensation benefits if injured in horseplay? In Alabama, horseplay can bar a claim for workers’ compensation benefits. It’s a serious issue that prevents you from recovering needed workers’ compensation benefits. If you were hurt in the workplace and an issue of horseplay exists, you should consult a skilled workers’ compensation attorney who has been through trial in these claims. Your benefits can depend upon it.

Are there situations where you can still recover workers’ compensation benefits if injured by horseplay? Yes. Situations do exist where horseplay injuries may still be compensable. A primary situation involves workers who are the innocent victims of horseplay.

Several years ago, I tried just such a case. What happened in that case? My client drove a truck for a large parcel delivery service. He drove an overnight route across Alabama. His company had a hub in central Alabama where he often stopped for fuel. The company supplied both gas and mechanics at that location. One night he stopped at the hub for fuel. As he sat and waited for his truck to be fueled, a mechanic suddenly jumped on him from behind. My client suffered a torn rotator cuff in the incident. The mechanic who caused the accident did not intend to hurt my client. Rather, this mechanic had a long history of dangerous horseplay in the workplace. Other employees had previously complained. Yet, for some reason, the employer did nothing. After the injury, the employer denied my client’s workers’ compensation claim on the grounds of horseplay. That’s where we became involved. In that case, the client was an innocent victim. We were able to win his benefits in court. If you are truly the innocent victim of horseplay, your claim should be honored.

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Work Comp Lawyers For AlabamaA couple years ago, the Discovery Channel’s Mike Rowe set off a firestorm of commentary on the role of safety in the workplace. Rowe stars in the Discovery Channel show Dirty Jobs. Following one episode a viewer called him out for not wearing proper safety gear. How did Rowe respond? Rowe called the “Safety First” slogan a bunch of “nonsense.” He also responded:

In the jobs I have seen thus far, I can tell you with certainty, that safety, while always a major consideration, is never the priority.

Never. Never, ever. Not even once.

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