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Mississippi Workplace Accident Attorney Discusses Workplace Accidents Involving Electricity

Most workplaces use electricity. From the electrical systems that power office buildings where employees use computers and other electronic devices to do their work to large manufacturing facilities that power massive machines with large amounts of electricity, electricity flows around most of us for much of our workday. Unfortunately, electricity can hurt and even kill workers who come into contact with it.

A man recently died from an electrical accident that happened while he was at work. The fifty-two-year-old man received an electrical injury to his hands, and he went into cardiac arrest shortly afterward. Some of the man’s co-workers tried to revive him, but neither they nor the first responders who reported to the accident scene were able to do so.

At the time of the accident, the man was working at a facility that produces electrical meters. He was a skilled and experienced worker who served his employer for over nine years before his death. Investigators from the Occupational Safety and Health Organization (OSHA) are investigating the fatal workplace accident.

There are three main types of workplace accidents that involve electricity. Employees can receive an electrical shock, they can be burned by electricity, or an electrical fire can injure them. Electrical shocks happen when an electrical current comes into contact with parts of a person’s body, such as a hand or a foot. Our bodies contain so much water that they conduct electricity very well. Electric shock injuries range from mild to severe and even fatal. A mild electric shock leaves the injured person with a tingly feeling in the area where the injury occurred. Moderate electric shocks can cause muscles to clench and tighten. A severe electrical shock sends so much electricity into the injured person’s body that their heart or lungs may fail. 

Severe electrical shocks cause electrical burns. Some electrical burns are external and can be seen on the outside of the injured person’s body. Electricity can also burn people internally if it travels through bones and into deep tissues. When there is an electrical fire, people can get hurt or killed if they try to extinguish the fire with water, and the water comes into contact with the electricity.

When electricity flows throughout the workplace as it should, it is useful for many kinds of work. Unfortunately, there are many ways that electricity can move outside of the systems that are designed to contain it. For example, electrical wiring does not last forever, nor is it maintenance free. Old wires can become brittle and crack or break, allowing electricity to escape. Routine examination of the electrical systems in a workplace could prevent at least some of the electrical accidents that occur. Electrical outlets have undergone many safety improvements over time, and many older outlets do not have the safety devices like ground-fault control interrupters (GFCI’s) or three-pronged plugs that could prevent some electrical injuries or deaths.

Electrical connections and components on machinery must be examined regularly for wear and tear and repaired as needed. Employees who repair equipment must do so carefully, taking steps to avoid all contact with electricity. Safe work practices such as lockout/tag-out protocols can help prevent accidental contact with electricity during repairs and maintenance.

If your family lost a loved one or if you were injured in an electrical accident at work, call the Mississippi Workplace Accident Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC today, at 1 (800) 707-9577.

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Mississippi Workplace Accident Attorney Asks – Do You Work At One of America’s Ten Most Dangerous Jobs?

The end of the year comes with many lists, especially lists of the ten best or ten worst of just about anything. One of those lists is a compilation of the ten most dangerous jobs in America. The list is based on workplace accident, injury, and fatality numbers from 2018, and by now, you may be wondering whether your job is on it.

According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, over five thousand American lives were lost on the job during 2018. The number of lives lost at work is slightly higher than it was in 2017. Interestingly enough, a full forty percent of those fatalities involved transportation. Contact with objects and equipment is an increasingly common cause of workplace fatalities, causing thirteen percent more deaths than it had the previous year.

The tenth most dangerous job in America is supervising landscaping and groundskeeping work. Supervisors for these services often visit multiple job sites every day as they manage the teams that provide the landscaping and groundskeeping services, increasing the risk that they will be hurt or killed in a work-related transportation accident. Transportation accidents are the leading cause of work-related fatalities among groundskeeping and landscaping supervisors.

The ninth most dangerous job in America is also a supervisor’s job – supervising construction and extraction work crews. Again, transportation-related fatalities top the list of workplace deaths for this job, which involves a great deal of travel between job sites each day. Another significant contributor to workplace fatalities for supervisors of extraction and construction work is falls, slips, and trips.

Structural iron and steel workers have the eighth most dangerous job in America. Slips, trips, and falls were the most common cause of workplace injuries and deaths for structural steel and ironworkers, who often work at substantial heights installing structural components during building construction.

Farmers, ranchers, and others who work in agriculture have the seventh most dangerous job in America. Transportation accidents top the list of causes of injury and death for agricultural workers.  It is unclear whether those figures include travel between farms, using tractors, combines, and other farming equipment, or both. Most of the training that agricultural workers receive is on-the-job, so agricultural workers who are teaching newer workers how to do their jobs must emphasize safety during that training.

American workers provide valuable services to our communities and our nation. Without American farmers and fishers, our food supply would not be as diverse and accessible as it is, and we would be more dependent on other nations for food. Without American loggers, we would not be able to harvest our forests for the diverse assortment of wood products that many of us use every day. Every job on the list of America’s ten most dangerous occupations is vital to the success of our nation’s society and economy. When workplace safety is not the priority that it should be, American workers face on-the-job dangers that could hurt or kill them. If you were injured on the job, call the Mississippi Workplace Accident Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC today, at 1 (800) 707-9577.

 

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Mississippi Workplace Accident Attorney Talks About Tree Work Accidents

Workers who deal with trees as part of their job are often exposed to the risk of injury or death. The trees themselves can pose a threat to safety as can the saws, trucks, and other equipment that people who work cutting, clearing, and otherwise managing trees use in their jobs. A recent death in Mississippi involved a MDOT worker who was doing tree work.

Tree work injuries and deaths are not the exclusive provinces of novice or undertrained workers. The man who was recently killed in a Mississippi tree work accident had twelve years of experience with the highway department. The accident is still under investigation, and information has not been revealed about how it occurred. A statement from the Mississippi Department of Transportation says that after a severe weather event, MDOT workers go out onto the roads to clear away trees so that traffic, including highway repair and other storm response vehicles, can get to the locations they need to reach. Tree work is vital to keeping highways clear and communities in working order.

Whether you are a tree trimmer for a state or local highway department, a bucket truck operator for a utility company, a logger, or someone else who does tree work, following safe work procedures can reduce the risk of accidents, injuries, and death. Unfortunately, investigations into some tree work injuries and fatalities reveal that those incidents may have been prevented.

One way to avoid injuries while working with trees is to stay clear of equipment that other people are operating. Trucks and other machines have blind spots, and some workplace injuries and deaths associated with tree work involve workers that got run over by a truck or other piece of equipment. If you are operating a truck or a piece of equipment, be sure that you know how to stabilize it and use it safely. Injuries and deaths can occur when trucks roll over because they have not been adequately secured. Steep slopes can cause skid steers and other equipment to roll over, injuring, or killing vehicle occupants. Know the limitations of the equipment that you are using, and do not operate it on slopes that it is not designed to handle.

Using safety equipment properly is key to preventing other tree work injuries and deaths. Also, regular maintenance and inspection of safety equipment are crucial to accident prevention, as some injuries and deaths have been caused by inadequate, broken, improperly maintained, or defective equipment.

Tree work can also be unpredictable because it is not always possible to completely control the movement of limbs, branches, and logs or the equipment that you are using to lift, lower, cut, and process them. Unfortunately, this means that not all tree work accidents, injuries, and deaths are preventable. Tree work has historically been a dangerous job. Though advances in safety equipment have made it safer, tree workers must maintain an awareness of the risks inherent in their work.

To learn more about how to file a workplace accident claim, call the Mississippi Workplace Accident Attorney at Barrett Law PLLC today, at 1 (800) 707-9577.

 

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Mississippi Workplace Accident Attorney Says Pressures at Work Contribute to Workplace Accidents

Every job has a unique set of pressures and stresses that comes along with it. When people get together and talk about work, workplace stress, and the demands of their jobs are often topics of conversation which everyone can weigh in on. While some workplace stresses are unique to particular jobs, many people can relate to a specific type of corporate culture that is unfortunately very common in today’s workplaces. The pressure to work faster and longer is pervasive in American workplaces. Aside from being stressful for employees, this type of workplace culture is proving to be dangerous.

It is this pressure to work at a fast pace for long hours that is turning jobs that do not appear from the outside to be overly stressful or demanding into occupations with a high risk of injury, illness or death from workplace accidents. If you’re a health care worker, hotel housekeeper, restaurant server, delivery driver, or even someone who works lots of extra hours at the office, you know what we’re talking about. Overwork is no joke, and when you and your coworkers talk about the stresses of your workplaces and the demands that wear you thin, you’re not merely griping. You’re acknowledging a dangerous trend in American workplaces where companies are trying to get more out of their employees each hour that they work while simultaneously asking them to clock more and more time on the job.

Injuries, deaths, and illnesses caused by overwork often go unnoticed because the connection between the injuries, deaths, and diseases and the individual’s workplace is not always acknowledged. The employees who get sick, hurt, and killed by overwork don’t often fall ill, get injured, or die at work. Less than fourteen percent of work-related deaths occur at work. The stresses of overwork often manifest as long-term physical and mental health problems that cause the individuals affected by them a great deal of pain and suffering before they die.

One of the ways that the do more, faster, and more often workplace culture raises the risk of injury, illness, and death is by creating work schedules that are not compatible with a healthy work-life balance. Humans are not designed to work around the clock like machines, producing hour after hour, day after day. We are created to live in relationship with others, to care for and enjoy time with friends and family. When we must work long hours at an exhausting pace to secure basic needs for ourselves and our families, our health, as well as our relationships, suffer. The same happens when we choose to work more hours so that we have more money to spend on things that we want that are not necessities. The stress caused by difficulties in managing the tension between life at work and life outside of work can contribute to sickness, injury, and even death.

If overwork or stress has contributed to a workplace injury or illness in your life, you may be able to pursue a workplace accident claim. To learn more about how to pursue a workplace accident claim, call the Mississippi Workplace Accident Attorney at Barrett Law PLLC today, at 1 (800) 707-9577.

 

 

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Mississippi Workplace Accident Attorney Says Some States More Dangers for Workers Than Others

An experienced carpenter with a stellar safety record died on the job at a North Dakota remodeling project. The man’s untimely death doesn’t make sense when you look at his day to day practice of producing high quality work safely. Something must have gone wrong somewhere along the way. The investigation into the accident revealed that the man felt pressure to produce and to perform, and that may be why he kept working on the job site even though it had not yet been checked out by an electrician. The man had asked his supervisors repeatedly to get the site assessed by an electrician, but no one came, so he kept working. He died from accidental electrocution, and members of his family say that this tragedy would not have happened if he had been working somewhere other than North Dakota.

North Dakota has the worst worker safety record in the nation, with the highest worker fatality rate per capita. The state has held that title for four out of the past five years, which is even more concerning. Forty-seven people died on the job in North Dakota in 2015, which works out to 12.5 deaths per hundred thousand workers. Other states also have high worker fatality rates. For example, in 2015 Wyoming had 12 deaths per hundred thousand workers, Montana has 7.5, and Mississippi had 6.8. Across the nation, a total of approximately five thousand workers got killed on the job.

Further exploration of the worker safety landscape in North Dakota reveals that injured workers do not get much attention, they have to actively pursue compensation and care at every step of the way. When workers die, the state’s worker’s compensation pays out, on average, less than four thousand dollars per death. In other states, the payout is closer to fifteen thousand dollars. Also, safety inspections are few and far between. With seven health and safety inspectors assigned to the entire state, it is estimated that it would take those inspectors over a century to inspect every workplace in North Dakota.

Workers do not always know the safety records of the companies that they work for, nor do they feel as though they can ask their employers questions if they have a concern about workplace safety. In an economic climate where those Americans who are employed are grateful just to have a job, people tend not to ask a lot of questions about safety which is why state and federal oversight of workplace safety is so critical for keeping workers safe.

Barrett Law PLLC:  Help and Hope for Mississippi Workplace Accident Victims

If you feel pressure at work to produce, you are not alone. Unfortunately, the pressure to produce often pushes aside safe work practices, and sometimes the results are tragic. People get hurt and killed when safe work practices get set aside in the name of profit and production, and injured workers and their families are left to pick up the pieces. To learn more about how to pursue a workplace accident claim, call the Mississippi Workplace Accident Attorney at Barrett Law PLLC today, at 1 (800) 707-9577.

 

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Mississippi Workplace Accident Attorney Talks About Falls

A recent workplace accident involving a fatal fall is a tragic reminder that falls are a leading cause of workplace injuries and deaths. The man who died in the accident was working on a cell phone tower when he fell. Authorities say that the man was between thirty and forty years old and that he was wearing his safety harness and fall protection equipment when he fell to his death. A co-worker who was working with the man said that he turned away from the man to work on something and when he turned back in his direction, he saw him falling. The accident is now under investigation.

Fall accidents are the second most common cause of workplace deaths, preceded only by transportation-related fatalities. Fall protection is, not coincidentally, the standard for which OSHA issues the most citations. When workplace falls do not result in death, they often cause permanent disabilities. Disabilities caused by workplace falls often require intensive medical treatment and ongoing care, which translates into large insurance expenditures for medical bills. As an interesting aside, falls at home are the third leading cause of death from unintentional injury in that setting.

The efforts of OSHA and other safety professionals to educate workers and people who do things at home that could cause them to fall about how to prevent falls are relatively effective. This is important, and continued efforts are needed because an aging work force means that the number of people who are the most vulnerable to suffering death or disability as the result of a fall is on the rise.

Fall protection in the workplace centers around identifying tripping hazards and eliminating those hazards whenever possible. In situations where the risk cannot get removed, making it conspicuous (think wet floor signs) are at least somewhat effective in preventing falls. When you are assessing an area of your work environment for fall risk, pay attention to whether changes in the surface are visible, whether transition areas are visible, whether the lighting in an area helps people navigate it safely or obscures a fall hazard, and whether anything can be done to make an area safer. If harnesses or other fall protection equipment are needed for the work that employees do, it is important that the workers learn how to check their equipment for safe operation and that they notify someone right away if they notice damaged or broken equipment.

Barrett Law PLLC:  Helping the Victims of Mississippi Workplace Falls

If you lost a family member in a workplace fall death or if you got hurt in a fall at work, you may wonder what to do. Your fall might have injured you badly, and you may need surgery and time to recover. If you lost someone you love in a workplace fall you are probably wondering how you can best help your family through this devastating loss. If you have questions about how we could assist you with a workplace accident claim, please call the Mississippi Workplace Accident Attorney at Barrett Law PLLC at 1 (800) 707-9577.

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Mississippi Workplace Accident Attorneys Discuss Rail Yard Accidents

A man died in a rail yard at the Nucor-Yamato Steel plant. The worker was fatally injured when he got caught between two rail cars. It is unclear exactly how the accident happened. This accident is a devastating reminder of the dangers that are present in rail yards of any type, whether they are stand-alone rail yards or rail yards that are part of a steel plant, feed mill, or some other manufacturing facility where materials and goods move in and out of the facility by train.

As is the case with any workplace fatality, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will investigate the incident and try to determine how it happened. Rail yards are dangerous places, with trains and heavy loads moving about all day long. In rail yards, there is always the danger of an accident, for both novice and experienced employees alike. The worker who died at the Nucor-Yamato Steel plant was an experienced locomotive operator who had been working at the facility for almost thirty years. Fatal rail yard accidents are tragic for both the deceased employee’s family and their co-workers as well. A deceased worker’s family faces not only the loss of their loved one but the loss of their support as a family member and their income. As co-workers grieve the loss of a teammate, they often wonder whether the accident was preventable and whether any of them are at risk for a similar fate. A showing of support from the facility for both the worker’s family and their co-workers can help to heal the hurt that follows a workplace fatality.

While the recent rail yard accident at Nucor-Yamato resulted in death, other rail yard accidents cause serious injuries. While these injuries are not fatal, injured workers sometimes face lengthy recovery times and must miss work while they recover. Unfortunately, some employees are disabled in rail yard accidents and are unable to return to rail yard work. Depending on the injury or disability that a worker has, they may not be able to go back to employment in any position at their previous workplace and may either require training to do other work elsewhere or are unable to work in any capacity. For example, one young man severely injured both legs in a rail yard accident at a steel mill. Depending upon the nature of his injuries, he may be temporarily or permanently disabled, or he may be able to recover and resume work, either in his previous position or a different position. Prompt treatment and diagnosis of workplace injuries is the best way for an injured employee to ensure their best chance at physical and financial recovery.

Barrett Law PLLC:  Supporting Families Affected by Mississippi Workplace Fatalities

If you got hurt in a rail yard accident at work or if you lost a family member in a workplace rail yard accident, a Mississippi Workplace Accident Attorney could help you pursue a claim for damages so that you can focus on healing from your injury or our family’s loss. To learn more, call the Mississippi Workplace Accident Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC at 1 (800) 707-9577 to schedule an initial consultation.

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