Articles Posted in Construction Accidents

According to a University of British Columbia, Vancouver study, individuals with sleep apnea have a substantially greater risk of on-the-job injuries than those without the condition. In fact, people with a severe case of the breathing disorder, known as obstructive sleep apnea, have nearly double the risk of being injured in a work-related accident.

The patients in the study, which observed 1,236 individuals over an eight year period, underwent polysomnography to identify obstructive sleep apnea.  A.J. Hirsch Allen, PhD, a research associate at the university, noted that the risk is even more serious when other confounding factors are present. These include obesity, alcohol use, sex, and blue-collar industry occupations. “Screening and treatment of workers with obstructive sleep apnea may reduce rates of injury,” said Hirsch Allen.

Risk of Motor Vehicle Accident 7 to 8 Times Greater For Those With Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

Commenting on the study’s findings, past president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, M. Safwan Badr, MD, believes the study reinforces what we already know about sleep apnea and everyday injuries. “The large number of patients in the study is one of its strengths. This is a naturalistic experiment. This is what is happening in real life,” said Badr,  “We know that persons with obstructive sleep apnea are 7 to 8 times more likely to be involved in a motor vehicle accident either because of sleepiness or loss of vigilance or they distract themselves to stay awake. This study now extends this to occupational injury.” Continue reading

An ironworker has been critically injured after falling forty feet at a construction site near Logan International Airport in Boston this Friday morning. The circumstances surrounding the accident are still under an ongoing investigation. The preliminary reports have said that the man fell approximately forty feet onto a precast concrete slab that had also become dislodged and fell the same distance. It was not immediately apparent what had caused the concrete slab to give way and tumble the remaining feet to the ground. All work on the construction site has since been halted until authorities can determine the cause of the accident and if there are any remaining unsafe conditions that could pose further threats to other workers. No word has been given on the safety status of the construction site prior to the accident, with all available information supporting the idea that this was just a horrible accident. Continue reading

On Tuesday morning an employee of the contracting company P.A. Landers was killed in Plymouth after his truck became buried under a mound of sand. Charles Pace, aged 65, was operating a bulldozer at the time of the accident. It was reported that Mr. Pace was moving sand onto a conveyer belt within a sand pit when an avalanche-like collapse trapped him inside of his vehicle. Firefighters on the scene went on to say that after the sand accumulated on top of the bulldozer; the truck then rolled over, trapping Charles Pace inside. Continue reading

The summer months bring an influx of summer jobs, and teen workers to fill them. In fact, 2.7 million teens entered the workforce during the 2014 summer. While jobs provide an important opportunity for kids to learn skills, workplace behavior, and responsibility, they can also be quite dangerous.

 

Young people are especially vulnerable to on-the-job injuries for several reasons. First of all, lack of life experience in general makes teen workers less able to respond to certain situations, including emergencies. Additionally, teens often lack experience specific to their job because summer jobs provide little time for thorough training. However, the most significant factor in teens’ workplace injuries is their tendency to engage in risky behaviors, and to not report another’s inappropriate or dangerous actions. Continue reading

A worker was injured in an Amherst construction accident when a granite slab weighing about 700 pounds fell on him while he was on the job at the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus. Carlos Velasquez injured his hip, shoulder, and leg. He was transported to a Springfield hospital.

The Massachusetts work accident took place while the 55-year-old worker was underpinning supports for a renovation and expansion project. Velazquez is employed by Schnabel Foundation Co. The Springfield company is the subcontractor for this job.

The impact of the granite slab falling onto Velasquez pushed him into an excavated area. Workers removed the slab from his body.

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A jury has awarded Robert Matthews $64.5 million for catastrophic injuries he sustained in a 2009 construction accident. Matthews, then 25, was crushed by an 11,000-pound prefab building.

At the time, he had been underneath the building. The structure fell when a train passed by the site, causing the ground to vibrate and the building to move.

He suffered crush injuries to his legs and pelvis as well as his organs. Last month, a jury said that three companies were responsible for the construction accident: fertilizer maker Mosaic, Semco Construction, and Mark Rice. Semco prepped the construction site and the third company was paid to install the prefab building. At the time of the work accident, Matthew was working for Mark Rice.

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In the state Senate, a bill was introduced this year that could enhance the benefits allowed for injuries involving permanent disfigurement under the Massachusetts Workers’ Compensation Act. Currently, workers here who sustain disfigurement on their legs, arms, and torsos are not entitled to work injury compensation for those injuries, although they may still receive other benefits for income loss, medical care, and non-scar based disfigurements.

Massachusetts workers’ compensation for permanent scarring is only provided for disfigurement that occurs to the neck, face, or hands. State workers’ compensation law awards a lump-sum payment to these permanently scarred or disfigured workers. If the injury is purely scar-based, the amount of the award will depend on the size of the scar and whether discoloration occurred.

The bill would allow workers disfigured on the lower areas of their body to get compensation too.

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It may be months before investigators conclude their probe into the construction accident that killed three workers on Monday. The deadly incident happened when a piece of scaffolding—known as the mast climber scaffold—fell to the ground, causing construction workers who were on it to fall 200 feet. A fourth worker was taken to the hospital with injuries. The incident occurred in North Carolina.

The scaffolding had been attached to a new building. One of its tracks snapped off, causing the equipment to fall onto the ground.

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A $3 million pain and suffering award has been reinstated against the New York City Department of Environmental Protection after it was found to be in violation of state labor laws.

Rafael Lopez filed suit against the city and the department collectively due to injuries he sustained while working on the construction site at Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. The plant is currently owned by the City of New York and managed by the New York Department of Environmental Protection.

According to reports, Lopez fell backward and was impaled by an uncapped piece of vertical rebar (steel reinforcement), which ultimately caused him to sustain serious life-long injuries. He required multiple hospitalizations, spinal fusion surgery and physical therapy. Considering the nature and extent of Lopez’s injuries, the jury awarded him compensation for past and future pain and suffering totaling $5 million. City officials denied any liability o accident and raised issues of comparative negligence, a common defense to a labor lawsuit.

Unfortunately for Mr. Lopez, he was unsuccessful after the Kings County Supreme court granted the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment on the issue of liability.
On appeal, the city moved for a new trial on the future pain and suffering damages. “The court agreed with the original jury award stating the $2 million past pain and suffering did not materially deviate from reasonable compensation and for the same reason the award for $3 million future pain and suffering would be reinstated. ”
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It’s only January, and already there have been a number of construction accidents resulting in injuries in the United States. Just this week two workers were hurt after a wall used to create concrete walls inside a building fell. Also, in another accident, a 65-year-old construction worker died after a bundle of aluminum fell off a truck, striking him. Neil Hynick was transported to the hospital where he later died.

On Wednesday, another construction worker died and a second one was injured in an industrial accident. The men were demolishing a brick wall while standing on a scissor lift when the wall collapsed. This caused lift to drop. One of the workers, Fabian Garduno-Martinez, fell out of the lift, striking his head on the ground. He died from his injuries.

Massachusetts Worker Accidents

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