Chicago Workers Compensation Lawyer Blog

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued its list of the 10 most common workplace safety violations for the year:

• 9,093 Scaffolding violations: Most common causes of scaffolding accidents involve the support or planking giving way or the employee slipping or getting hit by a falling object.

• 6,771 Fall Protection violations: Workers in the general industry working at a height of four feet or greater must be adequately protected. In the construction arena workers must be protected when working at six feet or higher.

• 6,378 Hazard Communication violations: Chemical makers and importers must evaluate the hazards of their products and develop safety data sheets and labels so that downstream clients are made aware of these hazards.

• 3,803 Respiratory Protection violations: Workers must be protected against dangerous dusts, smokes, fogs, gases, mists, sprays, vapors, and inadequate oxygen environments. Failure to do so can result in lung impairment, cancer, and other diseases. It can also lead to deaths.

• 3,321 Lockout-Tag Out violations: Employees must be protected from hazardous energy released during maintenance or service. They also must be protected from the unexpected activation of equipment and machinery.

• 3,079 Electrical Wiring Violations: Electricians, engineers, sales people, office workers, and other employees must be protected from the hazards of working directly or indirectly with electricity.

• 3,072 Ladder violations: Falls from ladders can result in traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, and death. Fall accidents cause 8% of all occupational-related fatalities involving trauma.

• 2,993 Powered-Industrial Trucks violations: Tens of thousands of people are injured each year because of forklift accidents.

• 2,556 Electrical violations

• 2,364 Machine Guarding violations: Protecting workers from any part, process, or function that can injure or kill a worker.

Compared to same time period last year, the number of top 10 violations has gone up nearly 30%.

Regardless of who or what caused a work accident, most workers are entitled to Illinois workers’ compensation benefits.

OSHA Reports on Top 10 Safety Violations for 2009, Reuters.PR Newswire, October 27, 2009

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A jury has awarded the family of Francisco Moreno Garcia $6.7 million for his Illinois wrongful death. Garcia was employed by ECF Inc. when he died from injuries he sustained during a work accident while insulating pipes at an ADM facility. The defendant in the third party lawsuit is Archer Daniels Midland Co.

A machine located close to where he was working malfunctioned, spraying him with steam and hot liquid. He was ushered into a safety shower, but even as his clothes were taken off him, his skin was coming off. According to the Sagamon County coroner, Garcia had burn injuries on more than nearly 90% of his body.

While state law prevents a worker from suing his or her employer for Illinois personal injury, an employee (and his or her family) is entitled to Illinois workers’ compensation benefits in the event of injury or death. The victim and family members can, however, pursue personal injury or wrongful death recovery from a negligent third party. In this particular case, ECF was Garcia’s employer and ADM is the third party.

Garcia was 26 when he died.

Third Party Lawsuits
In Illinois, third party lawsuits are usually filed in Federal or Circuit court. Recovery from a third party claim can be significant if the injuries are serious. The statute of limitations for filing a third party lawsuit is two years from the date of the work accident.

If you were injured in a work accident, you should notify your employer as soon as possible that you are entitled to Illinois workers’ compensation benefits. You should not, however, attempt to resolve your third party dispute without talking to a Chicago injury lawyer. Your Chicago workers’ compensation attorney can make sure that you receive all of the work injury benefits that you are owed.

Ill. jury awards $6.7 million to family of man killed in ADM accident, The Gaea Times, September 16, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Archer Daniels Midland Co.

Accident Report Forms, Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission

A woman who used to work for Home Instead Senior Care is suing Gateway Regional Medical Center (also known as Granite City Illinois Hospital Company) for personal injury. Margaret King says the hospital company could have done more to protect her from a patient who attacked her.

King was a sitter who was hired to sit with patient Andrew George Reando. In her Illinois personal injury lawsuit, King claims that Reando attacked her last December without provocation. As a result of the assault, King says she injured her back, neck, and pelvis. She also experienced suffering, pain, and disability and now has medical expenses. She also suffered lost wages because of her injuries.

King says that Gateway should have stepped up security around Reando, who was known to be a risk to others. She also contends that the hospital company should have properly monitored the patient’s medications.

While workers cannot sue their employers for personal injuries sustained on the job, they are usually entitled to Illinois workers’ compensation benefits. That said, there may be other losses that work injury benefits cannot take care of. This is why if you were injured in a work accident you should consult a Chicago injury attorney who can help you with your workers’ compensation claim and any third party injury lawsuits.

Illinois work accidents do happen—even if the job a worker does isn’t typically considered dangerous, a worker might slip and fall, suffer from repetitive strain or back injuries, get sick due to exposure to toxic substances, or become the victim of a violent crime while at the work site or office.

Hospital worker sues after patient attack, The Record, August 12, 2009

Elder Care, AFL-CIO

Related Web Resources:

Home Instead Senior Care

Gateway Regional Medical Center

A Chicago construction worker has been rushed to an Oak Lawn hospital after he was struck by a drunk driver in a construction work zone. The Illinois construction accident occurred today on the Bishop Ford Freeway close to Dolton.

The Chicago work accident took place in a protected work zone on I-94 at around 4:15 am when a 1998 Cadillac pinned the worker to a construction van. The worker sustained two broken legs. The driver of the Cadillac suffered head injuries and was taken to a Harvey hospital.

According to Illinois State Police Chicago Master Sgt. Todd Borisey, the construction worker and the work zone were clearly visible to the motorist, and the cones on the roadway made it clear that there was a protected work zone in the area. The drive could be charged with violating Scott’s Law, which increases penalties if a driver does not yield to emergency vehicles or causes injury to service personnel or public safety workers at roadside emergency scenes.

While construction zones are often marked so that motorists can avoid causing injury to workers, many drivers unfortunately do not realized that they are in a road work area and they need to drive carefully so that no one gets hurt. Just last month, Arnold Placensia, another construction worker, was repairing potholes when a motorist who was driving at a high speed struck him. Placensia died from his injuries as did the driver, Nancy Richards, who struck a large piece of construction equipment after hitting him.

Construction workers injured in work zones are entitled to Illinois workers’ compensation. In addition to workers’ compensation benefits, the injured worker or the family of a deceased construction worker may be able to file a Chicago personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit against a liable motorist, subcontractor, or another negligent party.

Drunk driver strikes construction worker on Bishop Ford, Chicago Sun-Times, July 10, 2009

Construction worker, driver killed in suspected DUI, The Modesto Bee, June 12, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Scott's Law

Work Zone Mobility and Safety Programs, Federal Highway Adminstration

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is citing and fining Wal-Mart Stores Inc. for the death of a Wal-Mart employee during a Black Friday shopping event on November 28, 2008. OSHA says that store employees were placed at risk of being crushed by the crowd because Wal-Mart neglected to put into place “reasonable and effective” crowd management principles and, instead, engaged in inadequate crowd management. He died of asphyxiation.

OSHA is also accusing the Wal-Mart store of failing to provide workers with the tools and training required to manage the crowd of approximately 2,000 shoppers that rushed into the store. The crowd knocked seasonal worker Jdimytai Damour onto the ground, trampling him as they broke down doors to get to the sale items.

The OSHA fine for the citation is $7,000—the maximum fine possible for a serious OSHA violation. Based on past Black Friday experiences, an OSHA representative said that the store should have foreseen that effective crowd control tactics needed to be put in place. Wal-Mart disagrees with the citation and claims that it could not have anticipated Damour’s tragic worker accident. Wal-Mart spokesperson Daphne Moore says that OSHA and the retail industry do not provide guidance for such situations and that, in fact, the company had implemented crowd management precautions on the day Damour died.

The retailer has agreed to improve its post-Thanskgiving day crowd management strategy, pay $400,000 to victims that were injured during last year’s Black Friday trampling incident, and give $1.5 million to nonprofit and social services groups. The deal with prosecutors allows the retail chain to avoid criminal charges in Damour’s death.

Most injured workers and immediate family workers of those killed in Illinois work accidents are entitled to Illinois workers’ compensation benefits from their employers.

OSHA cites Wal-Mart in trampling death, Newsday.com, May 26, 2009

Wal-Mart pays $2M to avoid charges in death probe, AP/Trib.com, May 6, 2009

Related Web Resources:
Family Of Wal-Mart Employee Jdimytai Damour Sues Over Trampling Death, The Huffington Post, December 3, 2008

Wal-Mart Worker’s Black Friday Death Was Preventable, ChicagoWorkersCompensationLawyerBlog, December 2, 2008

Walmart Stores

Continue reading "Wal-Mart Worker’s Death Leads to OSHA Citation and $7,000 Fine" »

An Illinois wrongful death settlement has been reached between the family of an Orland Hills refinery worker and Clark USA Inc, now named Premcor. The then-37-year-old worker, Gary Szabla, died on March 13, 1995 during an explosion at the Clark Oil refinery in Blue Island. The wrongful death case has been making its way through the courts for over a decade.

At first, a Cook County judge agreed with Clark USA and its claim that it could not be sued because it was protected under Illinois’s workers’ compensation law and that it was not directly in charge of daily operations at the refinery where the blast occurred. The wrongful death attorney representing Szabla’s family, however, argued that Clark USA was in charge of the refinery's decreased budget, which was forcing refinery workers to take on maintenance jobs that they were not trained to perform.

The Illinois Appellate Court would go on to overturn the Cook County judge’s ruling. Clark USA then took the case to the Illinois Supreme Court, which upheld the appellate court’s ruling that because the company was in charged of the refinery’s operating budget, it could be held liable. The Illinois Supreme Court also found that because Clark USA was not Szabla’s direct employer, it could not avail of protections offered under workers’ compensation law.

The $6 million wrongful death settlement will go to Szabla’s widow, Elizabeth, who has also received workers’ compensation death benefits.

Also killed in the 1995 blast was 50-year-old refinery worker Michael Forsythe. His family filed their civil lawsuit for his wrongful death. Three other people were injured in the explosion.

Refinery Worker Injuries
Sandblasters, painters, refinery maintenance operators, pipe fitters, welders, and corrosion removal workers are just some of the many refinery workers who are prone to serious injuries and exposure to toxic substances while on the job. Refinery worker injuries can occur during fires or due to chemical burns, explosions, electrocution accidents, improper scaffolding, lead poisoning, exposure to heat, exposure to asbestos, and slip and fall accidents. Refinery workers also risk contracting occupational diseases, such as lung disease, silicosis, and multiple myeloma.

If someone in your family died in a refinery work accident, you may be entitled to receive Illinois workers’ compensation death benefits. You also may be able to file wrongful lawsuits against other negligent parties.

Refinery worker's family to get $6M, Southtownstar.com, April 1, 2009

Related Web Resources:
OSHA

Industrial Accidents, Chicago Tribune