You’ve probably suffered a blow to the head at various points in your life. Examples could include clashing heads on the sports field, falling out of a tree or slipping on a wet floor.
Most of the time, life carries on as normal after a minor head injury that does not result in lasting damage. Yet some blows to the head can be much more serious and have huge financial implications.
What is a traumatic brain injury?
The term traumatic brain injury (TBI) generally refers to serious brain injuries. They can result from direct impact to the brain, such as if you fall onto a metal spike and it penetrates your skull and goes into your brain tissue. Or it could occur when the brain hits the hard shell of your skull with force, such as when your head is thrown forward in a car crash.
Let’s say you suffer a TBI in an accident. It could leave you in hospital for some time, with mounting medical bills as doctors do their best to limit the damage. You may leave the hospital needing long-term help to carry out everyday tasks. You might be unable to walk if the brain damage occurs in the part that controls your legs or unable to drive if it leaves you prone to dizzy spells that would make driving dangerous. The injury could leave you unable to speak or think as clearly as before, meaning you cannot return to your old job, as you can no longer do it effectively.
If you suffer a head injury in an accident, it’s vital you get medical help to assess the full extent of the damage and legal help to fight for the total amount of compensation you will need to recover from your injuries as fully as possible and mitigate the financial consequences of your harm. If another’s negligence, recklessness or intentional wrongdoing contributed to the cause(s) of your situation, you may have strong grounds upon which to file legal action.
Many workplaces have a constant flow of vehicles delivering or taking away goods crisscrossing their premises. Others require smaller vehicles to move things about on-site or carry out tasks such as taking things down from a shelf or digging a hole. Any one of these vehicles could injure and kill a worker in an instant.
Employers can do several things to increase the safety of their workers around vehicles:
Define specific zones for specific tasks
The loading bay is a classic example. Having a dedicated area for loading can help reduce the number of people that need to come into contact with vehicles.
Define specific pedestrian pathways
Warehouses should have lines marked on the floor to direct passengers safely around the building without entering the zones where a forklift could drop something onto their head or reverse into them.
Implement one-way systems for drivers
This can reduce the chance of a collision between two vehicles and the prospect of collisions between vehicles and pedestrians. Pedestrians only need to look one way, and drivers have a clearer view of any pedestrians ahead of them because there are no oncoming vehicles to obscure a driver’s view.
Enforce strict speed limits
Erecting signs with a low maximum speed is not enough. Someone needs to enforce those limits, as the faster a vehicle travels, the more harm it can do to someone on foot.
Ensure vehicles have working reversing signals
However annoying the sound of a reversing vehicle warning can be, it can help to save injuries and lives. Employers need to regularly check that they are functioning.
You’ll need to learn more about worker’s compensation if you suffer a vehicle injury in your workplace. Working with an experienced attorney can help to ensure that you receive any compensation to which you are rightfully entitled.
Modern cars often come with much thicker roof support pillars than older vehicles. This is a safety design to increase strength and reduce the chance that the roof will cave in on the passengers if the vehicle rolls over in a crash.
The problem is that thicker pillars reduce visibility. There are six pillars, two at the side of the front windshield, two at the side of the rear windshield and one midway down the side of each vehicle between the front and rear doors. Accommodating their extra width requires reducing the amount of visibility-providing glass. These pillars leave motorists with larger blind spots making it more likely that a driver will miss something happening outside and will cause (or fail to avoid) a crash as a result.
One of the groups of people that suffer the most due to this safety feature is pedestrians. Figures from the U.S. show the percentage of people killed in road traffic accidents who are traveling as pedestrians has been climbing over the last decade or so. This trend fits with the period wherein the popularity of SUVs has risen. These larger vehicles have thicker pillars than the average family car.
Design improvements could help
There have been moves to add cameras outside these pillars that can relay information to the driver to help them perceive whatever may be in their blind spot. Some manufacturers are considering installation of sensors that can help detect a pedestrian in front of a car, and some manufacturers are looking at avoiding pillars altogether.
Yet, in the meantime, the option every driver has is to be aware of their blind spot and take extra caution to check before maneuvering, especially in urban areas where pedestrians are a likely presence. Otherwise, an injured pedestrian or their surviving loved ones may do their utmost to hold you responsible for their losses.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) compiles workplace accident statistics on a regular basis. This information helps to identify dangerous workplace trends so that regulators, employers and workers can take action to reduce the risk of occupational death or injury.
One set of figures that all employers need to be aware of is the Fatal Four. It’s the leading four causes of workplace deaths in the U.S. These hazards also result in a staggering number of non-fatal injuries across the country every year as well.
Falls
Some employment industries, such as construction, are more likely to require employees to work high above the ground. Yet even a seemingly safe office job could require someone to scale a ladder to hang a banner or change a lightbulb. Falls from heights can lead to devastating injuries. Serious injuries can even occur if you fall while standing on the ground. For example, if you slip on a wet floor or step into an unmarked hole, you could get hurt.
Being struck by objects
People who are working while located above other employees on a construction site could drop things down on them. Boxes falling from high shelves could harm warehouse workers and moving machine arms can endanger factory workers.
Electrocutions
Employers must take steps to safeguard workers from the dangers of power cables that lie underground, on the ground or overhead. Even someone changing a lightbulb in the office could be electrocuted.
Being caught in or between things
Employers need to find ways to separate moving machinery from people, such as designating walkways and ensuring machinery and tools have functioning safety guards. Otherwise, becoming trapped can lead to serious harm.
Unfortunately, even the most proactive employers can’t always prevent accidents from occurring. If you are injured in one of these ways, you’ll want help to understand more about the workers’ compensation claims process. Similarly, if you’ve lost a loved one in a work-related accident, you’ll want to speak with a legal professional about workers’ compensation death benefits.
Why is car crash safety a man’s world?
It was once the case that men did most of the driving, designing and building of cars. So, it is perhaps understandable that, in those less enlightened times, they designed vehicles primarily to accommodate themselves.
Yet nowadays, there are even more women than men who have driver’s licenses in the United States. There are also far more women who occupy positions of all kinds within the automotive industry. Yet manufacturers still design cars to meet the needs of men, and, as a result, women are far more likely to die or suffer serious injuries in a crash.
American industries can be slow to change
It’s not just the car industry that has lagged behind in realizing that companies should not design products utilized broadly by all adults to suit an average man alone. Women hikers have only recently benefitted from the production of female-specific waterproofs, backpacks and sleeping bags, for instance. Yet there’s a massive difference between getting sore shoulders because your pack is not designed for your body and dying because your seatbelt isn’t.
Testers need to update their crash test dummies to reflect the diversity of adults in the U.S.
The standard crash test dummy was designed to mimic the proportions of an average man in the 1970s: 171 pounds, 5 feet 9 inches tall. Many people, especially women, do not fit that profile. While there are some female crash-test dummies in usage now, reports suggest there is a long way to go in equaling the field and making cars that are just as safe for women and, indeed, other men whose bodies look nothing like your average crash-test dummy.
Hopefully, improvements will continue to be made, but until then, you’ll just have to hope that the vehicle safety features you have will work well enough if you are involved in a collision. If they don’t, it may be worth speaking with a legal professional about seeking compensation for your injuries.
What’s the problem with ladders at work?
Ladders serve numerous purposes, which is why virtually every workplace in the U.S. has a ladder laying around somewhere. They are cheap to buy and easy to store. They are quick to deploy and move along and can help you reach things far more quickly and with less disruption than other methods of getting to height.
Yet some employers do not pay attention to their considerable disadvantages compared to scaffolding, mobile elevated work platforms (MEWPS) and other options on worksites that would benefit from an alternative approach.
They are not very stable
You are literally balanced on two or four small metal feet when you are up a ladder. It would not take much for the ladder to fall over with grave consequences for you. Someone could walk past and knock the base, you could overreach and tip it over or one of the feet could sink into the ground or slip, sending you plummeting.
They are not as simple to use as people think
Give someone something that looks complicated and they’ll think twice before touching it. An employer is unlikely to tell you just to grab an MEWP unless they have taken the time to train you. It’s an expensive and complicated machine they don’t want you breaking it or causing any damage as a result of your inexperience.
Ladders, by contrast, appear to be simple in nature. As a result, an employer may tell you to go up one without having given you any training. While the design is simple, there are several things you need to know to use them safely.
If you are injured in a workplace ladder fall, you should be entitled to claim workers’ compensation. Getting help from an experienced legal professional as you pursue a claim can help you to maximize your award and benefit from an approval without undue delay.
If you work as a caregiver, nurse or another hands-on position in a “caring” profession, your employer needs to look after your health. As recent world health events clearly illustrated, when the people who care for others get sick, the whole system suffers.
Unfortunately, the nature of your role means you are more likely to get sick or injured than most workers. Here are some of the reasons why:
1. You may deal with sharp medical implements
Part of your job may involve giving injections to some of those in your care. It only takes one small error for the needle to end up in your body, leaving you susceptible to serious infections. A jab injury may occur because:
- You make a bad move due to exhaustion after a long shift
- Someone walking past you bumps into you
- A patient (who might not be in control of their reactions or thoughts) grabs you
- Someone does not discard of a used needle properly
- A patient has needles in their pockets
Even if you don’t interact with needles as part of your job, you are more likely to get cut generally when caring for others for a host of reasons, so the risk of infection simply by getting cut and interacting with others remains real.
2. You do a lot of heavy lifting
Let’s say that a patient passes out and falls to the ground unconscious, and you need to move them out of danger. A limp body will feel a whole lot heavier than a responsive patient will. Many patients weigh a lot anyway, and with frequent staff shortages, you may not be able to wait for help to move someone who has fallen or needs to be adjusted. Daily tasks such as changing sheets or helping patients bathe can also take a toll on your back.
Ensuring that you get the total amount of workers’ compensation you deserve after you’ve been injured can help you get back to work sooner. While that is in everyone’s interests, you may still need legal help to fight for what you’re owed.
Why might kitchen workers need workers’ comp?
Restaurant kitchens often have a high staff turnover. Many workers leave after fallouts with colleagues or bosses, and others just decide to opt for an easier way to earn money.
But, all too often, there’s another reason a restaurant might need to hire a new staff member – because one of their current employees can no longer work due to a workplace accident. Here are some of the accidents that happen far too frequently to hard-working kitchen staff:
Serious cuts
It only takes a minor lapse of concentration for a knife or another cutting implement to cut into a finger or hand. Most such injuries are minor, but occasionally they do enough damage that the injury victim will need surgery and weeks off of work to recover.
Scalds and burns
Restaurant work requires that hot pans of food and liquids be moved about and the contents to make their way onto hot plates that then get transported from one room to another. When people are busy or not paying attention, spillage could occur with nasty consequences for anyone whose skin meets dangerously hot food, liquid or other material.
Slips and falls
When things get spilled onto the floor, someone needs to mop that floor. If the mopper does not make the slippery surface apparent with a cone or they do not dry it well enough, the situation could cause someone to slip and injure themselves.
Lifting strain that causes back injuries
Kitchens receive bulk deliveries, and some of those boxes are heavy. The constant time pressure means that no one else may be available to help lift, and people may try to do it alone and get injured.
Most restaurant employers seek benefits via workers’ compensation insurance if they need time off work due to one of these injuries. You may need legal help to get the full amount that you’re owed and to help you navigate any employer retaliation that may occur as you try to rightfully claim your benefits.
How can medication lead to a car crash?
When you go to the doctor, and they prescribe you medication, you need to ensure you understand the implications of taking it. Some people are so happy to get access to helpful drugs that they pick them up from the pharmacy and take them without giving a thought to any possible side effects. It’s always worth asking the doctor or pharmacist and reading the instructions.
One dangerous side-effect some prescription medications have is that they can affect your driving. Here are just a few ways that medication can impair your ability to drive safely.
They may cause drowsiness
Staying awake at the wheel can be hard enough if you are tired after a sleepless night or a long day at work. Popping a pill with soporific side effects might make keeping your eyes open impossible. Antihistamines are one medicine that can have this effect. Others include opiate painkillers and, perhaps more obviously, medications that help calm anxiety or help with sleep disorders, such as Benzodiazepines.
Some drugs can have disorienting side effects
Many medicines sold over the counter for colds or allergies also contain problematic drugs such as Diphenhydramine. They can reduce your ability to maintain a constant position on the road. This can mean that you drift across lanes or drift too close to the car in front of you, making you more likely to run into them if the driver in front of you brakes suddenly.
Taking care to understand your own medications is only part of the issue. The roads are full of others who may not be so careful. If one of them injures you in a collision, getting legal help to determine if they were affected by medication could help you to get the compensation you deserve.
Why are construction trenches so dangerous?
If you work on construction sites, you are regularly surrounded by potential hazards. Trenches present particular problems.
You will be exposed to a risk of harm to a particularly significant degree under two specific circumstances.
When you are in it
If your boss sends you into a trench to perform some work, you’ll need to be sure that they have done all they can to eliminate inherent dangers, which could include:
- Dangers within the trench itself: For example, noxious gases or underground cables or pipes
- Dangers from the trench: Such as a risk of it collapsing due to inadequate support
- Dangers from above the trench: Caused by someone or something passing around the edge or even a poorly stacked roll of cable rolling down a hill from well above the trench. If you are inside when something falls, it could injure or kill you
When you are above it
Employers must mark trenches clearly to reduce the chance that you may accidentally fall in. They should also route paths (especially those used by heavy machinery) away from it, as the ground around the trench edge will be weak, and you do not want the ground to collapse underneath you and send you plummeting.
The dangers can change
An employer cannot just construct a trench, declare it safe and then expect you to work there day after day. They need to monitor it regularly and reassess its risks. The ground can move with time, and intense weather, including rain and frost, can also affect stability, as can other unseen things, like an underground water pipe being damaged nearby.
Construction accidents can be serious, so you’ll need legal help to understand how to claim workers’ compensation if you’re hurt due to a trench-related hazard.
Connect with us
- September 2025
- August 2025
- April 2025
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- October 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- September 2018
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
Archives
