150 Work Related Deaths Per Day in America

This statistic from a report by the AFL-CIO is appalling.  Work-related deaths will never be completely eliminated but we need to do a much better job than this.  See the report here.

Another Gas Worker Fatality in Bradford County

From the Towanda Daily Review:

A Missouri man died Wednesday while working on a natural gas pipeline project in Burlington Township.In a news release, Bradford County Coroner Tom Carman said that Kenneth Donovan Elliott, 42, of Missouri was pronounced dead at 1:49 p.m. in Burlington Township, off of the Berwick Turnpike, following the 12:42 p.m. accident.   

When asked for comment, Kristi Gittins, spokesperson for Chief, said that the mishap did not take place at a Chief site.  She said it was a PVR (Penn Virginia Resources) site. She noted that the company, based in Radnor, Pa., is "a large national pipeline company working in the area."  Carman said Elliott was employed by Midway Oilfield of Midway, Texas. 

Midway Oilfield was in the process of clearing the right-of-way for a natural gas pipeline, according to Carman.  He said Elliott was operating a chainsaw, and was in the process of cutting down a tree, when the tree kicked back, striking him and knocking him to the ground.  Carman said Elliott died as a result of blunt force head trauma, and the manner of death has been ruled accidental.

This article demonstrates the complexity of all of the various companies that are involved in this kind of work.  The question that I would have is which employer or corporate entity is ultimately responsible for this man's workers' compensation death benefits so that his family can be taken care of.  It is a horrible accident and our hearts go out to this man's friends and family.

Work-related Fatalities Declined in 2011

Finally some good news from The Bureau of Labor Statistics-- There was a decline in worker-related fatal accidents in the American job force comparing the years 2011 and 2010.  In 2010, 4,690 workers lost their lives due to various accidents and incidents.  In 2011, the number was 4,609.  But even one death is one too many, particularly because we know that most of these incidents are preventable, assuming the employers are motivated to spend the time and money to prevent them.

One question that occurred to me is why the drop in number?  I wonder if it's because of the high unemployment rate, i.e., when there's less people working, there are less work injuries.

The Deadliest Jobs in America

Click through to see an infographic on the deadliest jobs in America.  Some of surprising findings (all in year 2010)....

--219 workers died in Pennsylvania due to work related incidents.

--39% of work related deaths are transportation related.

--8% were women, 92% involved men.

--65 years and older workers are twice as likely to die at work than any other age group.

--8 million worksites, 133 million workers, only 2,200 OSHA inspectors.

--Most construction fatalities are caused by falls.

In Pennsylvania steel town, fatal gas explosion goes unpunished by OSHA

4,690 people were killed at work in 2010, up three percent from 2009, the Center for Public Integrity reports. That means that more Americans died in their workplaces in one year than died during the entire war in Iraq.


Many on-the-job deaths were met with only a small fine, an average of $7,900. Some workplaces were never inspected at all. And because of understaffed regulation offices — and the looming threat of further budget cuts — the numbers aren’t likely to change.  The Federal regulatory agency tasks to investigate and enforce job-safety regulations, OSHA, is poorly staffed and underfunded.  And Republicans want to cut the agency's funding even more.

It would take the perpetually short-staffed OSHA 130 years to inspect every workplace in the U.S. Managers and their underlings must strike a balance between meeting “performance goals” set in Washington and conducting comprehensive inspections when deaths occur. A target of 42,250 inspections nationwide was established for fiscal year 2012, up 5.6 percent from the previous year’s goal. The number of federal inspectors, meanwhile, has stayed mostly flat; there were 1,118 in February 2012.

As this article details, sometimes when someone is killed in a preventable work injury, not much is done.  

Nick Revetta’s death did not make national headlines. No hearings were held into the accident that killed him. No one was fired or sent to jail.  “These deaths take place behind closed doors,” says Michael Silverstein, recently retired head of Washington State’s workplace safety agency. “They occur one or two at a time, on private property. There’s an invisibility element.”

Here's a nice video about this story.  Very sad....

Despite all the safety efforts, you can still die at work...

From the Scranton Times Tribune:

WASHINGTON TWP. - The Procter & Gamble Paper Products plant employee who died after suffering injuries at the plant Saturday has been identified. 

Jason C. Slavish, 36, of Luzerne, was transported to Tyler Memorial Hospital in Tunkhannock, where he died at 3 p.m. after the industrial accident at the Wyoming County plant on Saturday. "He died of traumatic head injury, which happened while he was working on a paper- making machine," Wyoming County Chief Coroner Thomas Kukuchka said. 

Few additional details about the accident have been released as the investigation continues. The accident occurred when production was down during a regularly scheduled maintenance program, according to Alex Fried, spokesman for the plant.

My only hope is that the Employer studies this incident as much as possible and learns how it happened and implements procedures so it can't happen again.

Update on the recent gas worker fatality in Bradford County

Here's an update on the recent gas worker fatality that occurred in Bradford County. From the Towanda Daily Review:

Leonard L. Inness III, 35, of Elmira, N.Y., was pronounced dead on arrival at Memorial Hospital in Towanda at 5:06 p.m. Thursday, according to a report by the Bradford County coroner's office.

Coroner Thomas Carman ruled the manner of Inness' death as accidental. A cause of death was withheld pending the results of an autopsy scheduled for Saturday. An autopsy is standard procedure in the case of a workplace accident, Carman said. Routine toxicology tests will also be performed.

Inness was married and had children, Carman said.

Inness was operating a bulldozer Thursday at the Chesapeake Energy Corporation gas well site off Towner Hill Road. He lost his balance while standing and fell onto the bulldozer's track. The machine then ran him over, according to the coroner's office.

Another gas worker fatality in the Marcellus Shale

From the Towanda Daily Review:

Christine Dwyer, spokesperson for Ferguson Enterprises, parent company of Onda-Lay Pipe, confirmed Friday morning that a temporary employee of Onda-Lay Pipe has died as a result of a workplace accident Thursday at a gas well site in Rome Township.

I'll post more information once I have it.

Gas Industry Truck Crashes

Many of our clients, either workers' comp clients or personal injury clients, come to us due to work related car or truck crashes. As you can tell by merely reading the Towanda Daily Review or the Sayre Morning Times, the amount of crashes in Bradford County has increased significantly. This is all related to the boom in the Marcellus Shale gas drilling. It seems like every other day there is news of another fatality due to a gas drilling truck accident. Below is an article from a Missouri lawyer about the specifics of truck crashes and their differences with car crashes.

Over the last few weeks there have been quite a few tractor trailer truck accidents and bus accidents. Inclement weather like we've been experiencing has been responsible for many of these truck accidents, but accidents occur even in the best of conditions. If you or a family member is hurt in an accident, it is important you understand the difference between truck and bus accidents and passenger vehicle accidents. The difference is important.

The first difference is plain to see, due to the size of vehicles such as trucks, busses, and other forms of commercial transportation accidents are far more likely to lead to serious injuries or even fatalities than accidents with passenger cars and trucks.

The next difference is not that obvious. There are a lot of people out there who assume that truck accident laws are the same as car accident laws. That is not the case.

There are many more laws and regulations controlling the operation of commercial motor vehicles than those that regulate driving the family station wagon. If you think about it the extra laws make sense. These vehicles are big, they sometimes carry dangerous cargo, they are on the road for considerably more time, and they often have more equipment which provides greater opportunity for failure. The laws providing oversight for the commercial vehicle industry and specifically for tractor trailers require trucks to be routinely maintained and inspected in order to prevent catastrophic failure. They require the vehicle to be driven in a safe manner (there are more types of traffic tickets that can be issued to commercial vehicles and regular tickets are harder to fight when you have a CDL). Also, there are many rules and regulations meant to supervise driver conduct. Drivers can only drive for so many hours and must rest for specific periods of time before they can drive again. In my opinion, the violation of any of these rules and regulations instantly makes the driver and the trucking company liable for the injuries that result.

A final difference is who could be held responsible for the accident. In an accident between two passenger vehicles the fault generally lies with one of the drivers. Commercial vehicle drivers are usually driving for work. This means that if they act inappropriately, were acting within the terms of their employment, or shouldn't have been allowed to drive the company might be responsible for the driver's accident. Not to complicate the issue; there are also scenarios where what the driver is hauling or what vehicle they are driving can bring more responsible defendants into the case. An accident with a vehicle such as a commercial truck could put any number of parties at fault, including: the truck driver, truck leasing company, the truck's maintenance company , the manufacturer of the truck, the loading company, or even the municipality or county government who maintain the road where the accident happened.

If you're involved in a truck accident or bus accident, you should start by following the steps you normally would take after being involved in an accident. However, truck accident will require extra work by the victim or the victim's attorney because there are more records and evidence to track down, and this information must be gathered immediately. These include the name of the trucking company and all the DOT numbers on the truck and the trailer. In some instances you must also recover the "black box" information from the computer that records certain information about the truck's speed, braking, and other accident related information.

Truck accidents will most likely involve a corporate legal team working against you. Truck and bus companies are, after all, usually big corporations. They have legal departments whose sole responsibility is handling cases like your accident. There will be experts and investigators lined up and ready to respond to an accident at any time. Often times the trucking company will have a lawyer and a legal team respond to the accident along with the police and ambulance. Those companies will have a team of lawyers representing them; you need an experienced truck accident lawyer representing you.

James Brown is a Missouri injury lawyer in St. Louis. If you are hurt in a car accident you need to know the common mistakes car accident victims make when talking to insurance adjusters that ruin their accident claims. Request a free copy of his Missouri accident guide, "I Survived! The Crash Victims Guide to Surviving the Aftermath" at his website http://www.themissouriinjurylawyer.com

OSHA investigating Sullivan County gas worker fatality

As per the Towanda Daily Review:

The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) is investigating the death of a worker who suffered a traumatic injury on Jan. 14 at a Chesapeake Appalachia gas well site in Sullivan County.

The Chesapeake Appalachia gas well site where the traumatic injury occurred on Jan. 14, 2011 is located on Elsroy Hill Road in Fox Township in Sullivan County. The worker who was injured on Jan. 14 at Chesapeake Appalachia's Fox Township site was transported by helicopter to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, and he later died, Sullivan County Coroner Wendy Hastings confirmed.

He was pronounced dead by Montour County Coroner Scott Lynn, she said.

Hastings said she did not know the name of the worker who died.

A preliminary report from first responders at the scene was that the worker had suffered a traumatic head injury.

Chesapeake Energy has referred questions about the incident at the Fox Township site to Patterson-UTI Drilling Co., which is the company that the worker who died was working for. Patterson-UTI Drilling Co. was a contractor hired by Chesapeake Appalachia to work at the gas well site in Fox Township, according to Brian Grove, senior director for corporate development for Chesapeake Energy.

Patterson-UTI Drilling Co. has refused to provide any information to The Daily Review about the worker's death, saying in a written statement that Patterson-UTI Drilling "does not comment on confidential personnel matters involving individual employees."

In a separate section of the same article, the Review reported that Nomac drilling was fined $7,000.00 for safety violations related to a gas worker fatality in 2010 in Towanda Township. This amount of a fine does not seem like enough of a "sting" to Nomac's bottom line in order for them to change their practices. But it's at least something. In many, many instances, employers are not fined at all by OSHA, who is an overworked and under-funded agency.

Many issues faced by injured Marcellus gas workers

Given the fact that my office is in the heart of the Marcellus Shale gas fields in Northeast Pennsylvania, my firm has seen a huge increase in the amount of workers who have been injured while working at the gas drilling sites and/or working for the gas industry in other capacities, such as water tanker drivers, welders and general laborers. These gas industry cases have some unique issues that arise given the type of work performed and the type and location of employer.

1. One of the more common questions that arise is which state’s workers’ compensation law should apply? You would think that this would not be an issue since the injured worker was injured while working in Pennsylvania. And that is what Pennsylvania’s law calls for—if you are injured in PA then PA workers’ compensation law applies. But what I have been seeing in some cases is the employer attempting to apply the law of the state in which the employer is from. Many of the businesses that work in the gas fields are not based out of Pennsylvania, but are based out of states like Oklahoma, Texas and Tennessee, to name a few. For example, one of the largest gas companies working in this area, Chesapeake Energy, has corporate headquarters in Oklahoma City.

In many instances, these employers argue that the employee was actually hired in the other state and is thus subject to that state’s workers’ compensation laws. Once again, this is not accurate. In these cases, it does not matter where the employee was actually hired because once the injury occurs in Pennsylvania then that’s the state that will apply. Pennsylvania has one of the strongest workers’ compensation laws in the nation.

2. The second issue that I often see in these cases is injured workers fearful of actually reporting work injuries due to the threat of losing one’s job and being sent packing. Of course, this fear is prevalent in most industries, but it appears to be a big problem in the gas industry. One of the issues is that a lot of the workers are from out of state and they are paid a significant amount of money at these jobs. The idea is that if they “rock the boat” and complain about a work injury, then they will be sent back home and would be “blacklisted” and never be able to work again at a gas drilling site.

3. The most important issue, in my opinion, is that it’s dangerous work! I have seen many more fatalities in this industry than in any other type of industry in which I represent injured workers. There are more fatalities in the Marcellus Shale gas industry than even long haul truck drivers who are subject to truck crashes every day. It seems that at least once a month there is a newspaper article about the death of another gas worker. Just this week, in Potter County, a worker who was walking on a pipeline was struck by a truck and suffered a fatal injury. At this point I cannot tell if it is just dangerous work by nature or a significant lack of safety procedures on the drill sites. It is probably a combination of both, however.

If you are a gas industry worker and have been injured, please talk to an experienced workers’ compensation attorney before you sign anything for your employer.

Gas Pipeline Accidental Death in Potter County

From WETM:

A man was killed near a gas well pipeline after being accidentally struck by a truck. Authorities say 50-year-old Joseph Craig was walking on a gas pipeline in West Branch Township on Tuesday. While on the pipe a truck struck him. The Potter County coroner pronounced Craig dead at the scene. State police say no charges are filed after an investigation revealed the driver of the truck didn't see Craig.

It seems that these types of incidents are becoming a weekly occurrence in the counties of Northeast Pennsylvania.

OSHA not doing its job

OSHA has come under significant criticism in a report from the Department of Labor’s inspector general for inadequately enforcing safety laws against high risk employers. As you may know, OSHA is the Occupational Safety & Health Administration and they are tasked with enforcing the country’s safety and health laws as it relates to employers and the conditions under which employees work.

You can see more information about this report at Workers’ Comp Insider here. You can also see a copy of the report here.

Specifically, the report indicated that OSHA did not take the appropriate enforcement action in 29 sample cases-and those employers subsequently experienced 20 fatalities, of which 14 deaths shared similar violations. This basically means that it is quite possible that if OSHA did its job then at least 14 people might still be alive today.

Protecting Mine Workers

Mine-safety bill gets OK from union, mine owners

Legislation to improve safety in the state's approximately 200 bituminous coal mines was poised to become law after a marathon negotiation yielded a compromise bill endorsed Monday by both the coal companies and mine workers union.

The state Senate unanimously approved the bill and it was headed to the House, where leaders of the Democratic majority have pledged to pass it this week. It is the first major rewrite of the state's mining law in nearly 50 years.

The 250-page bill was in the making since 2002, when nine miners were rescued from the flooded Quecreek Mine in western Pennsylvania. Even the number, Senate Bill 949, is an echo of the "nine-for-nine" cry that former Gov. Mark Schweiker made famous during the rescue.

***

Under the measure, state inspectors for the first time could impose fines for safety infractions on mine owners, instead of just supervisors. The bill also would establish a seven-member safety board which, among other things, would be tasked with keeping the law in step with advances in mine safety technology and practices.

Go here to see the whole story from PennLive.com.

The Working Wounded: A New York Times Editorial

From The New York Times:

Mr. Elias wanted his workers to clean out a 25,000-gallon tank that contained cyanide waste. He refused to test the air or the waste inside the tank. He ignored the pleas of his workers for safety equipment. When the workers complained of sore throats and difficulty breathing, Mr. Elias told them to finish the job or find work somewhere else.

Mr. Dominguez, a 20-year-old high school graduate, wanted to keep his job. Wearing just jeans and a T-shirt, he used a ladder to descend into the tank. Two hours later, covered in sludge and barely breathing, he was removed from the tank, a victim of cyanide poisoning at the hands of a ruthless employer who would blame his “stupid and lazy” employees for the incident. Mr. Dominguez suffered severe and permanent brain damage. He now has the rigid body movement and stammering speech found in patients with Parkinson’s disease.

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Mr. Elias did not commit a crime under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which is the primary federal worker-safety law in the United States. Why not? Because Mr. Dominguez did not die.

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Employers rarely face criminal prosecution under the worker-safety laws. In the 38 years since Congress enacted the Occupational Safety and Health Act, only 68 criminal cases have been prosecuted, or less than two per year, with defendants serving a total of just 42 months in jail. During that same time, approximately 341,000 people have died at work, according to data compiled from the National Safety Council and the Bureau of Labor Statistics by the A.F.L.-C.I.O.

It is long past time for Congress to change the law. First, Congress should amend the Occupational Safety and Health Act to make it a crime for an employer to commit violations that cause serious injury to workers or that knowingly place workers at risk of death or serious injury. Whether good fortune intervenes and prevents harm to workers should not determine whether an employer commits a crime.

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The Defense Base Act Protects American Workers Injured in Iraq and Afghanistan

In the wake of 9/11, thousands of Americans signed on with companies that had contracted with the U.S. federal government to provide services in support of the U.S. efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. War zones are dangerous places, and they have sometimes proved as dangerous for our civilian workers as they have for our troops.

Tragically, many of these workers became injured while overseas. Just as tragically, many of the workers who where injured in support of American efforts abroad have been faced with overwhelming medical bills and loss of income as they recuperated. Some also lost their lives, leaving their families destitute. Many others who are unable to work watch their family's savings and assets dwindle, and their security disappear.

A law exists to ensure fair workers compensation for these people. It's called the Defense Base Act. Unfortunately, too few people in need of its protection understand their own rights under the law. Even fewer know what to do to guarantee those rights. Recuperation can be difficult enough without mounting bills, the threat of bankruptcy, and an inability to get proper medical care and rehabilitation. That's to say nothing of the financial threat to the families involved.

The Defense Base Act requires that contractors working with the U.S. Military in war zones carry worker's compensation insurance. This type of insurance is compulsory for organizations employing U.S. citizens or residents, and all employees or subcontractors hired on overseas government contracts. However, these companies sometimes fail to inform workers of their rights. Worse, the insurance carriers often refuse claims, abandoning injured Americans who supported the American mission to face crushing expenses and debt on their own.

Fortunately, Federal law provides a genuine solution, though unfortunately few injured workers know how to apply it. The Defense Base Act is part of the Longshoremen and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, and covers to employees of government contractors working overseas under contract to the United States Government. Specifically, the Act covers workers employed by American contractors performing public works for the U.S. government in U.S. territories, or at U.S. military bases located outside the continental United States, in support of military aid programs within allied nations. Workers are protected under the Act, even if they are only employed to build embassies and other U.S. government buildings abroad.

The Act ensures medical treatment and compensation for employees of defense contractors injured in the course of employment. For thousands of American workers injured abroad, the Defense Base Act has provided support for them under devastating circumstances. Claims under the Act have been successfully filed by many individuals, including some contact workers injured in Korea, VietNam, both Iraq wars, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. All were protected under the general coverage of the Act.

The Defense Base Act mandates that any injured worker should be confident of having an attorney at his side to ensure a just outcome. Both injured workers and family member of someone who has died from job injuries overseas are covered. Compensation is also allowable for partial loss of earnings, and significant death benefits are commonly paid to spouses and family. Fortunately, injured workers or their families are not responsible for legal fees for a DBA injury claim. The Defense Base Act requires that all attorney fees depend entirely on the amount of money the claimant receives. No outrageous legal fees are possible. The fees are awarded by the Department of Labor,and are never included in any other compensation to the claimant. The injured party does not pay the lawyer out of his or her compensation. Instead,compensation is awarded to the attorney by the court, and paid by the insurance company or the original employer.

Civilians working in support of American military and U.S. State Department objectives continue to be injured to this day. For these injured civilians, the key to success in securing just compensation under the Defense Base Act is finding the right lawyer. This is a highly specialized area, and familiarity with standard Workman's Compensation Law is simply inadequate. Claimants are advised to find a Defense Base Act attorney with years of experience and success with these claims.

_____________________
William Prescott is web copy writer and researcher of health issues. This article is based on interviews with legal expert Kurt Gronau, a well-known Defense Base Act attorney.

Construction Site Accidents Are Often Serious or Fatal

The following are some statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics on safety and on-the-job injuries in the construction industry:

* One of every five workplace fatalities is a construction worker.

* There were 1,225 fatal occupational injuries in construction in 2001, excluding fatalities on September 11. Also in 2001, there were 481,400 nonfatal injuries and illnesses in construction. Incidence rates for nonfatal injuries and illnesses were 7.9 per 100 full-time equivalent workers in construction, and 5.7 per 100 full-time equivalent workers in all private industry in 2001.

* Because only about 10% of construction companies employ more than 20 workers, the great majority have no formal job safety regulations or programs in place.

* In 1992, the "lost-workday" rate for workers in the construction industry was 5.7 per every 100 full-time workers. This lost-workday rate was the highest of any major economic sector.

* Nationwide, about 15% of workers' compensation costs are attributable to injuries in the construction industry.

* Virtually all significant injuries suffered in construction accidents give rise to workers' compensation rights. Those limited rights, however may be supplemented by legal actions against others who have responsibility for various activities on the jobsite, including construction managers, general contractors, subcontractors, equipment manufacturers, etc. These rights depend upon the application of various complex laws and the individual circumstances of the accident.For example, in most construction projects, many different contractors are involved. If any contractor other than the direct employer has responsibility for the injuries, full damages can be recovered. Likewise, if a defective tool, machine, or other product causes injury, an injured worker can be fully compensated.Construction workers have a right to a safe workplace according to OSHA, the Federal governing body for occupational safety and health.

If a workplace hazard exists and action is not taken quickly, an employee should contact an OSHA area office or state office via a written complaint. If the OSHA or state office determines that there are reasonable grounds for believing that a violation or danger exists, the office will conduct an inspection.A workers' representative has a right to accompany an OSHA compliance officer during the inspection. The representative is chosen by a union representative, if there is one, or by the employees. Under no circumstances may the employer choose the workers' representative. The inspector may conduct a comprehensive inspection of the entire workplace or a partial inspection limited to certain areas or aspects of the operation. At the end of the inspection, the OSHA inspector will meet with the employer and the employee representatives to discuss the abatement of any hazards that may have been found. These need to be corrected or serious penalties and legal liabilities may arise.

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LegalView.com, the one and only source for everything legal on the Web, offers readers an insightful information portal on construction accident injuries. By visiting http://construction.legalview.com/, users can find information on how to locate a construction accident attorney. For more information on other legal issues, or how to locate information on a Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis law firm, visit www.LegalView.com.

Report: Work-safety rules are weak, deaths too many

This comes under the category of "Why I Do What I Do."

From The Times-Tribune.com:

"On an average workday, more than 150 Americans die due to job-related injury or disease, according to a report released today by the AFL-CIO, a Washington-based umbrella group for more than 50 labor unions worldwide. Another 11,233 are injured, noted the “Death on the Job” report, based on 2006 government data.

All told, in 2006, more than four million workers were injured and 5,840 were killed. The report advances Monday’s International Workers’ Memorial Day, started by the AFL-CIO 20 years ago to honor those who died or were injured on the job.The report said U.S. work safety rules are weak and penalties assessed to employers amount to a slap on the wrist. Nationally, the average fine imposed for a fatality was just over $10,000.But an industry spokeswoman said workplace safety is of paramount concern to businesses.“People are the most important asset for manufacturers, and safety on the job is the highest priority,” said Laura Narvaiz, spokeswoman for the National Association of Manufacturers, the nation’s largest industrial trade group.Alaska and Wyoming had the highest rate of worker deaths, New Hampshire and Rhode Island the lowest.Complicating matters: a skeletal staff of federal and state Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors. Some 2,094 inspectors are responsible for the nation’s 130 million workers."

You can see the entire AFL-CIO report here.