Workplace Injuries

• Workers injured when wall collapses

  Barry Doyle | February 20, 2007 7:00 AM | 0 CommentsCook County, IL

  Some Atlanta-area construction workers were injured when a wall collapsed. The project involved the expansion of a store in a local mall, and as part of the project wall was being taken down when it collapsed onto them.Two workers were injured. One suffered an injury to his wrist; the other a head injury.One of the basic principles of construction site safety is the proper scheduling and...

• Fatal scaffolding accident

  Barry Doyle | February 16, 2007 8:00 AM | 0 CommentsCook County, IL

  OSHA has fined a Florida firm over $65,000 in connection with an accident occurring at a construction site. OSHA found that the scaffolding did not have guard rails or properly installed planking and that the company did not adequately train it employees or have a competent person supervising their work.As a reslt of the unsafe condition of the scaffold, a company employee fell over 100 feet,...

• Blasting accident causes injuries

  Barry Doyle | February 12, 2007 7:00 AM | 0 CommentsCook County, IL

  Blasting activities by a Nashville excavating company has injured three people. The explosion sent debris flying which struck people and buildings nearby.The work was ordered stopped, and could not be started again until a plan of correction was approved by the state fire marshall.Most construction accident cases are based on a negligence theory -- that one of the contractors on the project was...

• Fall from roof kills one, injures one

  Barry Doyle | February 10, 2007 11:00 AM | 0 CommentsCook County, IL

  At a new home construction project, two Alabama roofers fell from the roof that they were working on. Conditions were foggy on the day of the fall, and authorities believe that made the roofing felt they were working on slick.The men fell 40 feet from the roof to a concrete patio below. The fall was fatal for one man; the other sustained serious injuries.This is another accident which resulted...

• Laborer falls down elevator shaft

  Barry Doyle | February 06, 2007 3:00 PM | 0 CommentsCook County, IL

  A laborer fell down an open elevator shaft on a New York construction project. There were no guardrails in place at the time of the fall.The laborer sustained fatal injuries.OSHA regulations require that guardrails be placed so as to prevent falls such as the one involved here. The specific responsibility for placing guard rails falls first to the contractor that opened up the shaft, then to...

• Excavation collapse injures worker

  Barry Doyle | February 04, 2007 9:30 AM | 0 CommentsCook County, IL

  A construction crew in Idaho was working on a sewer expansion project. As part of the project they dug a 15- to 25- foot deep pit. One of the crew members was working at the edge of the excavation when it collapsed, pulling him down into the hole under the collapsing dirt.He was rescued by co-workers and was taken to the hospital, where he is listed in critical condition.This accident was the...

• Peoria man killed by backhoe

  Barry Doyle | February 02, 2007 7:30 AM | 0 CommentsCook County, IL

  A Peoria area man was killed recently while digging a trench to uncover a water line. The operator of the back hoe was getting out of the machine when his clothing snagged the controls, causing the bucket to swing out of control. The backhoe struck the laborer, causing fatal injuries.This unfortunate accident places the spotlight on the equipment used on job sites. One of the factors that...

• Contractor fined in fatal scaffold accident

  Barry Doyle | January 29, 2007 5:00 PM | 0 CommentsCook County, IL

  OSHA fined a Boston-area masonry contractor $119,000 for safety violations involved in an April accident. The contractor's employees were dismantling the scaffold and in doing so, they removed the braces that anchored the scaffold to the building. Without anything to anchor or stabilize it, the scaffold collapsed, resulting in the deaths of two workers and one passer-by.The fines were based on...

• OSHA fines contractor $40,000

  Barry Doyle | January 26, 2007 6:00 AM | 0 CommentsCook County, IL

  A Massachusetts contractor was fined $40,000 by OSHA after an inspector saw two workers on a steeply-pitched roof without fall protection in place. The amount of the fine was increased due to the company having been fined for similar violations on two other job sites in 2005.In 2004, there were 1,224 fatalities involving construction workers. 36% of those work-related deaths were due to...

• Man suffocated in trench collapse

  Barry Doyle | January 23, 2007 7:30 AM | 0 CommentsCook County, IL

  A Tazewell County man died in a recent trench collapse accident. He was helping a neighbor dig an eight-foot deep trench in his backyard for a septic system at the time of accident.The local coroner determined that the cause of the man's death was asphyxiation brought on by the pressure of the earth from the cave-in.One of the less easily recognized dangers of a trench collapse is suffocation. ...