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Injured Carpenter Awarded $2 Million After CM Fails to Instruct Him to Wear PPE

Photo by MySafetySign.com, CC BY 2.0Photo by MySafetySign.com, CC BY 2.0

The worst day on the job is when someone on site gets injured.  The 2nd through 500th worst days are the legal battle that follows many of those injuries.  Nobody expects accidents to happen, but it’s best to be adequately prepared if one does.  That not only includes knowing how to react to injuries with a safety plan, but also making sure your company’s documentation is in order in case lawsuits start flying.

In New Jersey, a carpenter was recently awarded $2 million after he suffered an eye injury while framing a house with a nail gun, according to NJ.com.  The lawsuit stated that something shot back into the victim’s left eye, causing a lacerated cornea.  As a result, the 37 year old man is “industrially blind,” and will suffer from blurry vision and impaired depth perception for the rest of his life, according to his attorney.

Even though the incident appeared to be a freak accident, the construction management company that was overseeing the job was ultimately found negligent in the case, as the jury agreed that they were ultimately responsible for instructing the workers on site to wear safety goggles. The part that I find most interesting is that the CM of the project was the entity found responsible for safety training, as opposed to the subcontractor that the victim worked for.

With the argument for personal responsibility for safety aside, OSHA regulations do require that employers train workers on required personal protective equipment (PPE), including when it’s necessary, what kind is necessary, how to properly use and wear it, the equipment’s limitations, and how to properly care for and maintain the PPE.  With specific respect to the case, OSHA regulation 1926.102(a)(1) states that “the employer shall ensure that each affected employee uses eye protection that provides side protection when there is a hazard from flying objects. Detachable side protectors (e.g. clip-on or slide-on side shields) meeting the pertinent requirements of this section are acceptable.”

Time to schedule your next tool box talk.

Full Story: Construction worker partially blinded on the job wins $2M | NJ.com

The worst day on the job is when someone on site gets injured.  The 2nd through 500th worst days are the legal battle that follows many of those injuries.  Nobody expects accidents to happen, but it’s best to be adequately prepared if one does.  That not only includes knowing how to react to injuries with a safety plan, but also making sure your company’s documentation is in order in case lawsuits start flying.

There’s no doubt that construction workers love a good prank and some of them get pretty creative.  Our favorites in the past have included the seismic test prank, the fake bear on site prank, and the “staple in the finger” prank.  Obviously, as far as messing around on the job site goes, the least dangerous as the prank is, the better. 

Tracking employees instantaneously is a dream scenario for employers.  It gives them tons of data to analyze to determine where money can be saved and where resources can be placed to be most efficient.  The struggle is convincing the employees that tracking their every move is not going to get them in trouble or fired. There’s a balance in there somewhere and that’s the challenge facing both employers and tech companies right now.

Two of the most critical concepts of construction safety are the ability to see what you’re doing and to also be seen by others around you.  Construction workers rely heavily on their employer providing lighting systems when working in low light conditions, but those systems are not always adequate. 

Construction industry groups are applauding President Donald Trump’s decision to sign a measure that eliminates a rule that would allow OSHA to issue citations for recordkeeping violations up to 5 years old.  The previous statute of limitations was 6 months. 

Prior to January 20th, 2017, it was almost a daily occurrence for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to issue a press release about a large fine they have recently levied against businesses.  Since January 20th, news coming directly from OSHA has been extremely sparse.  There were some updates, like the delay of their new silica dust exposure rule and information about their “Safe and Sound Campaign,”  but nothing about recent fines and citations.

Originally set to be enforced on June 23, 2017, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration new rule regarding silica dust exposure limits has been delayed an additional 90 days, to September 23, 2017.  Many construction industry groups were upset by the new rule, as they deemed it “technologically and economically infeasible, but also unnecessary.”

The traditional hard hat is suitable for protection from falling objects, but what if you’re the falling object? Unless you get extremely lucky, that hard hat is probably falling off your head the moment you get horizontal. That’s the same conclusion UK contractor A-one+ reached when they decided to go a different route with respect to head safety, Construction Enquirer reports.