Massachusetts Workers Compensation Lawyers Blog

June 29, 2015

Worker Killed in Plymouth, Massachusetts Accident

According to a recent news article form NECN, a worker in Plymouth was killed when an avalanche of sand trapped and crushed him and the bulldozer he was driving. He was working for a sand and gravel company, and he and other workers were operating bulldozers and other heavy machinery to remove sand from a large pile that measured over 150 feet high.

More than two dozen emergency workers from across Plymouth County arrived to help get the trapped workers out from under the sand. They used heavy equipment and teams of workers to try and unearth the bulldozer, but more sand and large rocks would fall on top of what they had just removed, making it virtually impossible to make any progress in a short of amount of time. As the day wore on, and the temperature became hotter, the sand would dry out, making it even more difficult to move.

Authorities say the were finally able to reach far enough into the large bulldozer to grab the employees hand, but quickly realized the 65-year-old man was nonresponsive, as he had been killed by the weight of the sand or possibly from asphyxiation. Continue reading

June 24, 2015

Auto Plant Worker Killed by Factory Robot

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

For decades, employees at auto plants have been losing their jobs due to robots replacing human workers on the assembly line. While the biggest fear is that these robots will take over most or all of the automotive industry jobs, it seems these robots can also be dangerous to work around in some cases.

According to a recent news feature from Fortune, a robot at a Volkswagen factory killed a worker. Authorities say a technician was working with another employee to install a production robot when the robot struck him in the chest and pushed him against a metal plate, where he suffered significant injuries and later died.

The company said it normally places a safety cage around the robots, so human workers cannot be injured in accidents like this one, but since the workers were servicing the robot itself, the worker was standing on the inside of the cage at the time of the fatal on-the-job accident. There are, however, robots which work alongside human employees on the assembly line, but these are lightweight robots the company claims are not likely to cause this type of injury to an employee. While this particular accident occurred at a German factory, the company said it plans to use more of these robots in all production centers across the world and plans to replace many of the retiring Baby Boomer employees with robots, because they are much more cost effective than human workers. Continue reading

June 18, 2015

Zookeeper Seriously Injured by Lizard Bite

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Each year in Boston and across the United States, many workers are injured at work. While some fatal accidents make the local or even national news, far more go unnoticed by media. It’s only occasionally that some on-the-job accidents involve unique circumstances that capture the public’s attention.

According to a news report from KETV 7, a zookeeper injury was one of those cases. A zoo employee in Omaha was reportedly seriously injured after being bitten by a lizard.

The female zookeeper was performing routine care on a Komodo dragon when it bit her on the hand. After the worker was bit on the hand, first responders were called to zoo and transported the zookeeper to a local hospital.

While this might not seem like it would cause a severe on-the-job injury, the problem has to do with fact the animal is venomous and typically has serious bacteria on the its teeth and in its mouth which can cause serious infections. Doctors first cleaned and closed the wound with stitches and then put her on a course of antibiotics and anti-venom. Due to the lizard’s venom and amount of type of bacteria and the potentially deadly infection it could cause she was initially listed in critical condition and admitted to the hospital to undergo additional to control and prevent infection.
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June 15, 2015

Construction Worker Falls 24 Stories to His Death in NYC

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Around the time the Empire State Building was constructed, construction companies did not make workers’ safety a large concern. It was an accepted risk some of the workers would die during the construction of the building, and in fact, there were several deaths before the project was completed in 1931.

However, in today’s world, worker safety is far more of a concern, and it is expected each and every worker employed on a major construction project will make it safely home at the end of the day. If there is a serious construction accident, especially one involving a fatality, there will be an investigation, and if there were any safety violations, fines may be issued to the construction company responsible for the accident.

According to a recent article in the Real Deal, a worker was killed while working on the construction of a major hotel in Midtown Manhattan. Authorities say worker fell 24 floors down an open elevator shaft in the unfinished building and was killed in fall, though he was rushed to Belleview Hospital where he was officially pronounced dead. Victim was 25-years-old at the time of the fatal workplace accident.
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June 13, 2015

Massachusetts Worker, Customer Injured in Propane Explosion

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

According to recent news report from CBS Boston, a worker was filling a propane tank for a customer at an oil and gas distributor in Marshfield when the tank suddenly exploded. The propane company employee and the customer who owned the tank were serious injured as a result of shrapnel from the exploding metal propane tank.

Witnesses say the tank then turned into what was essentially a missile and flew towards the neighboring liquor store and extremely high speeds. When the tank flew from the propane distributor, witnesses say in narrowly missed hitting a car and then continued towards the neighboring business. Customers inside the store aid the sound and the shock was jarring and glass fell from the shelves of the store and a large clock was also knocked off the store wall.

A fire marshal who inspected the damage said the tank was old and heavily rusted and should never have been filled in the first place. He further said anyone filling the tank should inspect it to make sure it is proper condition, and if a tank in this condition is seen, it should be immediately taken out of service and never filled with pressurized propane liquid-gas.
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June 10, 2015

Cirque du Soleil and Workers’ Compensation

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Even if someone has never actually seen a Cirque du Soleil performance in person, pretty much everyone is familiar with what the performance involves. Essentially, it is a circus with only human performers, meaning no animal acts, and it showcases the talent and artistry of the performers.

There are a variety of different acts, and many of them involve a significant risk to the performers’ safety. While the performers use safety devices when appropriate, some do become seriously injured on the job and may be left without pay and must apply for workers’ compensation benefits, according to a recent article from the Wall Street Journal.

The article focuses on the story of one performer who had been with the show for a long time and played an important role in of the circus’s productions in Orlando, Florida. She was performing a flying stunt and had inadvertently forgotten to double loop her safety harness. Her co-performer did not notice the problem either, and she fell four stories from the high wire act to the stage below.
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June 6, 2015

On-Demand Employment and Workers’ Compensation

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

According to a recent article from the Insurance Journal, the workers’ compensation industry is facing a very different challenge in adjusting to what amounts to an entirely new form of employment for many Americans. With the economy getting back on track and employments higher than they have been in many years, one would assume workers’ compensation insurance carriers couldn’t be happier with the new policies they must be underwriting. However, as it turns out, this might not be the case.

Many in the nation’s growing workforce are not working in traditional jobs where they punch a clock and have a boss. Through the use of advanced communications technology and mobile computing, many workers go online to find a temporary position for a job that needs to be completed and submit a bid for the job. If they are selected, they perform the required tasks from home or a local coffee shop with free WIFI and get paid electronically.

There are a large variety of job opportunities in this new and growing on-demand economy, as it often called. There are people who write content for publications, work-from-home paralegals for law offices, mobile app designers, web designers, and just about every other job that does not involve physically constructing anything.
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June 2, 2015

New Workers’ Comp Bill Proposed in Massachusetts

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

When legislatures across the country created their state’s respective workers’ compensation systems, they looked to see what other states had done when crafting their set of laws. Some states are more favorable to the workers and others are more favorable to employers and big business. Some states try to strike and equal balance between the needs of workers to make ends meet following and injury and employer’s needs to keep costs down.

One of the common themes in virtually all workers’ compensation systems is that elected officials are hesitant to create a system where an injured worker can make the same or even more money staying at home and collecting benefits than he could at work had it not been for the on the job injury. While this may seem fair to some, the problem is the injured worker generally cannot go back to work so he or she should not have to earn less in workers’ compensation benefits than he or she would had the accident not occurred, since his or her other bill are not going to down along with his or her income.

While this is not likely to change anytime to soon, Massachusetts lawmakers are trying to make the situation a little more tolerable for injured workers by adjusting how the state average weekly wage (SAWW) is calculated. Essentially, the workers compensation board looks at what a worker would be earning according to an average worker in the state working the same job, and pays a percentage of that amount as benefits.
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May 31, 2015

Family of Disney Worker Killed on Job Files Lawsuit

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

In 2011, a Walt Disney World ride mechanic was killed on-the-job while making repairs on an attraction at the park’s Animal Kingdom. According to a recent news article from Click Orlando, employee was performing work on the small roller coaster when another employee released a test car while employee was still on the tracks. Employee was 52-years-old at the time of his workplace death.

Family members have recently filed a lawsuit in connection with employee’s death, arguing defendant was negligent in performing a test run while employee was still on the tracks. They also allege employee’s supervisor did not properly warn him that a car was about to release, which would have allowed him to clear the tracks in a safe manner before being struck by the incoming car.

Plaintiff’s lawyers are technically alleging more than mere negligence, as they contend employee’s supervisor either was not paying attention, or actually “knew where [employee] was and launched [the car] anyway.”
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May 27, 2015

Workers’ Compensation Insurance Carriers Fear Rising Insurance Costs

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

It should come as a shock to no one that prescription drug costs in the United States are extremely high. We do not have many of the cost control measures implemented by governments of other countries, such as Canada and Europe. In fact, Congress has actually made it illegal to purchase and ship drugs to the U.S. from Canada or Mexico, where the same drugs are cheaper.

With prescription costs being as high as they are and still getting higher each year, workers’ compensation insurance carriers are worried these high costs will make it costly to provide benefits to injured workers in need of expensive prescriptions.

In other words, as our Boston workers’ compensation attorneys can explain, large insurance companies, which collect trillions of dollars in premiums each year, are worried high prescription costs will cut into their profitability, which tends to upset investors, and that is the last thing way want. Essentially, the lobbyists from the pharmaceutical industry are having more success in keeping prescription costs high than insurance industry lobbyists are having in keeping them low or getting federal subsidies.

According to a recent article from Insurance Business Magazine, the cost increases in pharmaceuticals are due to what industry insiders call high price inflation for brand and specialty drugs. They also argue there are fewer big name drugs going generic in the near future, which in the past had served as a cost corrector, as insurance companies can require a patient to use a generic drug if one is available. While they have not said how this actually affects workers’ compensation claims, they claim specialty treatments for Hepatitis C are very costly, and this is having a big impact on the value of claims.

In context to drugs more obviously associated with on-the-job injuries, such as antibiotics, narcotic painkillers, and antidepressants, many of which are already generic, and still increasing in costs, which is contributing to higher costs for workers’ compensation claims. It is not small increases these insurance companies are claiming either, as they note some generic drugs have increase in costs nearly 1,000 percent in the past year alone.
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