October 22, 2009 by Fred Hosier
Here’s proof that workplace injuries happen in the service industry, too. And those injuries can lead to workers’ comp claims.
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Tags: back injury, casino dealer, service industry, workers' comp claims
October 8, 2009 by Fred Hosier
An explosion at a worksite may cost an employee his leg, if attempts to reattach it fail.
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Tags: explosion, gas fumes, sever worker's leg
October 2, 2009 by Fred Hosier

If one of your employees was injured in an exercise class, you wouldn’t expect that to be covered by workers’ comp. But that’s not how one court saw it.
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Tags: employee injured at gym, exercise class, Workers' comp
September 11, 2009 by Fred Hosier

Workers’ comp boards and courts draw a fine line between what is and what isn’t a work-related injury that qualifies for benefits. See if you can guess how the court ruled in this case:
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Tags: climbing into truck, ruptured tendon, shipping yard, tractor trailer, Workers' comp
September 11, 2009 by Fred Hosier
Advice from a paramedic: Don’t do what this worker did when a nail flew into his eye.
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Tags: eye protection, face protection, nail in eye
August 25, 2009 by Fred Hosier
Severe weather adds hazards for outdoor workers. A massive storm that unleashed a torrent of water with no warning led to an employee’s death at an excavation project in Texas.
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Tags: employee death, flash flood, outdoor workers
August 8, 2009 by Fred Hosier
With the difficulty and expense that some parents have trying to find childcare, some companies may allow employees to bring their kids to work. But this case shows the need for strict rules about restricted areas in hazardous jobs.
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Tags: 12-year-old buried in sand, bring kids to work, children at work sites
August 7, 2009 by Fred Hosier

Imagine this: A company sponsors a Family Fun night of bowling for its employees and their families to improve morale. One employee injures his back while bowling. Does he get workers’ comp because this was an employer-sponsored event?
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Tags: bowling injury, Cedar Rapids Gazette, Workers' comp
August 6, 2009 by Fred Hosier
Work-related vehicle fatalities aren’t always at high speeds and on the open road.
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Tags: OSHA investigating, run over by dump truck, vehicle fatalities
July 10, 2009 by Fred Hosier
Here’s a reminder about the importance of guarding against slip-and-falls.
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Tags: dies in vat of chocolate, Lyons & Sons, slip and fall
July 6, 2009 by Fred Hosier
An investigation is underway to determine what caused a monorail at Walt Disney World in Florida to slam into another, killing one train’s driver.
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Tags: Disney World monorail crash, monorail death, monorail investigation
June 25, 2009 by Fred Hosier
An employee of a woodworking business is hospitalized in intensive care after a piece of wood pierced his chest and exited his back.
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Tags: American Wood Source, impaled by piece of wood, impalement injuries
June 15, 2009 by Fred Hosier
Emergency crews worked for more than three hours to rescue a 15-year-old from inside an auger which is used to grind up mulch.
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Tags: prohibited occupations for teenagers, Summerford Pallet, teen falls into auger
June 15, 2009 by Fred Hosier
An employee helps a co-worker get a stuck bag of chips out of a workplace vending machine and in the process fractures his hip. Does he get workers’ comp or not?
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Tags: vending machine, worker sues for comp, Workers' comp
June 12, 2009 by Fred Hosier

An employee helps a co-worker get a stuck bag of chips out of a workplace vending machine and in the process fractures his hip. Does he get workers’ comp or not?
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Tags: fractured hip, good Samaritan doctrine, personal comfort doctrine, snack machine, Workers' comp
June 8, 2009 by Fred Hosier
A 20-year-old man has died from injuries he sustained when a container of clams fell on him at a food plant in Massachusetts.
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Tags: Blount Fine Foods, forklift, hardhat
June 3, 2009 by Fred Hosier
A 17-year-old worker at a grain elevator in Haswell, CO, was killed after being buried alive in a grain bin.
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Tags: buried alive in grain, entrapment in a bin, stored loose materials
May 29, 2009 by Fred Hosier

While it didn’t cite Wal-Mart for a violation of a specific standard, OSHA has used its General Duty Clause to fine the retailer in the trampling death of a worker last November.
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Tags: OSHA General Duty Clause, Wal-Mart fined, Wal-Mart worker crushed to death
May 28, 2009 by Fred Hosier
A company in Barboursville, WV, faces $56,250 in OSHA fines following a fatality at the plant earlier this year.
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Tags: blocked exit routes, machine guards, worker pulled into lathe
May 26, 2009 by Fred Hosier
Here’s one way to draw attention to the dangers of texting while driving: In Missouri, a man was so busy using his cell phone while driving that he plowed into two stopped police cars.
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Tags: driver hits police car, DWI, texting while driving
May 20, 2009 by Fred Hosier
Do you have workers who clean in confined spaces? Here’s a cautionary tale for them.
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Tags: clean in confined spaces, cooked to death, soup factory
May 18, 2009 by Fred Hosier
OSHA has proposed $99,000 in fines against a stamping company after an employee’s hand was crushed while operating a 75-ton mechanical power press.
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Tags: amputation, OSHA fines, worker's hand is crushed
May 15, 2009 by Fred Hosier

A company had banned its employees from talking or texting on cell phones while working for safety reasons. Now it’s taking the cell phone ban one step further.
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Tags: cell phone policies, talking on cell phones while working, texting
May 15, 2009 by Fred Hosier
OSHA is investigating the death of a worker in West Palm Beach, FL, who was crushed to death by an elevator.
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Tags: crushed by falling elevator, death of worker, OSHA investigating
May 12, 2009 by Fred Hosier
OSHA is investigating an incident in Omaha, NE, in which a 17-year-old boy died after a forklift he was operating fell on top of him.
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Tags: forklift accident, forklift operator, jobs teens can and can't do
May 8, 2009 by Fred Hosier
The horror of an employee getting a body part caught in a machine is bad enough. Just imagine an incident resulting in an at-the-workplace amputation.
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Tags: amputation at work, arm caught in machine, printer
April 21, 2009 by Fred Hosier
Struck-by incidents are a significant cause of workplace injuries and deaths each year. But this has to be a first.
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Tags: blunt force trauma, killed by laptop computer, struck-by incidents
April 10, 2009 by Fred Hosier

Not only is this a bizarre OSHA fine, it could set a dangerous precedent. The agency has fined a company for an employee’s fatal injury that happened while he was away from his home office on assignment.
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Tags: bizarre OSHA fine, Buffalo All High Stadium, Buffalo News
April 2, 2009 by Fred Hosier
Incidents in which an employee is struck by an object account for almost one in ten workplace deaths each year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The circumstances involved vary widely from incident to incident, as this case shows.
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Tags: employee crushed to death, Ferris wheel, struck by an object
March 27, 2009 by Fred Hosier

What constitutes loss of use of feet and hands to qualify for permanent disability? A state court says it’s not necessary for employees to actually injure their feet or hands for that to be the case.
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Tags: hip injury, permanent disability payments, shoulder injury, slip and fall, workers' compensation
March 20, 2009 by Fred Hosier
Safety pros know the risks involved with slippery surfaces and machinery that’s not properly guarded. Here’s a case in which the two combined to create a disabling injury for one employee.
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Tags: disabling injury, machine guard, slippery surfaces
March 6, 2009 by Fred Hosier
Imagine this: A train collides with a tractor-trailer which in turn hits a worker who was standing nearby. The man survives with only cuts and bruises! It was all caught on closed-circuit cameras at a workplace.
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Tags: cuts and bruises, miracle survival, run over by tractor trailer
March 5, 2009 by Fred Hosier
A construction company is appealing a fine from California’s OSHA in the wake of a double fatality.
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Tags: construction, double fatal, drowned, OSHA fine
February 26, 2009 by Fred Hosier
With Spring just around the corner, it’s a good time to refresh safety training for outdoor workers. As this case shows, unsafe acts are too often fatal.
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Tags: conveyor, killed, wood chipper
February 17, 2009 by Fred Hosier
Next time you want to give employees a reminder about the hazards of loose clothing around machinery, you might want to use this story.
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Tags: General Duty Clause, jewelry, loose clothing, machine guarding, strangled