Horseplay, spiders and bears, oh my. These are the stories Safety News Alert readers clicked on most during 2011.
- I got bit by a spider at work: Pay me comp. An employee was cleaning when he was bitten by a brown recluse spider. A serious infection followed. Did he get workers’ comp?
- Injured during motel sex, employee seeks workers’ comp: The woman was on a business trip. She suffered injuries to her nose, mouth and a tooth when a wall-mounted lamp in the motel where she was staying fell on her head during sex.
- Owner, supervisor jailed for worker’s death: The owner of a roofing company and his foreman were sentenced to jail in connection with the death of an employee.
- Injured on lunch break: Does employee get workers’ comp? An employee on an allowed lunch break went across the street from where he was working to eat his sandwich inside a bus shelter. A glass panel in the shelter collapsed on him, causing various injuries.
- Case of the pot-smoking worker mauled by bear: Part 2. An employee was mauled by a grizzly in a bear park after having smoked pot. This case went all the way to the Montana Supreme Court.
- Worker beaten while on the job: Can he get workers’ comp? This worker collected overdue cable TV bills. One day he was assaulted at an apartment complex where he went to collect a customer’s past-due bill.
- Ice cube horseplay causes injury: Does employee get workers’ comp? Employees threw ice cubes at a co-worker. The horseplay ended with an injury.
- Tripped over dog at home, now worker wants comp: An employee who sold window treatments was required to keep samples at home. One day she was walking to her garage to get the samples when she tripped over her dog and was injured.
- Employee complaints bring in OSHA: $950K fine. Two co-owned manufacturing companies in Texas face a combined $949,800 in OSHA fines following an investigation that was prompted by employee complaints about inadequate machine guarding, toxic fumes and noise.
- Killed on way to conference: Does widow get workers’ comp benefits? An employee was required to attend a multi-day company leadership conference at a location hours away from his home. While on the way, the worker was killed in a car crash.
Were there Safety News Alert stories on your favorites list that didn’t make this cut? Let us know your favorite stories in the comments below.
