Worker’s genitals severed; lawsuit filed against employer
February 21, 2011 by Fred HosierPosted in: amputation, Bizarre Accident of the Week, In this week's e-newsletter, Injuries, Latest News & Views, Lawsuits, Who Got Fined and Why?
PDF A lawsuit in Florida alleges that lack of machine guarding left an employee disfigured.
The Orlando Sentinel reports Edgardo Toucet Echevarria, 44, has filed a lawsuit against Future Foam Carpet Cushion in Orange County, FL, following an incident on Jan. 13, 2010.
Echevarria, a contract worker at Future Foam employed by Spartan Staffing, was asked by supervisors to remove a foam core from a “peeler machine” that has a steel blade used to cut blocks of carpeting foam, according to the lawsuit.
He wasn’t trained in operating the machine, the suit alleges, and in the course of removing the foam, the machine activated.
OSHA cited Future Foam for 10 serious violations, including two machine guarding violations, and proposed $42,500 in fines. Future Foam is contesting the fines.
The lawsuit claims employees had improperly removed a guard from the machine.
“The surgical sharp steel blade sliced through [his] pelvis … while virtually cutting his body in half,” the lawsuit states.
Echevarria is seeking punitive damages and more than $15,000 for disfigurement, loss of capacity for enjoyment of life, medical expenses, loss of earnings and loss of earning capacity.
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Tags: contract worker, lawsuit, machine guarding, severed
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February 22nd, 2011 at 12:26 pm
What can you say, but “ouch”.
February 22nd, 2011 at 2:45 pm
Did you notice that the verbiage used in the article title was not repeated in the article? It didn’t need to be repeated. Double “ouch.”
February 23rd, 2011 at 2:00 pm
only 15K for loss of capacity for enjoyment of life? I think thats a little light considering the capacity for enjoyment he is loosing. i would want 10 times that amount and my wife would want 20.
February 23rd, 2011 at 2:45 pm
Ouch doesn’t even begin to cover it. All the pain aside, at what point does a worker (contract workers) included, take some of the blame for these types of incidences?
If he wasn’t trained in the proper procedure, then he has every right to refuse to do the work until trained to do so. If he decided not to ask for proper training, then he should shoulder some of the responsibility for what happened to him.
February 24th, 2011 at 9:29 am
Especially in a machine environment, most contract/temp agencies do diligence to be sure their employees are properly trained for their job before they do any work. Some will review the employer’s safety policies, accident rates, training records, etc. to have some assurance they are not putting their employees in jeopardy. We don’t know from this article what Spartan Staffing’s process was. One thing is certain - somebody messed up. My guess is it was the employer, given the other violations. And I agree $15k is pretty light for the injuries and implications involved. Ten times that number even seems light.
February 24th, 2011 at 10:24 am
Did you notice his name, hispanic and I’m sure he wasn’t trained properly to do the work safely. I know when asked if he understands how to do something he probably nods his head up and down. this means sure i can do it. But he really didn’t know the guards were not off and he could be injured the way he was. yes 15k is pretty small to an American but for a worker under the table barely in the country leagally? this will help get him back home with some cash to spare. I am just guessing all this but I do work around hispanics daily.
February 25th, 2011 at 2:51 pm
Isn’t workers comp his exclusive remedy? 3rd party suit for the machine manufacturer maybe, but sue his employer? How can that be?
February 28th, 2011 at 8:59 am
Joe - He is not suing his employer. His employer is Spartan Staffing. They contracted him out to Future Foam, whom he is suing. There is a difference.
March 1st, 2011 at 3:39 pm
The article casts a strong shadow of negligence to the company who hired him from Spartan Staffing. My intuition is that Future Foam hired temporary contract labor becuase it was an economically a better solution than hiring someone outright. Based upon the amount of fine and number of citations given to Future Foam by OSHA, it appears there was not too much attention to safety culture at that facility. An educated guess would indicate this employee of Spartan Staffing was hired, they placed in a position he knew nothing about, most likely never working around that type of equipment before they positioned him on the floor in front of it. Why, in all of these articles where guarding is removed, and a man is severely injured, does the management of the plant always point to the workers removing it? Hell yeah they removed it - but where is the Supervision? Would you let your child work unprotected? Seems to me, they are the bosses who have the authority to say “PUT IT BACK, OR YOU DON’T WORK HERE ANYMORE” and the guarding would be reinstalled on or they would be fired…simple as that. The article says nothing about a language issue, so there is a 50 50 chance this guy did not understand the training. I don’t know these for facts, but my gut tells me that I am pretty close…
April 1st, 2011 at 6:39 am
Read the article?
It says “employees” (plural) removed the guard. Also he is seeking punitive damages of MORE than $15,000. Many times when a suit is filed the actual number is not revealed, only an amount over the minimum damages allowed.