Some jobs in Ohio are known to be risky in that the simple act of doing them, or the circumstances under which they are performed, lead to inherent potential dangers. Others are less treacherous. Regardless of the type of job a person does, they never plan on getting injured while on the job. It is even more unexpected when it is a fatal accident.
Recently, a 28-year-old employee who was working in a trench died when it collapsed. This incident happened in the early afternoon at approximately 2 p.m. The work was being done to relocate a water line for a local company. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), in its initial investigation, stated that the trench had not been reinforced in any manner. According to OSHA, there must be a trench box or some other material to provide reinforcement to the walls of the trench if the trench is of greater depth that four feet. This particular trench was estimated to be between six and eight feet deep.
The company the man was working for received citations for two violations in 2013 for failing to have a way to get out of a trench, known as an egress, and for failing to have sufficient distance between dirt and the trench to avoid a collapse. They were ordered to pay more than $5,000 in fines because of these violations. The company says that it is conducting an investigation of its own to determine what happened and has vowed to assist OSHA in its investigation.
When a family suffers the loss of a loved one in a fatal workplace accident, there will financial, personal and emotional issues that must be dealt with. Insurance companies and representatives of the company that employed the worker might sound sympathetic in the initial time after the incident has occurred. After that, however, they will do whatever they can to keep costs down when offering compensation to the family. This is why it is important that the family left behind understands their rights to move forward with a legal filing with help from a lawyer experienced in wrongful death cases.
Source: newsnet5.com, "OSHA: No reinforcement observed during investigation into Mentor trench collapse that killed worker," March 31, 2016
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