Massachusetts Workers Compensation Lawyers Blog
According to a recent news feature from News 7 Boston, a worker was injured on the Medford-Everett line when a crane flipped over completely. Authorities say the project was located at the border between the two Boston area suburbs at a bridge along the Revere Beach Parkway just north of the city.
It was the end of the workday when workers were putting away their equipment before heading home for the night. The crane with that they were working was not properly balanced and contained around 200 gallons of diesel fuel, which shifted, causing the crane to flip completely over. The operator of the crane was still inside the control cabin when it flipped over, and he was trapped in the cab. He had also broken his arm during the fall.
His co-workers called for first responders, but since this was a construction site, they had a torch they could use to cut the injured worker free of the crane and had done so by the time EMTs arrived on the scene. When first responders arrived, they assessed the injured worker’s overall condition and stabilized his arm for transport to Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), which is located in downtown Boston.
As is the case with any major industrial of construction accident, local police and the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) were on scene to perform a full investigation into why the accident occurred. They will likely look to whether the employer and the employees followed all safety protocols involving the use of the crane and if anything could have been done to prevent the accident.
If there were violations, the agency will have the power to issue warnings and fines to the employer. On the other hand, if there were violations, but there are things that could have been done to prevent such an accident from occurring in the future, the agency can make recommendation for Congress to chance the laws so as to include these news requirements.
However, as our Boston workers’ compensation injury attorneys can explain during your initial consultation, it does not matter whose fault the accident was in the vast majority of cases, because under the Massachusetts Workers’ Compensation Act, the system was set up so as to be no fault in nature. All that is necessary is to prove the employee is in fact a statutory employee and the injury occurred while on the job or the employee suffered a work-related illness.
If it turns out that the employer was negligent in his or her actions, and this was responsible for the accident, this will not likely change anything, as workers’ compensation is the exclusive remedy, and the employee is generally barred from filing a personal injury lawsuit in civil court. There are two basic exceptions for this, and one involves a worker injured by a negligent third party, as we often see when an employee is injured in a car accident. The other exception is when the employer was beyond negligent and acted with a willful and wanton disregard for the safety of workers.
If you or someone you love has been injured a Boston work accident, call for a free and confidential appointment at (617) 777-7777.
Additional Resources:
Worker injured after crane tips over on Medford-Everett town line, July 7, 2016, 7 NEWS Boston, By News Desk
More Blog Entries:
Peters v. Wady Industries, Inc. – Exclusive Remedy of Workers’ Compensation, June 29, 2016, Boston Silica Workers’ Compensation Lawyer Blog