What kinds of injuries can happen on West Virginia construction sites?

A sampling of the kinds of construction site injuries for which Paulson & Nace has represented West Virginians and their families includes:

• Falls. These are among the leading causes of death in the industry. Falls from ladders, scaffolding and rooftops – not necessarily from significant height – present the risk of serious injury or death when the surface on which one lands is hard, uneven and littered with construction debris.
• Heavy machinery accidents. Machinery that is susceptible to tipping over, such as forklifts, cranes and backhoes, can crush their operators or nearby workers. Earthmoving equipment, such as bulldozers and large construction trucks, may run over other workers because of operator carelessness.
• Electrical hazards. Not only do live overhead wires pose a hazard to workers on ladders and scaffolding; defective power cables, improperly grounded machinery and the absence of ground fault interrupts may cause severe electrical burns or death by electrocution.
• Trench and excavation accidents. Trenches and other excavations that are improperly reinforced may collapse and cause workers to be crushed. Workers have been buried alive because a lack of high visibility clothing prevented their being seen by operators of backhoes, bulldozers and dump trucks.
• Unsafe walkways. It is easy for a construction site to become littered with debris and machinery. A lack of safe pathways not only increase a person’s chances odds of tripping, slipping and falling, but increases the risk of severe injury by their landing on debris such as jagged pieces of concrete, wooden stakes and rebar.
• Exposure to hazardous materials. Both construction workers and miners may be blinded, burned or poisoned by dangerous or toxic materials, especially when the construction site lacks emergency eyewash and shower equipment. Workers engaged in demolition may be exposed to dangerous levels of lead in paint, or asbestos in siding.
• Lack of safety equipment. At the very least, workers on construction sites need the protection offered by construction helmets (“hardhats”), and other equipment such as safety goggles, gloves and hearing protection.
• Inadequate lighting. Whether deep in a mine or at ground level, on night duty or in places with limited visibility, workers need to be seen in order to be avoided by equipment operators or passing traffic. That may necessitate the employer’s furnishing special reflective clothing in highly visible colors, or helmets equipped with headlamps.

Many of these kinds of accidents could also be avoided if workers were given not only the correct safety equipment, but thorough safety training as well. A company that trains its workers to act with safety in mind at all times, that has a safety program in place and enforces it, is less likely to experience serious injuries or deaths at its worksites.