INDUSTRY RELATED INJURY

In The News

Deadly Construction Accident in Tulsa

Industry > Construction Accident

August 20, 2010

Tulsa, OK - Noe Mendoza, an Oklahoma City resident and construction worker for Plains Bridge Contracting of Oklahoma, died in a construction accident Monday, August 16 around 9:30 a.m. According to the local fire department he was hit by an open-bowl scraper, a type of giant earthmover that can weigh up to 126,000 pounds when fully loaded, where he worked on the extension for the Gilcrease Expressway west of Osage Drive. Investigators speculate that the machine lost power, causing it to roll down the hill and run over Mendoza before he noticed it heading for him.

Industry Overviews

Common Reasons for Industry Related Injuries and Illnesses

Workplace safety is compromised and thus industrial injuries and illnesses occur by not effectively combining engineering, education and environment so that errors do not occur. The three elements are inseparable, and deviation from any one increases the probability of errors and resulting damage to people or to property. Most injuries occur because someone deviates from the known, safe procedure. Unwarranted haste in performing a task, disregard for safety precautions, ignorance, inattention, horseplay, use of drugs or alcohol, distraction and poor attitude are all possible reasons. These are not listed in order of importance; neither are they the provenance solely of workers or management. In fact, they are significant only after work procedures and environment have been made as safe as feasible, since the employer is required to provide both safe employment and place of employment.

A contractor, like any one else, has a duty to use reasonable care to prevent construction accidents and injury to persons whom he reasonably expects to be affected by his work. He will be held liable for his own or his employee's negligence which results in injury to an employee of another contractor. Such negligence usually takes one of two forms: (1) the creation of an unreasonably dangerous condition on the premises; or (2) the use of a method of operation that actively injures another worker.

Contractors other than the employer of an injured worker also are often named as defendants in litigation brought by the injured worker for construction accidents. An analysis of a contractor's potential liability to the injured employee of another contractor depends on a determination of whether that contractor controlled the condition or activity which caused the injury. Because most contractors on a site control only the particular work assigned to them, they are normally responsible only for their own negligence. Ordinarily, they are not liable for dangerous conditions on the project as a whole that result in accidents or the negligence of other contractors.

More Industry Overviews...