Personal Injury Law

Queens On-the-Job Accident Kills Three Workers

Three workers died in a New York City on-the-job accident at a waste transfer plant after being overcome by hydrogen sulfide fumes, the Engineering News-Record reports in an account. The men apparently suffered fatal injuries while trying to escape an 18-foot-deep hole filled with three feet of water at the Regal Recycling Plant Co., which is a private water transfer plant in Jamaica, Queens.

Among the victims were a father and son who were apparently trying to clean out a backup in the hole. The son lost his balance and fell in when the dad went in after him. The father and another worker who went in the well were overcome by the deadly gas. According to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) records, Regal's recent violations included improper floor and wall openings and inadequate respiratory protection for workers. Regal was ordered to pay thousands of dollars in fines for these serious safety violations.

Every year, thousands of workers are killed or seriously injured on the job in New York. This happens in spite of state and federal regulations as well as industry standards that require employers to implement a wide variety of safety measures. New York workers compensation laws are designed to make sure that employees who are injured (or in this case families of deceased workers) receive fair compensation for their loss. However, workers compensation is usually not enough to fully compensate injured workers or their families for all damages sustained in a work-related accident.

Full post as published by New York Injury Talk Blog on July 15, 2009 (boomark / email).