Work-Related Injuries On the Rise in Florida

The numbers for 2022 are finally in, and they aren’t good. For the first time in more than a decade, the number of fatal occupational injuries rose for the third year in a row. Unsurprisingly, the construction and extraction occupational group had the highest number of fatal workplace injuries. The transportation and material moving occupational group had the second-highest number of fatal workplace injuries. Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers rounded out the top three.

A Tampa workers’ compensation lawyer can obtain important benefits for victims and survivors. These benefits usually include lost wage replacement and medical bill payment. Compensation in fatal injury cases, and other permanent disability cases, includes money for future lost wages and, if applicable, future medical bills. Many of these victims and survivors can sue outside the system and obtain additional compensation.

Motor Vehicle Collisions

Transportation incidents cause about a third of the fatal work-related accidents in Florida in 2022. Car crashes usually cause serious injuries, such as:

• Exsanguination: Excessive blood loss is usually the official cause of death in a fatal car crash case. Tiny cuts and abrasions on internal organs usually bleed very badly, since these organs don’t have protective skin layers. As a result, in many cases, victims have lost more than a fifth of their blood supplies before they reach hospitals.
• Broken Bones: These injuries sometimes continue to internal bleeding. Bone fragments often pierce internal organs or blood vessels. Some broken bone injuries, like a broken pelvis, are usually life-threatening. Others permanently restrict mobility. For example, a victim might never recover complete range of motion in a broken shoulder.
• Head Injuries: Like broken bones, head injuries are usually permanent. In most cases, dead brain cells don’t regenerate. Like exsanguination, head injuries are often fatal. sTBIs (Severe Traumatic Brain Injuries) kill tens of thousands of Americans every year. Other kidneys of head injuries, such as PTSD, are indirectly fatal. PTSD symptoms include suicidal thoughts and tendencies.

These injuries are especially bad if the victim was a pedestrian, like a worker at a construction site caught between a large construction vehicle and a retaining wall. These victims are almost completely unprotected in these situation.

Falls

A fall from as little as four stories above ground is normally fatal. A slip-and-fall injury could be fatal as well, especially if the victim has a pre-existing medical condition.

Height-related falls, especially at construction sites, are completely and easily preventable. Employers must simply provide proper safety equipment, teach workers how to use it, and emphasize the need for this equipment. When a lack of safety equipment causes a fall, a Tampa workers’ compensation lawyer can often sue outside the system, as mentioned above.

Slip-and-fall injuries are often equipment-related as well. Many employers don’t provide proper footgear for employees, so they are more prone to a slip and fall injury.

Toxic Exposure

Usually, falls and motor vehicle collisions cause trauma injuries that kill workers instantly, or almost instantly. Toxic exposure usually causes long-term diseases.

Asbestos and mesothelioma is a good examples. To save money, renovation and removal contractors often hire workers and don’t give them proper PPE (personal protective equipment). Earlier in 2024, a Washington State company hired workers off Craigslist to remove asbestos. The company didn’t provide PPE and didn’t warn these workers about the danger.

Mesothelioma is a rare and aggressive form of heart-lung cancer that’s usually fatal. This kind of lung cancer is particularly painful. So, the victim’s final years are typically very bad years.

 Reach Out to a Hard-Working Hillsborough County Lawyer 

Injury victims are entitled to important financial benefits. For a free consultation with an experienced workers’ compensation lawyer in Tampa, contact Kobal Law. We do not charge upfront legal fees in these matters.

Source:

bls.gov/regions/southeast/news-release/fatalworkinjuries_florida.htm