Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
A 59-year-old construction worker from Streamwood lost his life on Tuesday in a tragic workplace accident involving a piece of machinery, according to the local McHenry County sheriff’s department. Early reports are not clear as to what caused the accident that left the worker dead but the incident is under investigation by local police and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
It appears that the worker was struck by a Bobcat, a brand of machinery most associated with compact size and generalized function, including excavators and front end loaders. Reports indicate that the employee was hit with the machine while on a job site at a pole barn maintenance building in Union, located on Hemmingson Road. The employee died at the scene and an autopsy revealed cause of death to be multiple blunt force traumas to the man’s head, chest, and abdomen.
Workplace accidents can happen in any setting and to any employee but construction workers are at a particularly high risk of injury, or unfortunately in this case, death. The nature of construction work means that a job site may contain heavy machinery, explosives, exposed materials or product, and other safety threats and hazards. As a result, many construction workers suffer on-the-job injuries every year and some sustain permanent damage as a result.
Illinois law provides employees with protection in the event that a work injury occurs in the form of a mandatory employer-funded insurance program known as workers’ compensation. Commonly referred to simply as workers’ comp, a form of this program has been in effect in Illinois since 1912. For over 100 years, injured workers have been entitled to bring a claim for their damages and to receive proper compensation for their losses.
The system is designed to provide injured workers with fair and equitable coverage in an automatic fashion but unfortunately it usually does not work that way. Often, injured employees are denied benefits even though they are entitled to them, leaving these workers without needed medical treatment and with an inability to provide for their families. Additionally, these claims can be very complicated and in some situations nearly impossible for an employee to bring on his or her own, placing the employee at a serious disadvantage when compared with the employee’s company and the company’s staff of lawyers. To make sure an injured employee’s rights are protected, the employee is entitled to retain a lawyer of his or her choosing to bring a claim for benefits.
If you have been injured or your loved one has been killed in a workplace injury, call the workers’ compensation lawyers at Abels & Annes, P.C., today for a free, no obligation telephone consultation about your injuries and your rights. At Abels & Annes, P.C., we have a lawyer standing by 24 hours a day to take your call at (855) 529-2442 and we will never charge you a fee unless we make a recovery on your behalf. Call us today and let us help you understand your legal options after a work incident has left you injured.
Prior Blog Entries:
CTA Blue Line Trains Collide, Dozens Injured, Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer Blog, published September 30, 2013.
Chicago Bike Accident Lawyers Settle Crash for $125,000, Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer Blog, published September 27, 2013.
Resources:
Worker killed in McHenry County conservation area accident, Chicago Sun-Times, published October 2, 2013.