OSHA Standards Ought to be enough in Reducing Construction Site Accidents

Posted by Chell in Construction Accidents, Personal Injury, Workplace Injuries

A personal injury, also known as tort or a civil wrongdoing, is a physical, emotional or mental harm that results from another person’s careless or reckless behavior. It may be accidental or intentional, but whatever the case, it always affects a victim pain and losses (financial losses, especially).

Under the law, a personal injury victim has the legal right to receive compensation from the party, whether an individual or a firm, responsible for the accident that caused the injury. The compensation ought to cover the wages lost, because of the victim’s inability to work, as well as the cost of medication and medical treatment.

A personal injury can be caused by many different reasons, which include a slip and fall accident, dog bite, animal attack, vehicular accident, product failure and work-related/construction accident. With more than 1,000 deaths and 400,000 suffering injuries or job-related sickness every year, the construction industry remains to one of the top major hazard to any individual.

To assure a safe and healthful working condition, especially for construction workers, the Occupational Safety and Health Act was signed into law in 1970. This Act paved the way for the founding of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 1971, a US federal agency formed to regulate safety and health in the workplace.

According to the website of Greenfield accident lawyers, to significantly reduce the number of accidents in construction sites, OSHA has mandated safety standards which construction industries need to implement. Some of these safety standards include fall protection, proper illumination, confined-space standard, ground fault-circuit interrupters (GFCIs), personal protective equipment (PPE), stairways and ladders, 2A rating fire extinguishers (which ought to be provided every 3000 square feet), eye washes and body-flushing facilities (which should be located within 25 feet of battery-changing areas) and accident-prevention signs and tags (which should be visible at all times during work, and removed or covered when the hazard no longer exists). It’s also important to provide employees with proper training in where the safety measures are located, how to operate them, and how to recognize potentially dangerous situations.

Construction firms should provide safety programs for employees and, with their safety engineers, are responsible in the thorough inspection of work sites; failure to do so would make them legally liable for any untoward event, especially that which causes severe physical injuries. Physical injuries, on the other hand, cause devastating emotional trauma and heavy financial burdens, a fact stated on the website of Habush Habush & Rottier S.C. ®.