June is National Safety Month

 Posted on June 10, 2017 in Personal Injury

Work Injuries a Leading Cause of Death and Injury in the United States

At Ivey Barnum & O’Mara, we have served more than a few victims of workplace accidents. As a result, we are well-acquainted with the pain and suffering they can cause. That’s why we’re spending thisyear’s National Safety Month honing in on workplace injuries and helping you avoid them.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2014 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, thousands of people die in workplace accidents every year. While not every workplace injury results in death, injuries on the job can result in lost production time, lost wages, and long-term physical, emotional,and financial harm to the employee, among other painful consequences.With so much at stake, you can’t afford to take the possibility of a workplace injury lightly. In order to help you keep yourself safe on the job, we’re here to help you better understand what workplace injuries are, how they happen, and how to handle them when they do happen.

Common Types of Workplace Injuries

Most people think of work injuries only in the realm of deadly, catastrophic accidents like falling off of a ladder, chopping off a finger, or being run over by a service truck. While these do occur, the most common workplace injuries are varying degrees of cuts, sprained joints, physical pain and soreness. While these may not kill you, they can cause you a lot of suffering in the long run. These can result from any of the following:

• Overextension: This often occurs when a job requires employees to perform the same motions repeatedly, especially if those repeated motions include lifting or lowering heavy objects. In order to avoid an overextension injury, be sure to give yourself a healthy number of breaks throughout the workday and use proper form when bending, lifting, and moving heavy items.
• Harm by Workplace Equipment: A quarter of all workplace injuries occur when contact with workplace objects causes harm to an employee. This can happy any number of ways,but it often occurs when employees are crushed under falling structures or equipment, struck by a moving piece of machinery or falling object,or are somehow caught in a machine. Using protective gear and practicing constant awareness of any machinery in your workplace, especially machinery with heavy, moving parts.
• Falls: Whether you slip on the floor, trip down a flight of stairs, fall offa structure, or experience any other sort of workplace fall, it can cause great physical damage. If a fall is serious enough, it can limit your ability to work for years to come. Avoid slips, trips, and falls by wearing shoes that are appropriate for your work environment, maintaining constant awareness of your walkways and surroundings, and making sure your work area is secured.

Serious injuries can occur in any line of work, but most commonly occurin construction, service, manufacturing, transportation, and maintenance jobs. However, workers in any environment are at risk of sustaining a wide variety of injuries and should exercise equal caution when navigating the workplace.

If you have been injured on the job, get an experienced Greenwich personal injury attorney on your side right away, no matter your profession or the circumstances of your workplace accident. At Ivey Barnum & O’Mara, we are committed to getting you the best outcome possible in your personal injury case.

Contact usat 203-661-6000 or fill out our online form to schedule a free case consultation today.