Common Workplace Injuries and Your Employer's Responsibility

All manner of injuries can happen when you are at work. Workplace injuries can prevent you from performing your traditional roles at your job or can prevent you from working at your job at all. Unfortunately, there are many ways you can hurt while you work. Even those who work in an office environment can get hurt.

The following are some of the more common workplace injuries and how you can keep them from happening.

Trips and Falls

Trips and falls account for many workplace injuries and result in many worker's compensation claims. A trip and fall can result in broken bones, sprained muscles, neck or back injuries, head injuries, or other injuries.

These injuries can occur due to wet or icy steps, loose flooring, clutter on the walkways, cables in the walkways, uneven surfaces, and more. To avoid such accidents, employers should prioritize clean workspaces, maintain the flooring properly, and encourage clutter-free work areas.

Machinery Accidents

If you work in an environment with heavy machinery or equipment, you might suffer an accident despite adhering to safety protocols. Machinery can range from factory equipment to construction machinery to farm equipment. Any part of the body can get caught in heavy machinery and result in injuries. You can also get hit or struck by parts of machinery.

Accidents involving machinery can cause broken bones, severed limbs, blindness, head injuries, and more. Many of these accidents can result in a permanent disability. To prevent these types of injuries, employee safety training is crucial. You must know how to operate any type of heavy machinery you work with and do so safely. It is your employer's responsibility to ensure other safety guidelines are met.

Improper Lifting

Anyone can get hurt at work when lifting improperly. If you work in an office, you can hurt yourself lifting a box of documents. If you work in a blue-collar environment, you can easily hurt yourself lifting items that are too heavy. Consistently lifting items without adequate breaks or rest can also tax your body and cause you to become injured.

You can severely hurt your back by lifting improperly. Your back muscles and tendons may seize and become quite painful. Back injuries are debilitating and can result in a long absence from work, along with light-duty work once you do return as your injuries fully heal.

To prevent these injuries, your employer should allow you to take breaks as often as you need to avoid injury. Your employer should also provide you with the necessary equipment to keep you safe, such as supportive braces to wear or lifting devices. Your employer should also never require you to lift heavy items without help if you think you need assistance.

Car Accidents

If any part of your job requires you to drive or ride in a company-sponsored vehicle, there is always a chance of getting hurt in an accident. Injuries in car accidents range from very minor to catastrophic, depending on the nature of the accident.

You cannot control how others drive on the roadways or how they react to accidents, but your employer can ensure you have proper prevention measures in place to decrease the risk of causing the accident yourself. Requiring safety restraints, strict adherence to traffic signals and speed limits, and proactive driving techniques are a few ways to avoid getting into a vehicle accident.

Workplace accidents can cost both you and your employer a lot of time and money. If your employer does not provide you with the tools you need to avoid a workplace accident, you should contact us at the Law Offices of James B. Gillespie, Jr., PLLCfor assistance.