Another Workplace Death Reported

Fred Schultz

Contributor

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It was sad to see in today's paper that another person was killed at their workplace. According to the Bloomington Herald Times, a Hendricks County man was killed while doing construction work down in a ditch.

The Hendricks County Sheriff’s Department says a construction worker was killed when a power saw he was using to cut pipe jumped back and struck him in the neck.

Based on the limited information available, it is hard to tell exactly how the accident happened. All we know is that the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration (IOSHA) is investigating. At some point, IOSHA will issue a report outlining whether or not there were any workplace safety violations. If so, these findings can be used as evidence in legal proceedings brought later on down the road.

From a practical legal standpoint, there are several avenues that the family of the person involved may wish to pursue. First, they will be able to make a claim for worker's compensation death benefits. Also, there may be third-party liability claims that can be made against other contractors who may have acted in a negligent fashion and contributed to the circumstances which lead to this man's death. Finally, depending on the circumstances, there may have been some sort of defective condition in the power saw which lead to the accident. If so, there would be a product liability claim against the power saw manufacturer.

All of these, of course, take a back seat right now to the simple fact that this is a tragic story. Nobody should die at work like this.