Missouri Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is responsible for enforcing workplace safety regulations and for keeping track of accidents, injuries, and violations. Recently, OSHA released its “top ten” list of the most commonly reported workplace safety violations in the past year.

At the top of the list were slip and fall accidents caused by a failure to provide basic fall protection. These included problems like walking surfaces that weren’t strong enough, edges that were not protected by guardrails, and failure to have workers use safety gear like nets or harnesses to protect them from falls. OSHA reported a total of 7,250 violations of these requirements in 2012.

Closely related to the number-one safety violation were scaffolding violations, which came in at number three, and ladder violations, which came in at number 5. Although the types of problems with scaffolding and ladders varied, both can pose serious fall risks, since the purpose of both is to lift workers up so they can reach worksites that aren’t accessible with both feet on the ground. Scaffolding problems accounted for 3,814 violations in 2012, while ladder violations added another 2,310 violations.

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In 2009 alone, 605 workers were killed and over 210,000 were injured in slip and fall accidents in the workplace. Construction sites are the number one workplace for serious slip and fall accidents, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Construction sites pose a number of hazards that can cause a slip and fall accident. These hazards include:

• Slippery or cluttered walking surfaces;
• Holes in floors and walls;
• Unstable or badly-positioned ladders and scaffolding; and
• Defective or improperly-used fall prevention devices.

To help cut down on the major risks that can cause accidents, occupational health and safety offices at the state and federal level have implemented a vast number of regulations for construction sites. When these are ignored or violated, however, serious slip and fall injuries can result.

Missouri construction slip and fall accidents also result in high costs, especially for the person injured. The CDC estimates that $70 billion in medical bills, lost wages, and other costs result from construction site slip and fall injuries each year. Workers’ compensation insurance may cover some of these costs for injured workers, but this coverage is not available for those who are injured on construction sites when they are not actively working there.

If you or someone you love has been injured on a construction site, you may be entitled to workers’ compensation, insurance, or other compensation. At Page Law, our experienced St. Louis slip and fall injury lawyers are dedicated to helping injured people seek the compensation they need to recover from their injuries. For a free and confidential consultation, call us today at (314) 322-8515.

Slip and fall accidents are one of the most common types of accidents in the United States that lead to personal injury lawsuits. Businesses and individuals who own or occupy property have a duty to protect all persons on their property from dangerous conditions; particularly those that the owners or occupiers knew or should have known existed.

Although many people do not think that a slip and fall accident could cause major injuries, in fact, very serious injuries can result from a slip and fall accident. Elderly people are particularly at risk of suffering serious injuries in a slip and fall. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has studied slip and fall accidents in older Americans and has discovered some surprising statistics. Among Americans over age 65, falls are the leading cause of injury-related deaths. About one in three adults over age 65 falls each year. In 2007 alone, over 18,000 older Americans died from fall injuries.

There are some common injuries that occur when an individual has a slip and fall accident. About 20 to 30 percent of older people who fall suffer moderate to severe injuries. Such injuries include cuts, broken hips and head injuries. Falls are the most common cause of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in all adults. In older adults, TBIs are responsible for about 46 percent of fatalities from falls. Falls are also the most common cause of bone fractures among older adults, most often fractures to the arms, legs, ankles, spine, hip, pelvis, and hands.

Sadly, many property owners do not take their responsibility to keep their premises safe for visitors seriously, which can lead to tragic results. If you have been injured in a slip and fall accident in Missouri, contact the St. Louis slip and fall accident attorneys at Page Law, LLC. Call us today at 1-314-488-2433 for a free consultation on your case.

A recent report in The Record claims that a St. Clair County woman has filed a Missouri premises liability lawsuit against a grocery store and an ice company for injuries she received when she slipped on melted ice and fell. The injured woman filed the lawsuit in St. Clair County Court on May 1, 2009, in connection with the slip and fall accident which allegedly occurred on June 6, 2007. The complaint claims that ice had melted on the supermarket floor after an employee of the ice company had stocked bags of ice in a freezer, and ice cubes had dropped from one or more of the bags. The complaint also claims that the ice company employee and employees of the supermarket:

• Failed to mop up the melted ice
• Failed to display warning signs of the wet floor
• Failed to warn the woman of the presence of water on the floor
• Failed to adequately inspect the floor

The woman claims that the fall caused injuries to her neck, back, spine, arms, elbows, right shoulder, torso, knees, legs, right ankle and right foot, and strains to her right interior cruciate ligament and right posterior cruciate ligament. As a result of this slip and fall accident in Missouri, the woman claims that she incurred medical costs, the use and function of her injured body parts have been substantially impaired, and she has been unable to enjoy some of her favorite activities.

Slip and fall accidents often result in broken bones, deep bruising, back injuries, and other debilitating injuries. It is the responsibility of property owners to protect people who are lawfully on their property from injuries resulting from hazardous conditions that they knew about or should have known about.

If you or someone you care for has been injured in a St. Louis slip and fall accident, the premises liability attorneys at personal injury law firm Page Law may be able to help. They can help injured people hold property owners responsible for the negligence that caused the injuries and prevent others from being injured. Call the injury lawyers at Page Law today toll free at (314) 322-8515 to schedule a free consultation with experienced St. Louis personal injury lawyers. You can find more information related to this topic at www.injuredclient.com.