Workplace Injuries

• Death at Rainier Vista Construction Site Underscores Risks

  Michael Myers | September 17, 2008 2:36 PM | 0 CommentsSeattle, WA

  Earlier this month a construction worker, Steven Dale Slee, was injured while working in a trench at a Rainier Vista construction project.  Seattle firefighters took Slee to Harborview Medical...

• Injured Workers and Third-Party Elections

  Michael Myers | September 16, 2008 11:21 AM | 0 CommentsSeattle, WA

  I read a story in the Seattle Times this morning.  It reported that a man was burned and other injured when equipment made contact with a high-voltage power line.  The two men were painting a...

• Jobsite Injuries--Don't Overlook the Third Party Claim

  Michael Myers | January 14, 2008 5:25 PM | 0 CommentsSeattle, WA

  You get hurt at work. You file a workers compensation claim. But that shouldn't be the end of the story. Workers compensations claims yield significantly less money for injured workers than third-party personal injury claims. A good example appeared in the paper recently. Rolondo Dudley, 32, suffered a compound fracture on his right leg during a construction accident this past Friday. Dudley...

• General Contractor Could Be At-Fault In Worker's Fatal Fall from Crane

  Michael Myers | November 07, 2007 10:47 AM | 0 CommentsSeattle, WA

  A construction worker died on Monday after falling 60 feet from a tower crane in Belltown. While working on condominiums located on Third Avenue and Battery Street the worker, a man in his 40s, slipped and fell while climbing a ladder to the crane's cab. After landing on concrete below, the worker was taken to Harborview Medical Center, where he later died.The Department of Labor and...

• Construction Workers Injured on the Job Can Bring Suit for Unsafe Jobsites

  Michael Myers | November 05, 2007 8:16 AM | 0 CommentsSeattle, WA

  A Seattle construction worker was injured on the job early Wednesday. The worker, a man in 20s, was about 50 feet down in a hole when he was hit with an air hose. The air hose hit the worker hard enough to cause cuts and bruising to his abdominal area. The injured man was rescued by firefighters who lowered a stretcher in to the hole and then used a crane to lift the man out. He was then...

• Construction Related Injuries Increasing

  Michael Myers | October 22, 2007 9:57 AM | 0 CommentsSeattle, WA

  A 21-year old man from Bellevue was hit and killed by a dump truck Friday. The Bellevue man was attempting to cross Northeast 36th Street at the same time that the dump truck was turning onto Northeast 36th Street. At this time the police do not believe that the driver was at fault in this accident. With all the construction going on around Seattle injuries to both construction workers and even...

• Construction Accident Kills Tenino Man

  Mark McLean | August 23, 2007 3:53 PM | 0 CommentsSeattle, WA

  A 28 year old Tenino man died last week when he slipped at an Olympia construction site, hit his head on a backhoe and fell 15 feet into a ditch. The construction site was operated by Olson Brothers Excavating, Inc. This was the second construction-related death in a week in Thurston County. Washington's Industrial Insurance Act allows for fault-free "worker's compensation" benefits to...

• Highway Construction Injury Leaves One Dead

  Mark McLean | July 12, 2007 6:06 PM | 0 CommentsSeattle, WA

  A construction worker was killed in an accident on Highway 20 in LaConner yesterday.The worker was killed in a construction zone near Milepost 53 near LaConner at about 8:15 a.m.Transportation Department spokesman Dustin Terpening said the worker was hit by a street sweeper that was backing up. Washington law provides for worker's compensation, a fault-free system of recovery for people injured...

• Worker Dies After Being Crushed by Lift

  Mark McLean | June 25, 2007 9:20 AM | 0 CommentsSeattle, WA

  A worker died after being crushed by a hydraulic lift in a Georgetown neighborhood recycling plant last week. Longtime SeaDruNar employee John Colombini, 46, died from head injuries he suffered when a hydraulic lift collapsed on his head, a spokesman for the King County Medical Examiner's Office said Wednesday.Colombini was repairing a lift attached to a truck cab used to haul waste containers...

• Worker Killed When Trench Collapses

  Michael Myers | March 10, 2007 10:07 PM | 0 CommentsSeattle, WA

  Seattle firefighters worked for over two hours before they were able to extract the construction worker. Unfortunately, the worker did not survive his injuries. The construction acccident happened in White Center. Construction accidents are unfortunately common. Construction workers have rights under RCW Title 51 (the workers compensation law). But they also have rights under personal...