Workplace Injuries

• Rules for Cranes Come Under Review

  Michael Myers | December 17, 2006 12:01 PM | 0 CommentsSeattle, WA

  A series of crane accidents in the Seattle area has highlighted the national decision to review the rules for crane erection and operation. Crane accidents have killed an injured construction workers and bystanders around the nation in recent months. These accidents have lead to safety reviews. The reviews have resulted in fines and illustrated the safety risks posed by cranes that do not...

• Construction Site Accidents Governed by Detailed Safety Rules

  Michael Myers | June 03, 2006 9:10 PM | 0 CommentsSeattle, WA

  Traffic accidents are governed by a detailed set of rules (the "Rules of the Road") contained in the Revised Code of Washington. Slip and fall accidents are usually governed by common sense and what an ordinary person would consider "reasonable". Construction site accidents are governed by a very detailed and comprehensive set of rules in the Washington Administrative Code (the "WAC"). The...

• Ferry Workers Entitled to $8 Million in Back Pay

  Michael Myers | January 20, 2006 3:49 PM | 0 CommentsSeattle, WA

  Pierce County Superior Court Judge Rosanne Buckner recently ruled that the Washington Department of Transportation must give back pay to ferry workers who were forced to work overtime without pay during the last four and a half years. The workers are part of a class action lawsuit brought on behalf of ferry engineers and oilers. The employees had not previously been paid for safety training...

• Whitewater Engineering Corp. Pardoned

  Michael Myers | January 01, 2006 8:16 PM | 0 CommentsSeattle, WA

  Whitewater Engineering Corp., a Bellingham company convicted of criminally negligent homicide in the death of one of its workers, received a pardon from (former) Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski just before he left office. The employee killed was working on a $15 million hydroelectric project in a valley outside Cordova. He was on a backhoe when snow slid off a 2,000-foot slope and buried him....

• 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...

• 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...

• Six Pipeline Workers Nearly Electrocuted

  Michael Myers | August 07, 2006 7:52 AM | 0 CommentsSeattle, WA

  Six pipeline workers were nearly electrocuted Thursday when their construction equipment either touched or got too close to high-voltage power lines.The accident happened east of Arlington underneath the Bonneville Power Administration's 230,000-volt Snohomish-to-Murray line.Arlington Fire Department Chief Jim Renkin said the workers were unloading sections of gas pipeline when the accident...

• Falling Debris Injures Three

  Michael Myers | December 08, 2005 3:24 PM | 0 CommentsSeattle, WA

  Three individuals were hurt yesterday when debris from a construction site on Third Avenue and Seneca Street fell on them. One person was hospitalized after being struck by a 10 foot by 15 foot sheet of aluminum. The other two individuals sustained less serious injuries. For more information on the story, click on the following link: Falling Debris Injures Pedestrians.Washington's...

• Fall At Rig Injurs Worker

  Michael Myers | August 15, 2006 9:23 PM | 0 CommentsSeattle, WA

  Chase Anderson was working about 20 feet above the sub floor on the EnCana drilling rig when he fell about 11 p.m. Friday night. He was transported to Kadlec, and then airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. He suffered four, six inch gashes down to the skull. After testing, it was found he had abdominal bleeding and a fracture C-5 vertebrate. He also broke the tips off C-6 and C-7....