Work accident compensation events can happen in any setting, but most injuries at work happen in factories or industrial workplaces. These accidents take many forms and have many causes.
One typical work accident is a forklift injury. Forklifts, most common in warehouses, are used to move, stack and reach heavy palettes. They can cause an accident at work when their loads fall or when they tip over from too much weight on the fork. In areas with considerable foot traffic, they can cause collisions as well.
Forklifts can be operated safely if they are maintained properly, the operator is trained, and there is enough space to maneuver. With these factors in place, the chance of an accident injury compensation claim diminishes.
Another cause of accident at work compensation is a fall from height. Most often, these come from the top of a latter or the roof of a building.
Ladders that are too short, decayed, unstable or in disrepair are often unable to hold the weight of a worker. Ladders can also cause accidents when the surface they are placed on is unsuitable. If the ground is too slippery or uneven, the ladder can shift and cause a fall. Rainy or windy weather conditions can also make ladders too dangerous to work on safely.
Industrial hearing loss is another example of a work accident compensation injury. According to the latest data, about 1 to 2 percent of employees face excessive noise levels on the job.
Hearing loss takes two forms: gradual degradation from continuous background noise and sudden hearing damage from exceptionally loud sounds.
Consistently dangerous background noise levels can happen in a workplace like a factory or machine shop. Even if the sounds are not perceived as too loud to the worker, elevated decibel levels over time can cause gradual but permanent hearing loss. Employees that use noisy tools like chainsaws and jackhammers are the most exposed.
Individual dangerously loud sounds, like jet takeoffs, explosions or gunshots, are less common in the workplace, but these can cause immediate hearing loss.
Employers and employees need to work together to prevent hearing loss related work accident compensation claims. Workers need to tell their supervisors about suspected excessive noise levels in the workplace. The manager should check the sound levels and take action if they are too high. He can reduce exposure times, muffle the sound, provide hearing protection or all three.
