The pain of this accident had to have been breathtakingly excruciating. Workplace accidents may happen when least expected.
This case was utterly devastating for the victim. He went to work as usual at a carpet foam-cutting company and expected that his day would be like it usually was – and it was, until his accident. The 44-year old man was a contract worker who worked with a machine used to cut blocks of carpeting foam. It was a fairly easy job, but at times the machine would get jammed or not work quite right.
No one is sure what happened that day, but the end result of this man’s accident left him a virtual eunuch. He was removing foam core from what was referred to as a peeling machine; something he was not trained to run. When he took the foam out of the machine, it kicked into gear and the sharp steel blade sliced off his penis and testicles, as it did a large amount of damage to the rest of his lower torso.
Emergency response crews got there fast and got the man to hospital for treatment. The U.S. OSHA ultimately cited the company for 10 violations of workplace safety, not the least of which was the removal of the protective guard from the peeling machine; something that would have protected the man from being injured.
As it turns out, the supervisors at this same company had asked the man to run the machine, despite the fact that they knew he had no training or experience with it. The personal injury lawsuit mentioned all of this and the case is getting ready to go to court in the near future. It remains a horrific example of the things that can go wrong in a workplace when you least expect it.
Unfortunately, in New Hampshire and in other states, a worker is not able to sue an employer if the employer provides worker’s compensation. In other words, the worker may only collect benefits from worker’s compensation and cannot sue his boss. Given the circumstances of this case, there would need to be an expert engineer hired to testify about this case. It would definitely be something worth looking into for the victim.
“Even though the worker probably can’t sue his employer, because of the workers’ comp immunity issue, the worker isn’t up the creek without a paddle. He has the option to sue for product liability; an unreasonably defective product. This is not the same thing as negligence, but I can outline the differences to you should you find yourself in a similar situation after sustaining injuries in the workplace,” Donahue said.
Charlie Donahue is a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. To learn more about New Hampshire injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit Donahuelawfirm.com.
