A 66-year old man from Pembroke severed his left arm at work yesterday. This occurred at National Coating Corp. in Rockland. The man suffered this workers compensation accident when his left arm became trapped inside a machine. His arm was severed at the elbow. Emergency personnel quickly responded to help the man with his extremely serious personal injuries.
This very sad event highlights the need for workers to be kept safe at work. Too often employers place their workers in danger. By failing to properly train, oversee and monitor workers to ensure basic safety regulations are in place, means preventable work accidents will only keep occurring.
Also, manufacturers and distributors of dangerous workplace equipment must provide equipment that is safe. The equipment must have proper safety guards in place to prevent the type of accident that happened in this case. Employers too must make sure they, and their employees, never take off or disable safety guards on any equipment.
The man injured in this accident has rights to file for permanent and total workers compensation benefits from this accident. He too can have his medical bills paid by his employer’s workers compensation insurance company.
His workers compensation lawyer would make sure this injured worker receives the full panoply of workers comp benefits available. If the insurance company fails to pay the man what he is owed, then a claim can be filed at the Department of Industrial Accidents.
This injured worker may look beyond workers compensation benefits for additional remedies. He may file a products liability lawsuit against any entity that was negligent in the manufacturing of the machine that injured this worker. These cases have three-year statutes of limitations. This would be a claim for pain and suffering damages this man suffers. Due to his permanent disfigurement, his claim for damages would be significant.