While workplaces contain many potential risks for employees, certain types of accidents repeatedly occur over-and-over across different worksites and different industries. Identifying the top cause of injuries and illnesses is essential to protect employees and reduce lost productivity and financial loss to employers. Recently, Travelers Insurancepublished some information on the top causes of workplace injuries and has provided some tips to employers for making their worksites safer.
Workers who sustain any kind of injury on-the-job can contact a work injury lawyer for help taking action. No matter how careful an employer is, a worker should be entitled to workers compensation benefits if he is hurt on the job.
Top Causes of Workplace Injuries Identified
Travelers Insurance is a leading insurance company that provides policies nationwide, including workers’ compensation insurance policies. The insurance company recently provided details on the four most common causes of workplace injuries among Texas workers in 2013. Although the data specifically looked at workplaces in the lone-star state, the information provided is similar to past reports on injuries nationwide. Since Texas is such a large state with so many workers, it is also reasonable to assume that trends in this area would mirror trends across the country.
Employees and employers, therefore, should be aware that the top causes of workplace injuries identified by Travelers Insurance in 2013 included:
- Strains, which accounted for 25 percent of worker injuries.
- Sprains, which accounted for 12 percent of worker injuries
- Fractures, which accounted fro 11 percent of workplace injuries
- Contusions, which accounted for nine percent of injuries
These may not seem to be very serious injuries at first, but the fact is that any of these injuries can result in time missed from work and can have a lasting impact on the employee who was hurt. For example, someone who suffered a sprain or a bone fracture may have limited mobility and may never be able to return to his original job. A person with contusions, on the other hand, could have life-changing permanent scarring.
To try to reduce the risks to employees and the risk of liability to companies, Travelers also provided some tips for making workers safer. These included:
- Hiring only trustworthy and trained people to do work.
- Identifying the roles and responsibilities of each employee.
- Ensuring proper documentation of injuries to expedite the recovery process.
- Employing safety practices at the highest level and ensuring supervisors serve as a model for safe behavior.
- Encouraging employees to provide feedback and to become involved with safety at al levels.
- Regularly reviewing workstations, machineries and tools to fit the tasks to each qualified worker.
- Recognizing and remedying safety issues right away.
When employers and employees both take steps and work together towards improving safety, this can go a long way towards creating a workplace where fewer injuries occur.
Call Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers for a free and confidential consultation to discuss your workers’ compensation claim– (617) 777-7777.
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