Texas updates in category: Workplace Injuries

BP families and Citgo blast survivors visited the Capitol to encourage lawmakers to undo the Texas Supreme Court’s misguided decision in a high-profile workplace injury case, Entergy v. Summers. The...

According to this article at silive.com, a worker at a Staten Island construction site was injured Monday night after he fell off of a front-end loader and was crushed by one of the wheels. The...

Texas employers can opt out of workers’ compensation and become a non-subscriber. A non-subscriber is a Texas employer who does not purchase workers’ compensation insurance for their employees....

A lawsuit filed late last week by Juan G. Martinez-Garcia alleges that Total Petrochemicals USA Inc. was negligent in not providing a wash station and failed to train employees. Martinez-Garcia...

Earlier this month, a crane collapsed in New York City, and now, less than two weeks later, another crane accident has occurred in Miami. The NYC collapse was an existing crane, but in Miami, the crane fell during installation at the construction site of a 40 story apartment building. The crane fell into a house being used by the construction company as an office. Two workers were killed,...

The Imperial Sugar Company in Gramercy Louisiana was cited for several violations. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited violations that could total $36,000 in penalties.Some of the violations were the dust collectors were not correctly equipped with explosion protection systems.An explosion on February 7th at the Imperial Sugar Company Refinery close to Savannah, Georgia...

A 5 ½ ton steel collar being installed around a 20 story crane broke loose from a building on East 51st St. and as the collar fell it struck another collar, knocking it loose rendering the crane unstable. The unsupported crane tumbled, crashing into the building and leveling a town house. Two construction workers and a woman from Miami were pulled from the Manhattan crane collapse. Torres,...

Driving through downtown Austin, it seems there are more cranes in the sky than buildings. And whenever we drive under one of the cranes, I know my kids look skyward nervously. Unfortunately, those fears became reality in New York this weekend, as four workers were killed, and at least three more are missing, after a crane collapsed at a worksite. Sadly, reports are that many in the...

Claiming she and other nurses had not been paid overtime for work done over the course of three years, Carrolton-resident Angela Valcho has filed a lawsuit against Parkland Health & Hospital System. As an hourly employee, a 30-minute lunch was automatically deducted when clocking in and out of the payroll system. According to her attorney, Alan Crone, Valcho claims there were several days when...

Yesterday, around 3:30 p.m. a construction site trench caved in burying Luis Garcia. Luis Garcia was dead when they were finally able to find him at 10 p.m. His brother, Robert Gomez was also in the trench when the cave in occurred, but only suffered minor injuries. The trench was 15 feet of dirt and clay when it caved in. No one has said what caused the trench to cave in. An autopsy will...

This morning, three construction workers were injured while working at a site at The Shops at La Cantera. One of the corners collapsed and the workers slid 28 feet. They were not critically hurt.

On Thursday, February 7th, the Imperial Sugar Refinery in Port Wentworth, GA exploded. The explosion was so big it sent 62 people to the hospital. Nine people were severely burned and six are still missing. Some of the people had burns on 80 to 90 percent of their bodies. The fire is still not out, but is almost contained. The explosion possibly happens due to sugar dust in the air getting...

An employee at the BFI landfill was bulldozing debris and accidentally fell off the hill. He fell about 200 feet and was airlifted to the hospital, but was not seriously hurt.For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Worksite Injury and Workers Compensation.

Joseph Montez died because an outside service elevator opened and he fell 20 stories. At least two former workers at the site say that there had been saftey warnings months ago regarding the outside elevators. The former workers said they either sent written warnings or told hotel developer FaulknerUSA of Austin about the faulty elevators, known as buck hoists. Steve Killingsworth, vice...

Early on November 17, 2007 a worker was killed after falling 20 stories to his death at the Grand Hyatt Hotel construction site in downtown San Antonio. The worker's name is Joseph Montez and he was 24 years old. He was loading Sheetrock into a service elevator when the load shifted, pushed him and he fell from the 21st floor. Two other men were taken to a hospital to be treated for...