Washington updates in category: Workplace Injuries

You get hurt at work. You file a workers compensation claim. But that shouldn't be the end of the story. Workers compensations claims yield significantly less money for injured workers than third-party personal injury claims. A good example appeared in the paper recently. Rolondo Dudley, 32, suffered a compound fracture on his right leg during a construction accident this past Friday. Dudley...

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Last spring Hiawatha Elementary School in Othello was conducting their annual science experiment where students make protective egg cases that they test by dropping eggs from various heights.The experiment took a tragic turn when the boom lift truck holding a line worker and a teacher broke, causing both to fall 20 to 30 feet to the ground. Robert D. Smith, 50, died and a teacher, Melissa...

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A construction worker, 40, of Plainfield, was killed in a construction accident after falling eleven stories down an elevator shaft at a Loop construction site, Saturday morning.The worker was working on renovations of a downtown office located on the 11th floor of the building, according to Chicago police. He stepped into the dimly lit rear freight elevator attempting to go down, but the...

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A construction worker died on Monday after falling 60 feet from a tower crane in Belltown. While working on condominiums located on Third Avenue and Battery Street the worker, a man in his 40s, slipped and fell while climbing a ladder to the crane's cab. After landing on concrete below, the worker was taken to Harborview Medical Center, where he later died.The Department of Labor and...

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A Seattle construction worker was injured on the job early Wednesday. The worker, a man in 20s, was about 50 feet down in a hole when he was hit with an air hose. The air hose hit the worker hard enough to cause cuts and bruising to his abdominal area. The injured man was rescued by firefighters who lowered a stretcher in to the hole and then used a crane to lift the man out. He was then...

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A 21-year old man from Bellevue was hit and killed by a dump truck Friday. The Bellevue man was attempting to cross Northeast 36th Street at the same time that the dump truck was turning onto Northeast 36th Street. At this time the police do not believe that the driver was at fault in this accident. With all the construction going on around Seattle injuries to both construction workers and even...

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On October 9th a construction worker at Microsoft in Redmond was injured when a boom truck tipped over. The Department of Labor & Industries, an agency designed to protect and advocate for workers, will do an investigation as to the cause of the accident. It will focus on the cause of the accident and what the general contractor could have done to make the construction site safer for not only...

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Last week L&I employee Bill Harmon fell and suffered fatal injuries at the Department's headquarters. Mr. Harmon was 87."Although there were no witnesses to this unfortunate situation, L&I employees heard the sounds of a fall and responded immediately. They called 9-1-1, notified building security, and took action to block the area. In addition, a number of L&I staff went to the hospital to...

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A 28 year old Tenino man died last week when he slipped at an Olympia construction site, hit his head on a backhoe and fell 15 feet into a ditch. The construction site was operated by Olson Brothers Excavating, Inc. This was the second construction-related death in a week in Thurston County. Washington's Industrial Insurance Act allows for fault-free "worker's compensation" benefits to...

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A construction worker was killed in an accident on Highway 20 in LaConner yesterday.The worker was killed in a construction zone near Milepost 53 near LaConner at about 8:15 a.m.Transportation Department spokesman Dustin Terpening said the worker was hit by a street sweeper that was backing up. Washington law provides for worker's compensation, a fault-free system of recovery for people injured...

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A worker died after being crushed by a hydraulic lift in a Georgetown neighborhood recycling plant last week. Longtime SeaDruNar employee John Colombini, 46, died from head injuries he suffered when a hydraulic lift collapsed on his head, a spokesman for the King County Medical Examiner's Office said Wednesday.Colombini was repairing a lift attached to a truck cab used to haul waste containers...

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Seattle firefighters worked for over two hours before they were able to extract the construction worker. Unfortunately, the worker did not survive his injuries. The construction acccident happened in White Center. Construction accidents are unfortunately common. Construction workers have rights under RCW Title 51 (the workers compensation law). But they also have rights under personal...

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An 8-foot wall at a residential construction site fell last Monday, injuring two workers. The second-story wall apparently fell when the supporting jacks slipped.The accident occurred in the 10200 block of Central Valley Road NW at about 10 a.m. Two workers crawled out from under the wall and a third was pulled out by fire crews. The injured workers were transported to Harrison Medical Center...

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The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers has filed a lawsuit against the US Airways Group Inc. over wages. According to the union some of their workers are not getting the higher wages that they should have received when US Airways and America West merged. They said they had an agreement with the airline in the case that it was bought.The company, which was in...

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The minimum wage in Washington is set to increase to $7.93 in 2007--the highest rate in the U.S. By contrast, the federal minimum wage is $5.15 (and has been unchanged since 1997). (States are free to require an increase in the minimum wage beyond the "floor" set by federal law.) Employees also have unique protections under Washington law when it comes to unpaid wages.Washington has a statute...

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