At Westphal Law, we work with quite a few people that wind up in a situation where a personal injury case takes place. While every industry out there does have some amount of risk available throughout the day, there are some industries where we have noticed a higher chance of injuries happening. Today we wanted to go over two of the most common industries that experience personal injuries and ways that you can prepare yourself or work on avoiding them if you work in one of the industries that we’ll mention.
Construction
There is no doubt that construction made the list of high-risk jobs where personal injury is common. Between the equipment that is used and the long hours, often in the sun, we aren’t surprised to hear some of the stories that do come to our desks.
While construction sites do have quite a few of inspections, training programs, and safety precautions, they do still receive some of the most personal injury quotes. While there are industries that do see a larger quantity of accidents, the ones that we see come in from construction sites are usually of a higher severity and call for a fairly intensive case to follow.
As a whole, the construction industry is known for having the highest amount of traumatic brain injury accidents throughout the entire United States. If you think that’s a pretty insane statistic, then you’ll be even more disgusted by this one. In the UK, where construction makes up only 5% of the workforce, 27% of fatal workplace injuries listed had happened at a construction site. Over a quarter of the personal injuries at a workplace were in an industry that does not even make up 1/10 of the workforce.
One of the best ways to avoid having an accident happen while working in the construction industry is to participate in as many programs as you can so that you are able to gain a better understanding of practices that can keep you safe as well as safety regulations that might give you a better understanding of the field as a whole. There are also a variety of certifications that you can get throughout the industry that relates to safety awareness. Studies show that these types of programs can drop a number of accidents in an industry nearly 8%.
Health Care
Now, when you think of health care the first thing that comes to your mind probably isn’t heavy equipment and dangerous situations with tools, supplies and other employees. Though that is the case, health care is the industry that has the most personal injury cases a year. This industry has a wide variety of obstacles to tackle on a daily basis. While construction does deal with heavy equipment and attention to detail, medical facilities put professionals in circumstances where injury and illness are all too available. In fact, this has been ranked the riskiest job in the US, with an average of 13 out of 100 employees experiencing either illness or injury. The average of these instances comes out to about 7 days off per case.
There are a few different reasons that seem to fall back on the healthcare industry primarily. One of the most common factors that we see individuals suffering from is an overload of stress. This can often create some larger issues, especially with mental health and the time required to find the answers needed to manage this issue.
Aside from stress playing a huge part in personal injuries, workplace violence is another worry that people have to look out for. For the most part, this is due to a lack of training and inspections of the safety options in a facility. Unfortunately, though health care makes up more of the job market than construction does, there are nearly 200% more inspections that happen at construction sites than in healthcare facilities. Which is why, the personal injury cases we receive are not only more likely to happen in this field but also affect the rest of the environment.
The best way to avoid these types of issues when working in the industry is to participate in as many training opportunities as are available. By doing so you can familiarize yourself with some of the most common issues of the field and do your best to avoid the chances of anything happening while at work. Educating yourself and making yourself aware is truly the most beneficial thing that you can do while working in this industry.
When you’re looking for a personal injury lawyer in the San Bernardino area, you can always count on Westphal Law Group. We have some of the most knowledgeable and experienced lawyers in the area. Call our office today and we can set up a time for a consultation with a member of our team.
