Houston Personal Injury Law Blog

A Houston man says he suffered severe injuries to his neck, leg, wrist and back when he fell off a safety wall he was working on in August 2012. The man has sued three parties, asserting that a dangerous workplace caused the accident.

According to his complaint, the plaintiff had been delivering material for a community safety wall in a Galveston County subdivision when the accident occurred. The plaintiff said that a crane-forklift operator, who was employed by one of the defendants, began taking the appropriate steps to take the materials off of the plaintiff's truck and set it into place.

Accidents can occur in a workplace for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the worksite itself may be dangerous, for example with inadequate lighting or unsound structures. Other times, inadequate training may be the problem. Defective or unsafe equipment can also create a dangerous workplace.

Recently, a Galveston County resident brought a personal injury claim in Galveston County District Court against the owner of a Texas seafood warehouse facility after his foot was allegedly run over by an unsafe forklift.

One construction worker is dead following an accident in Houston, Texas. The accident occurred when a trench collapsed on two construction workers, killing one of them and injuring another in Southwest Houston. Both men were working with a group on a drainage project.

According to media reports, the accident occurred last Friday evening at 7 p.m. on Beechnut Road near Club Creek. The construction site was located behind an apartment complex, according to reports from officials. Witness accounts report that, following the trench collapse, a group of contractors working on the drainage project ran to nearby people asking for help.

The Occupational Health and Safety Administration has strict safety regulations in place to help prevent dangerous conditions in Texas workplaces. However, accidents still occur on a regular basis.

Last week, a young worker was seriously injured in an industrial accident that left him burned from the waist up, officials reported. The accident reportedly occurred at the A&E Machine Shop Inc. in Lone Star, Texas, on Jan. 5.

In Texas and elsewhere, companies have the responsibility to follow safety rules and regulations that protect workers from unnecessary danger. When companies fail to follow these rules and regulations, they can be fined heftily.

Following a tip from an employee of Piping Technology and Products in Houston, Texas, federal regulators found 30 workplace safety violations resulting in $1 million in proposed fines.

According to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, the Houston company exposed its employees to such risks as injuries and amputations due to dangerous machinery at the unsafe work environment.

When you go to work each day, you have a right to be kept safe from unreasonable hazards. Of course, dangerous workplaces still exist in Texas, and sadly cause many preventable injuries and deaths each year.

Last week, a housekeeper at a San Antonio hotel was killed when she fell six stories down an elevator shaft. Subsequent reports revealed that the hotel elevator was overdue for inspections at the time, which may have prevented the accident.

Tractor-trailers, also known as 18-wheelers, are some of the most powerful machines on the roads today and the consequences of a collision with a truck can be catastrophic.

Trains are equally if not more powerful and can cause just as serious of damages in an accident. Therefore, when 18-wheelers and trains collide, the results are not pretty.

On the morning of Dec. 18, an Amtrak passenger train crashed into an 18-wheeler near the intersection of State Highway 130 and State Highway 79 in Hutto, Texas.

A spokesperson for the Department of Safety said the engineer tried to blow the whistle as it approached the intersection, but the 18-wheeler couldn't get out of the way in time.

Texas interstates see a high amount of 18-wheeler traffic. Unfortunately, this also means that the state sees a lot of accidents involving 18-wheelers, or tractor-trailers. Collisions involving 18-wheelers are often fatal, as a passenger vehicle is no match for the sheer size and weight of a semi-truck.

In cases where an 18-wheeler accident is caused by the negligent or wrongful acts of another party, such as the truck driver or the driver's employer, the accident victim or the victim's family can often pursue compensation for damages. This includes damages such as medical costs, lost wages, and pain and suffering.

However, sometimes accidents involving 18-wheelers are caused by other factors beyond the control of the truck driver or trucking company. These accidents can be just as tragic.