Financial Compensation for a Crushing Injury in California
Crushing injuries happen to someone when they get a part of their body wedged between two solid objects. The longer the body remains crushed, there is a much greater risk of a life-altering serious injury.
If you've ever slammed your finger in a door, you can appreciate the pain associated with a crush injury. These types of injuries can be minor or severe and debilitating, especially when they occur in the workplace.
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), approximately 125,000 workers suffer crushing injuries each year. These accidents can cause bruises, cuts, scalping, mangled or amputated body parts, and even death.
Crushing injuries are among the leading causes of workplace deaths, ranking among OSHA's so-called “fatal four,” along with falls, being struck by an object, and electrocutions. They are often completely avoidable.
If you were involved in a negligent accident in California and sustained a crushing injury, you need to seek help.
You might be entitled to compensation from the party who caused the accident. You may be able to recover money for the medical and hospital bills and lost wages while you missed work.
Our Los Angeles personal injury lawyers can help you maximize the recovery you receive.
How Does a Crushing Injury Happen?
Crushing injuries are most commonly seen on construction sites, but they can also occur in trucking and manufacturing industries or in any workplace where a forklift is used.
Unlike a “struck” event in which an injury is caused by impact, these injuries occur when a part of the body gets caught in or crushed between two objects.
Some common scenarios that can cause crush injuries in the workplace include:
- Machinery - Workers whose bodies come into contact with a machine with moving parts are at risk of being pulled into the machinery and suffering crush or amputation injuries. This is often the case in manufacturing industries with equipment such as punch presses, brake presses, heavy machinery, or power shear equipment.
- Motor vehicle accidents – During a busy construction site, distracted workers can become pinned between two vehicles and suffer very serious injuries, even death.
- Collapses - Workers can suffer crushing injuries when construction materials—like scaffolding, bricks, tools, or other equipment—fall on top of them.
- Cave-ins - Trenching and excavation jobs pose serious crushing hazards to workers. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 76% of trenching and excavation deaths were caused by cave-ins.
- Mobile equipment - Power-driven vehicles pose crushing hazards to workers. For example, workers can become trapped between a truck and a dock wall or pinned by a forklift while loading materials on or off of shipping vessels. Crushing injuries can also occur inside a motor vehicle or truck that is involved in a crash.
- Elevator accidents – many construction sites have temporary elevators that sometimes crush injuries. Such as fingers, hands, or arms stuck between elevator doors.
Other scenarios where crushing injuries can occur:
- disasters such as earthquakes
- Terrorists' attacks
- Mass crowd stampedes
- Gym accidents
- Nontraumatic situations if pressure areas on the body are not protected. For example, in individuals left in the same position for some time, such as patients who have been unconscious or in a coma.
Why Do Crushing Accidents Occur?
Employers are responsible for providing a safe workplace free from serious hazards and complying with standards, rules, and regulations issued under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970.
So, employers should make efforts to protect workers from hazards that could cause crushing injuries. For example, employers should:
- Ensure that machinery is properly guarded;
- Block and secure objects that may shift, cycle, or move unexpectedly;
- Increase awareness of pinning hazards by making workers aware of mobile equipment in the work area.
Types of Injuries Caused by Crushing Accidents
When part of the body is crushed between two objects or entangled with machinery, blood supply is cut off, and muscle damage can occur instantly.
The severity of the resulting injury depends on the amount of pressure the objects are putting on the body and the part of the body that is crushed. In serious cases, amputation or death may occur.
Damage related to crushing injuries include:
- Bleeding,
- Bruising,
- Compartment syndrome (increased pressure in a limb that causes serious muscle, nerve, blood vessel, and tissue damage),
- Fractured, broken, or crushed bones,
- Internal bleeding,
- Laceration,
- Severed limbs,
- Nerve injury,
- Infection (caused by bacteria that enters the body through the wound)
- Paralysis
- Traumatic brain injury
- Concussions and other head injuries
- Organ damage
- Death
A crushing injury could even cause your body to go into shock, which is called a “crush syndrome.”
This occurs when your muscles and tissue deteriorate and enter the bloodstream. When the blood flows to your kidney and other organs, it may improperly process is causing your body to start a shutdown process.
Why Do I Need a Lawyer to Pursue a Lawsuit?
If someone else was negligent and caused you to suffer a crushing injury, you have the right to pursue a lawsuit for compensation.
However, navigating a personal injury case is often difficult and you will need to retain a lawyer experienced in these types of matters.
Your injury attorney can deal with all the aspects of your claim while pursuing compensation.
Our personal injury lawyers can protect you from the insurance companies who will attempt to minimize the amount of money you receive after the accident.
We can also help calculate the value of the case for the full extent of your injuries while determining cause and liability.
Perhaps more than one party can be held responsible for your accident. You are entitled to seek compensation from anyone who contributed to your injury.
Further, we can help you minimize shared fault in a situation where you may be partly responsible for the crushing accident. If you share fault, it will reduce your ability to recover financial compensation.
Crushing Injury Lawyers in California
Crushing injuries can occur during automobile accidents, earthquakes, and especially in construction or industrial workplaces.
If you or a loved one has suffered a crushing injury, you need a good crushing injury lawyer who can help you get the compensation you deserve. Reach out to our personal injury attorneys to review the details.
We will investigate, evaluate, and present your personal injury or workplace compensation claim with no fee until you recover. No recovery, no fee.
Call us to learn how we can help you recover compensation due to negligence. Crushing injuries can alter your life and you could be facing chronic pain forever.
In serious cases, you might even lose some or all functionality of a limb, or you could be forced to amputate a damaged limb.
Serious crushing injuries can significantly impact your ability to work and provide support to your family. You need a lawyer to have the best chance to maximize your recovery.
Injury Justice Law Firm represents victims of negligence in Southern California from our two office locations in Los Angeles County.
Contact for a free case evaluation at (818) 781-1570.