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It never ceases to amaze me - as I study the global occurrences of work accidents as part of my personal injury research - that the diversity of accidents and incidents occurring is mind-boggling and how safeguards to prevent them are so often neglected.
This week we heard about a US worker who died when he fell into a vat of melting chocolate, and I have to admit that at first the slightly warped minds of the personal injury workers in the office found this a quirky incident, to say the least.
I won't give away our quips, but when the full details of the work accident came to light we realised it was actually an horrific occurrence.
As in many severe accidents, it was a simple slip that was the cause. As the worker dropped chunks of chocolate into a vat to be melted, he must have lost his footing and tumbled in. However, it was not the submersion in cocoa mass that killed him; it was the blow to his head from a mixing paddle.
We have sat and pondered how such an accident could happen and, as is our experience of work-related injury, we have concluded that it could have been a defective guard rail, or that the worker had not been fully trained or supplied with correct clothing and safety equipment. Still, if it is proved that the chocolate company was at fault, then we are sure a personal injury solicitor will be instructed and a compensation claim will be made by the family of the unfortunate young man.
On looking at the US news footage covering the accident I see the shocked and hurt faces of the man's family and can no longer find anything about the accident even slightly amusing.
It was common knowledge that the man had only recently started the job and was a temporary worker; and his family say he was not given a safety harness to wear. The US safety body, the OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) quickly began an investigation and hopefully any safety violations will be discovered and, if necessary, a prosecution will be brought.
Sometimes, as we research personal injury accidents and work-related illness we are tempted to laugh at the misfortune of others, but when you dig past the headline involving a runaway jet ski, or a dodgy handrail above a gorilla pit, or even a vat of chocolate, we realise that for every snigger that passes our lips someone somewhere has suffered.
So, as I conclude this piece, I reiterate that the investigation and prosecution of those who neglect their worker's safety is an essential part of today's employee protection safeguards, because if punishment is not forthcoming and reparation for unnecessary suffering after an avoidable work accident not made in the form of compensation, then negligent employers will just let these tragedies happen again and again and again.
