As this blog has discussed previously, many Kentucky residents quite literally put their lives at risk every time they get up and go to work, usually for no other reason than to make sure that they and their families have what they need to live.
These workers, particularly if they work in industry, often face lots of different types of dangers at their factories or work sites, and many of these dangerous conditions can be fatal.
The family and colleagues of one unfortunate worker at a Louisville factory were reminded of this recently when the worker died while on the clock. Although precise details of the accident were sketchy and were under investigation, the first reports from the scene were that the worker electrocuted himself by mistake.
While the factory released a brief statement described the incident as accidental in nature, it has been no stranger to safety issues. In 2011, two workers died after a furnace used in the factory’s operations blew up suddenly. A subsequent government investigation revealed that the furnace had been the target of 26 service requests before it killed the two employees. Additionally, in 2010 and the years following, the factory had to pay $100,000 in fines because of multiple “serious” safety violations.
A fatal workplace accident is not only traumatic for the family and friends of the victim; it also raises important legal and financial issues, including the question of what the victim’s family can do to support themselves financially without the income from the victim’s job and with mounting expenses related to the death. Fortunately, legal options, such as workers’ compensation benefits or, under the right circumstances, a wrongful death lawsuit are available to these families.
Source: WDRB.com, “Carbide Industries employee dies after ‘workplace accident,’” Feb. 15, 2018.
