Amputation of a limb may be unavoidable after a serious work injury.
Workers seriously injured on the job here in Indiana or Illinois can suffer bodily injuries that are not fatal but are nevertheless devastating, with life-shattering consequences for both the worker and his or her loved ones. These may include traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) or spinal cord injuries, as we have discussed before. See, e.g., ” Traumatic Brain Injury Accidents: the Cost of Care and Treatment;” and “Spinal Cord Injuries: Tragic Result of Serious Accidents”.
However, there is another severe work accident injury that is just as tragic for the victim and his or her family, where the bodily harm results in amputation.
Amputations necessitated by workplace injuries are considered “widespread” in this country.
Amputations happen much more often than many realize. This is because the risk of an amputation resulting from a work accident is high not only in (1) a variety of jobs and industries, but the danger is also high for anyone (2) working with certain types of work equipment.
OSHA Mandates New Emphasis on Workplace Amputation Injuries
This year, amputation risks are getting more attention from safety officials. For the first time in five years, OSHA has updated its National Emphasis Program (NEP) mandating agency-wide emphasis on the dangers of amputation injuries in workplace accidents.
This OSHA mandate does not create new duties for employers. Instead, the revision is a directive to federal OSHA inspectors on the need to protect workers in both the country’s (1) industrial and (2) manufacturing industries against amputations resulting from on-the-job injuries. Insofar as OSHA-approved State Plans, they “…are expected to have enforcement procedures that are at least as effective as those in this instruction.”
Announced on December 17, 2019, the OSHA revision “targets industrial and manufacturing workplaces where employees are injured by unguarded or improperly guarded machinery and equipment. NEPs focus agency enforcement activity and do not create any new obligation to employers.”
Read the full text of OSHA Directive No. CPL 03-00-22 here.
Rising Danger of Work Accident Amputations in Certain Jobs
Why this change in focus for OSHA inspections? According to the non-profit safety group Amputation Coalition, it is due to the rising number of industrial accidents resulting in amputations.
Great Amputation Danger in Manufacturing Jobs
The national manufacturing industry has seen an increase in the numbers of work-related amputations rise so rapidly that manufacturing accidents are now responsible for 57% of all U.S. worker amputations.
Amputation Danger Also High in Construction, Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, and Hunting
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the following:
- Manufacturing (2.1 amputations per every 10,000 workers);
- Construction (1.4 amputations for every 10,000 workers); and
- Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, and Hunting (1.4 amputations for every 10,000 workers).
Workers involved in these six industries with jobs in either Indiana or Illinois go to work each day with a higher risk of being severely hurt and suffering an amputation than those who earn a living in other lines of work. For more on the dangers facing these workers, read:.
- Worker Fatalities: What are the Most Dangerous Jobs in 2019?
- Workers in Indiana And Illinois Work in Some of The Most Dangerous Jobs in America
- Accident Dangers for Indiana Agricultural Workers: Farming, Fishing, Hunting, Forestry
- Construction Worker’s Danger of Being Hurt or Killed on the Job: High Risk and Little Protection.
Machines a Posing Significant Risk of Amputation Injury
The dangers of amputation while on the job must also be addressed regardless of the industry whenever equipment or machines are involved. Amputation can happen as the result of an accident caused by the machine’s parts as well as the way the machine operates (or malfunctions).
Dangerous Mechanical Components
The following machines or mechanical components bring with them a danger of amputation for the user, no matter the industry (quoting from OSHA’s descriptions):
- Point of operation — the area of a machine where it performs work on material;
- Power-transmission apparatuses – flywheels, pulleys, belts, chains, couplings, spindles, cams, and gears in addition to connecting rods and other machine components that transmit energy; and
- Other moving parts – machine components that move during machine operation such as reciprocating, rotating, and transverse moving parts as well as auxiliary machine parts.
Dangerous Motion of the Machine
Anytime a machine is in motion there is the danger of serious injury for the worker. However, the following motions of any machine on a job site are especially risky for an amputation accident (quoting from OSHA’s descriptions):
- Pinching — where two parts move together and at least one moves in a rotary or circular motion that gears, rollers, belt drives, and pulleys generate;
- Rotating – circular movement of couplings, cams, clutches, flywheels, and spindles as well as shaft ends and rotating collars that may grip clothing or otherwise force a body part into a dangerous location;
- Reciprocating – back-and-forth or up-and-down action that may strike or entrap a worker between a moving part and a fixed object;
- Transversing – movement in a straight, continuous line that may strike or catch a worker in a pinch or shear point created between the moving part and a fixed object;
- Cutting – action generated during sawing, boring, drilling, milling, slicing, and slitting;
- Punching – motion resulting when a machine moves a slide (ram) to stamp or blank metal or other material;
- Shearing – movement of a powered slide or knife during metal trimming or shearing; and
- Bending – action occurring when power is applied to a slide to draw or form metal or other materials.
Work Equipment with Recognized High Risk of an Amputation Accident
Of particular amputation danger are the following types of work equipment, which are outlawed for use by any employee under the age of 18 years by federal law:
- band saws;
- circular saws;
- guillotine shears;
- punching machines;
- shearing machines;
- meatpacking machines;
- meat-processing machines;
- paper products machines;
- woodworking machines;
- metal-forming machines; and
- meat slicers.
Justice for Work Amputation Victims and Their Families
If you or a loved one has suffered an amputation because of an accident on the job here in Illinois or Indiana, then it is important to learn if there are claims for justice to advance, should the injury be the result of some type of negligence or product defect.
Amputation victims and their families suffer in so many ways as a result of their loss. There are not only the financial realities of initial medical expenses involved in the injury, but are also those long-term care costs including rehabilitation; re-training for other types of work; prosthetics; psychological support; and more.
Victims and their families may have avenues for justice available to them under the state personal injury and product liability laws of Indiana and Illinois. Those who are legally responsible for the accident and its consequences may be held liable for the tragedy.
Many dedicated workers in Indiana and Illinois go to work each day facing a high risk of serious bodily injury caused by employers who are neglectful in their duties to keep worksites safe from harm and employees safe from injury. Please be careful out there!
