Electricity is a danger on almost every jobsite here in Indiana and Illinois, from small auto repair shops to beauty salons to dog grooming establishments. However, the greatest electrical hazards facing workers in our part of the country exist on our industrial worksites.
Most of our major industries depend upon electricity every day in order to function, from commercial and residential construction projects to our manufacturing, mining, and farming operations.
Why? Electricity powers industrial machines and equipment, of course. However, our industrial facilities also need electricity for things like cooling and heating plants and factory floors, as well as assembling, processing, or producing goods and products, along with industrial ventilation.
The Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) explains that over half of all manufacturing electricity goes to powering industrial machine motors alone. Another major industrial use of electricity is in processes requiring electricity to create a chemical transformation, with the EPA providing the example of foundries that produce aluminum.
Accordingly, industrial workers in our part of the country can be vulnerable to severe or permanent bodily injuries from electricity exposure in any number of ways during their ordinary workday. During the course of completing tasks, unskilled and skilled workers alike may be harmed by electric shock or live current from things like:
- Electric arc furnaces
- Heaters
- Welders
- Personal power tools
- Industrial machinery
- Drop lights
- Industrial fans
- Ventilation equipment
- Power lines
- Power cords
- Generators.
Industrial Accidents: Electrical Dangers and Risks
Electricity can not only seriously and permanently harm workers in an industrial accident that takes mere seconds to cause harm, electricity can kill. Fatalities by exposure and contact with electricity is a serious threat to workers at any time they are in proximity to any source of electric current.
Industrial electricity hazards bring the risk of worker injuries that involve:
- Electrocution (death caused by lethal amount of current / energy)
- Paralysis or neurological damage from electricity
- Hemorrhages from electric current
- Burns from fire/flame caused by electricity
- Burns from electric shock
- Burns from explosions caused by electricity
- Burns from flash or blast of electric current
- Fractures and internal organ injuries caused by electric blast or explosion
- Traumatic brain or spinal cord injuries caused by electric blast or explosion
- Loss of limb or amputation caused by exposure to electric current.
Electrocution: One of OSHA’s Construction Industry Fatal Four
In fact, construction workers face such a high risk of death from electricity exposure that electrocutions have been named one of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) “fatal four” leading causes of workplace fatalities for the construction industry. In 2019, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (“BLS”) reported that almost 10% of our country’s construction workers died on the job in accidents involving electricity exposure with a fatal current that resulted in the electrocution of the worker. Electrocution deaths can happen not only from exposed wiring on the construction site, explains the BLS, but also from contact with current involving:
- wet conditions while outlets are exposed
- overhead power lines
- energized conductors
- circuit parts in electrical and equipment panels
- poorly maintained extension cords
- poorly maintained power tools
- poorly maintained insulation
- lightning strikes.
Read “OSHA’S ‘Fatal Four’ – Leading Causes of Fatalities in the Workplace,” written by Dennis K. Neitzel and published by EHS Daily Advisor on May 1, 2019.
Industrial Work and Electricity Accidents: Claims for Justice
Every day on industrial worksites in Indiana and Illinois, countless workers will work alongside electricity hazards that pose the risk of catastrophic harm or even death on the job. Construction workers face a tremendously high risk of electricity harm on the job, at either commercial or residential sites. Carpenters, welders, roofers, and machinists all face significant electricity risks at the construction workplace. However, other industrial workers in Indiana and Illinois also have a significant risk of electric injury as part of their employment, such as utility technicians (repair and maintenance) for electricity, telephone, and internet cable services.
In all industrial worksites, no matter the task involved or the specialty of the worker or tradesman, it is the legal duty of the employer and those who own and operate the site itself to protect the people on the site from being hurt or killed from electricity accidents.
Any industrial accident victim suffering bodily injuries resulting from electrical contact on the job site has a right to investigate the incident to determine if there are legal claims for justice to be advanced against those who are legally responsible for the harm. If facts are found that show the electric incident was caused by an employer or owner failing to protect people from electrical hazards on the site in a reasonable and prudent manner, then civil personal injury claims may exist for damages and recompense.
The state laws of Indiana and Illinois, as well as federal law, provide established legal duties of care and safety with stated types of monetary damages to be provided to accident victims and their loved ones based upon workers’ compensation, negligence, defective products, premises liability, and wrongful death. These can include not only medical expenses after the incident itself, but lost wages, lost future earning capacity, rehabilitation costs, psychological care and treatment, pain and suffering, and more.
For more, read:
- Accidents Involving Electric Shock and Exposure to Electricity
- Electricity Injuries: Fatal Electrocution Accidents
- Electrical Injuries and Electrocution Accidents on the Construction Site
- Electrocution: Electricity Kills People In All Kinds of Electrical Accidents Be Careful of Electrocution Dangers
- Personal Protective Equipment and Serious Industrial Accidents
- AFL-CIO 2021 Report: Shocking Risk of Dying on the Job for Workers in Indiana and Illinois.
Electricity is everywhere in our society and the high risk of serious injury or death to workers from electric current exposure is well-known. Nevertheless, each year there are severe preventable accidents on the industrial work sites of Indiana and Illinois involving electric current coming into contact with human bodies despite the legal duties of care and safety placed upon employers and site owners. Please be careful out there!
