Workers suffer serious injuries every day on the job, particularly in inherently dangerous workplaces in our construction, steel, warehousing, trucking, agri-business, and manufacturing industries. All too often, these accidents involve hand tools or power tools and harm from blunt force trauma, cuts, electric shock, or internal injuries suffered in a fall or crushing incident. For details, read Hand and Power Tools, OSHA Publication 3080.
After these tool injury accidents on a worksite, the employer and their insurance carrier will investigate the causes of the work accident. The worker-victim and their loved ones have a legal right to undertake their own independent investigation into the accident, as well.
Legal Liability After Tool Injury on the Job
Each case is different and deserves its own individual respect. There will be times when the finger is pointed at the worker who was hurt, alleging that the victim is to blame for what happened. Workers must expect this to be the starting point from the company insurance adjuster’s perspective and be ready to refute it.
Employers and Third Parties
Other investigations will reveal that someone on the worksite with supervisory authority over the tools and their care or upkeep clearly failed in their legal duties of care. For instance, when tools like angle grinders are unboxed and given to workers after the safety guards are tossed in the trash as described by several workers in a Reddit forum regarding dangerous tools. Employers and others with possession, custody, or control of aspects of the job site may be legally liable here. For details, read Infamously Dangerous Power Tools: Angle Grinders, Chainsaws, Table Saws, Lathes.
Then there will be revelations in some work accidents that the tool itself has failed in some way and a severe bodily injury to a worker is the result. In these matters, the worker may have legal claims to advance under something called “product liability law” here in Illinois or Indiana.
Tool Manufacturers, Distributors, Resellers, and More
Both hand tools and power tools on our industrial worksites come to the workplace as products that have been developed, designed, manufactured, distributed, shipped, and sold as well as repaired, serviced, and maintained. The bigger and more complex the tool, the more intricate each of these steps from the drawing board to the worker’s hand.
When someone is hurt on the job by a product that is determined to be defective, flawed, dangerous, or faulty in some way, then state product liability law provides redress to the injury victim.
When a tool is determined to be dangerous and unfit for its intended purpose, several parties may be legally liable for the serious injuries it has caused a worker.
Types of Tool Defects
Tools can be found to be legally defective in several different ways. Investigations into the accident will need expert analysis of the accident scene, the tool itself, the injuries sustained by the worker, witness statements, and more. Among the tool defects that can be found are:
- Defects in the Tool Design: the design of the tool is determined to be fundamentally unsafe, and therefore dangerous to use.
- Defects in the Manufacturing of the Tool: here, while the design of the tool is acceptable, something has happened during the manufacturing process where the tool has become dangerous during production.
- Defects in the Marketing of the Tool: all industrial tools must come with user instructions and warnings and defects occur when there are failures to provide them, or they are insufficient to warn of risks and hazards that keep the worker safe.
Consequently, in addition to a workers’ compensation claim the worker victim may have legal claims to assert against: (1) Manufacturers and Designers of the Tool; (2) Distributors and Marketers of the Tool; and/or (3) Retailers and Sellers of the Tool.
Importance of Housekeeping: Inspection and Maintenance of Tools on Site
Alongside these product defects come the legal duties of all those entrusted with housekeeping of the jobsite. No worker should be allowed to work with a hand tool or power tool that has not be properly inspected before use. See, Workplace Housekeeping and Serious Accidents on the Job: Duty of Care.
Inspections of hand tools and power tools will reveal things that cause the tool to become dangerous. Even daily wear and tear on something like a stepladder or a welder’s torch can result in a compromised product, particularly if it is flawed or defective in design, manufacture, or marketing.
Housekeeping of tools on the industrial worksite must also include monitoring all tools for recalls. Manufacturers and others (including governmental agencies) will issue recalls of products discovered to be unfit for their intended use and dangerous for the worker. No worker should be allowed to use any tool that is subject to recall. For one recent power tool recall example, read Klein Tools Recalls Blackfire and Klein Tools Power Stations Due to Fire and Burn Hazards, published by USA Today on December 20, 2023.
If there are companies or contractors with specific housekeeping or safety duties on the jobsite, they may also be liable under the law for a tool that has caused injury to a worker.
Tool Defects Cause Serious Injury on the Job
Depending upon the industrial site, different tools will pose different risks to the workers if they are defective, dangerous, or flawed. Read, Hand and Power Tools: the Danger of Serious Work Accident Injuries.
Injuries sustained in a defective tool work accident can involve catastrophic injury or death. Workers hurt by a tool that is unfit for its intended use and dangerous may suffer:
- Amputation in the accident itself or afterwards as a medical necessity
- Burns and Scarring of both skin and internally from fire, electrocution, hot liquids/air
- Electrocution from exposure to live wires, shorts, or overloaded circuits that kill
- Internal Organ Injuries involving crushing or cuts that cause debilitating harm to vital organs and tissues
- Permanent Nerve Damage from cuts, lacerations, electric shocks, or blunt force trauma which may lead to paralysis or lifelong pain and loss of use of a limb
- Poisoning from exposure to toxic chemicals or hazardous materials.
For more, read Traumatic Amputations in Industrial Accidents; Electricity Injuries: Fatal Electrocution Accidents; Internal Injuries After an Accident Can Be Silent and Deadly; and Chemical Accidents: Burns, Inhalation, or Neurological Work Injuries on the Job in Indiana or Illinois.
Worker Must Face Recovery from Tool Accident and Responsibility to Find Justice
After any work accident involving a hand tool or a power tool, the worker and their loved ones must devote their immediate time and energy to the medical needs of the accident victim and maximizing recovery. Investigation into the reasons for what happened must take a back seat to seeking hospitalization, long term rehabilitation, psychological counseling (especially after permanent harm like amputations) and help for family members who may also be suffering.
Workers will have a limited time period to investigate and pursue legal claims for damages. This is controlled by the state’s “statute of limitations.” Read, Deadlines for Injury Victims to File Lawsuits: Statutes of Limitations.
Most industrial tool accidents will involve an analysis of the tool’s contributions to the event. Experts in things like circular saws, extension ladders, or sledgehammers will be needed to inspect the specific tool and give an opinion on any defect in design, manufacture, or marketing and the viability of a product liability claim.
Therefore, tool injury cases can be complex. Regardless of the stress involved in the accident itself and the recovery process, legally the worker will face the need to pursue civil claims for damages based upon product liability laws.
There may be several combatants involving companies who designed, manufactured, marketing, or sold the tool that caused the harm alongside their insurance carriers. Workers should be aware that most industrial enterprises have not only the legally required workers’ compensation insurance policies, but companies involved in industrial tools are likely to have product liability coverage. These are insurance policies that are purchased to provide coverage in the event of a defective or dangerous tool injury. For more, read “Product Liability Insurance: What It Covers, Who Needs It,” written by Lisa A. Anthony and published by NerdWallet on January 12, 2022.
For more, see:
- Premises Liability and Workplace Accidents: Third Party Injury Claims
- Workers’ Compensation and Third-Party Claims for On-the-Job Accidents
- Hurt by a Defective Product in Indiana or Illinois: Recalls and Failings
- Work Accident in Illinois or Indiana: Workers Compensation Claim vs. Personal Injury Damages.
Many if not most tools found on any industrial site are inherently dangerous. Workers in Indiana and Illinois should be kept safe from harm on the job from any tool that is unfit for its intended use. If the tool is the cause of a serious work injury, more than one party may be legally responsible for that accident. Please be careful out there!
