Atlanta Workers Compensation Law : Atlanta Workers' Compensation Lawyer & Attorney : Seth Bader Law Firm : Construction Accidents, Repetitive Motion Injuries, Disability : Atlanta, Marietta, Roswell, Georgia

Following up on in a recent article in which it reported that OSHA is cracking down on businesses with workplace violations, the Atlanta Business Chronicle now reports that OSHA recently fined Crespac, Inc. $266,400 and issued 34 safety and health violations following two workplace accidents that resulted in amputations. 

Director of OSHA's Atlanta-East Area Office, Gei-Thae Breezley, stated:

"In both instances, management knew of deficiencies but acted with plain indifference by failing to correct the problems in a timely manner that could have prevented these amputations."

OSHA cited Crespac for failing to ensure that all machines had proper safety guards and functioning emergency-stop cords. OSHA also cited Crespac for repeat violations related to having slippery and wet floors, allowing employees to operate machines with broken parts, failing to properly train forklift operators, and failing to provide proper fire and training equipment.

In addition, OSHA found that Crespac failed to conduct timely inspections of certain equipment, and that there were deficiencies in its record-keeping of OSHA-incident logs.

Crespac -- which is located in Tucker, Georgia -- designs, develops, and makes custom thermoformed parts and packaging.

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Following the death of a Robins Air Force Base worker in March, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has deemed ASM-Sanders Inc, of Madison, Alabama, responsible for safety violations.  OSHA has proposed a total of $79,300 in penalties to be paid by the company.

In March, a Robins Air Force Base employee died in a chilled water line testing accident, after suffering severe head injuries.  OSHA discovered that ASM-Sanders used compressed air, rather than the manufacturer-recommended hydrostatic testing, to conduct tests for leaks in chemical welds of chloride pipes.  This violation, along with other alleged violations in the workplace led OSHA to propose the approximately $80,000 penalty.

ASM-Sanders has 15 business days from the date of the receipt of the citations to comply or argue the penalities.

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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is intent on protecting workers and preventing accidents in the workplace.  So intent, that they proposed a total of $145,000 in penalties to be paid by SKAPS Industries, who displayed multiple instances of failing to adhere to U.S. Department of Labor standards. 

SKAPS' three plants, located in Commerce, Ga., Athens, Ga., and Pendergrass, Ga., accumulated 24 serious violations, according to the article.  The Pendergrass and Athens plants will cost SKAPS the majority of the penalties, and each one is responsible for an estimated $44,000 due to- not having conducted annual audiograms for their workers, who are exposed to harmful noise. 

Other violations, exhibited by all three plants, include a variety of safety precautions not being taken.  Omitting necessary OSHA-instituted responsibilities such as developing a "written hazards communication" program, marking emergency exits, instructing operators with lockout and tag-out requirements and providing protection from arc welding rays and electrical hazards will cost SKAPS approximately $51,800.

OSHA's Atlanta-East Area Office Director Gei-Thae Breezley is adamant when it comes to taking all safety precautions possible.

"This company should not wait until a serious injury or death occurs to any of its more than 225 employees before making needed changes in its safety procedures.  When a company persists in ignoring its responsibilities, OSHA will step in to protect workers' safety," remarked Breezley.

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After a thorough auditing of facilities within the city, the Justice Department informed Atlanta City Council members that the city will need to cough up a whopping $13 million due to violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  The ADA, set forth by President George H. W. Bush in 1990, is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability.  My FOX Atlanta reports that a variety of Atlanta amenities, from City Hall elevators to Chastain Amphitheater seating, did not properly cater to the disabled.

Despite the ADA's nineteen-year existence, this was Atlanta's very first Justice Department-auditing.  Now, at a time when its financial future and security is in serious question, the city must find a speedy solution to the hefty costs.  Council members will vote today on a proposed 6-year, $2-million-a-year plan. 

City Council Finance Chair Howard Shook is trying to address both the seriousness of the defects and the financial burden with which he is confronted.

"We have to remedy this lists of defects.  Period.  Some of these defects go back before this current administration," remarked Shook. 

He went on to say that "It could not come at a worse time. We're scraping for nickels and dimes under the sofa cushion to make sure we have cops on the streets and the lights are turned on."

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Ascension Insurance, Inc., a Kansas City-based company, announced its recent acquisition of Atlanta-headquartered Haas & Dodd Insurance, Inc.  Ascension's gaining of Haas & Dodd, effective July 1, 2009, marks the second strategic purchase from the Atlanta market in the company's recent history, following the January 2008 acquisition of Bryant Wharton. 

Interested in expanding business in Atlanta and throughout the southeast, Ascension will look to utilize Haas & Dodd's history of reputable service in a collective effort to broaden its high-level brokerage and risk management services to customers. 

Haas & Dodd president Charles Meriwether is eager and excited to join Ascension, intent on continuing a long-standing history of helpful expertise for its clients. 

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The State Board of Workers' Compensation recently published its agenda for its Annual Educational Conference, which is scheduled to take place in Atlanta from August 30th to September 2nd. In addition to the annual case law update, speakers will, among other things, be discussing:

• The AMA Guidelines to Permanent Impairment;
• Permissible Uses of the Form WC-207/Authorization for Release of Medical Information;
• Management of Catastrophic Events in the Workplace;
• Ethical Challenges in Medical Case Management of Work-Related Injuries; and
• The "Never Ending Change in Condition vs. New Injury Saga."

Personally, I'm looking forward to the sounds of Vince Vance and the Valients at the Tuesday Night Dinner and Dance.

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Imagine risking your life day-in and day-out in an effort to improve and uphold the safety of Atlanta, only to have that same city renege on its promise to medically compensate your on-the-job injuries. Debilitated policemen and women across Atlanta have been facing this dilemma for years and are continuing to fight it.

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin has recently diverted the media's focus to a comment directed toward her by a frustrated officer named Scott Kreher, who expressed his aggravation by saying he wanted to "beat Franklin with a baseball bat." Kreher was suspended from protecting the streets for this ill-perceived "threat."

The injured policemen and women, many of whom are wheelchair-ridden, have had their medical bill concerns fall on deaf ears, according to the article.  Earning a salary that hardly speaks for the bravery and dedication that they maintain, the cops have a legitimate worry when facing financially steep, weekly trips to the doctor.

Franklin, who reportedly claims she does not "know a person who wants anyone to say, 'I want to beat you in the head,'" went so far as to have the feds investigate the comment made by Sgt. Kreher. Clearly, Franklin is not entirely in touch with the hostility in her own city, as such "objects of violence" are exhibited and directed toward her own policemen on a daily basis.

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Stephen Catterton, a chiropractor in Norcross, Georgia, was recently sentenced to prison for health-care fraud and possession with intent to distribute testosterone.  According to U.S. Attorney David E. Nahmias, Catterton "lied to insurers about what services he was providing to patients, defrauding the insurers of more than $1.2 million."

Catterton was sentenced to three years and one month in prison, and was ordered to make full restitution to all of his victims.  Of course, Catterton, and others like him, can never really make full restitution because, as Nahmias explained, "False claims like these . . . lead to higher health care costs for everyone."

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Jon Gelman, Esq., publisher of Workers' Compensation: Analysis of Trends and Developments in Workers' Compensation Law Throughout the United States, recently blogged about a New Jersey case in which a nurse was awarded workers' compensation benefits for a pre-existing pulmonary condition that was aggravated by exposure to perfume at work.

The facts of the case, as described by Gelman, are truly remarkable: The nurse was a 64-year-old woman who smoked one pack of cigarettes a day for more than 40 years, and, not surprisingly, suffered from a severe pre-existing obstructive lung disease when she began working for the employer.  Subsequently, in the course of her employment, she had a severe reaction when a co-worker sprayed herself with perfume on two occasions, and she eventually became "oxygen dependent" and was forced to stop working.

According to Gelman, the court found that "[t]he air [that the nurse] had to breathe . . . to fulfill her contract of service, contaminated by a co-employee, was a condition of [her] employment . . . and thus a risk of "this" employment."  For this reason, the court ruled that the nurse suffered a compensable injury that entitled her to workers' compensation benefits.  Not surprisingly, the court also explained that "[e]mployers take their employees as they find them, 'with all of the pre-existing disease and infirmity that may exist."

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WALB News and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) recently reported that 24-year-old Keith Branch, an employee at the Golden Peanut Company, suffered a crushed chest after he was pinned between a railroad car and a tractor-trailer rig.  He was rushed to Tift Regional Hospital where he was pronounced dead.  According to both news outlets, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration were planning to investigate the cause of the accident.

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Un trabajador de la construcción fue matado y varios otros fueron heridos el viernes temprano cuando un puente pedestre desplomó en la Jardín Botánico de Atlanta. Según informes, los trabajadores vertían cemento para la atracción nueva de "Caminata de Dosel" de Jardín -- un puente pedestre elavado de 45 pies de altura -- cuando el desplome ocurrió y dejando caer los trabajadores cuarenta pies.

Los trabajadores heridos fueron transportados por ambulancia al Grady Hospital o Atlanta Medical Center. Ni los nombres de los trabajadores heridos ni sus heridas exactas han sido hechos público; sin embargo, sus heridas incluyen magulladuras, heridas espinales graves, y heridas traumáticas de cerebro.

La causa exacta del desplome es todavía desconocida; sin embargo, el viernes por la tarde, los investigadores de la Administración Profesional de Seguridad y Salud (OSHA) investigaban cómo el accidente occurio y si estándares apropiados de seguridad fueron encontrados.

Si usted necesita un abogado de herida personal o abogado de compensación de trabajadores, usted puede girar al abogado Seth Bader, quien habla espanol.  Para planificar una consulta gratis con el abogado Seth Bader, por favor nos llama al 404.917.9174.

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One construction worker was killed and several others were injured early Friday when a pedestrian bridge collapsed at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.  According to reports, the workers were pouring concrete for the Garden's new "Canopy Walk" attraction -- a 45-foot-high, 600-foot-long elevated walkway -- when the collapse occurred, dropping the workers as far as forty feet.

Injured workers were taken by ambulance to Grady Hospital or the Atlanta Medical Center.  Neither the names of the injured workers nor their exact injuries have been made public; however, their injuries reportedly range from bruises to serious spine and traumatic brain injuries.  The one known fatality was to Angel Chupin, a 66-year-old Hispanic male who apparently died of blunt force injuries.

The exact cause of the collapse is still unknown; however, on Friday afternoon, investigators from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) were investigating how the accident occurred and whether proper safety standards were met.

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Earlier this year, FindLaw conducted a telephone survey that revealed that a surprisingly high number of American workers suffer on-the-job injuries.  According to the survey, twenty-eight percent of American adults reported having been injured at work at one time or another, and of these individuals, more than half reported missing more than one week of work a result of their injuries and just over one-third reported missing more than a month.

If the percentage of Georgia workers who miss more than one week of work because of an on-the-job injury is similar to the percentage revealed by the survey, then approximately fifteen percent of Georgia workers have qualified or will qualify for weekly disability benefits.  Under Georgia law, injured workers qualify for weekly disability benefits once they miss seven or more consecutive days of work as a result of a compensable on-the-job injury.

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