Personal Injury Involving a Faulty Safety Harness
Safety harnesses are a pivotal piece of equipment on construction sites. Construction workers are often required to work at substantial heights, where falls can be catastrophic or deadly. Safety harnesses are meant to provide a security net to prevent workers from being injured in a fall.
While safety harnesses can prevent many injuries and deaths each year, they cannot be effective if they are faulty. When someone suffers a personal injury involving a faulty safety harness, they have the right to hold liable parties accountable for related damages. The personal injury attorneys from The Tawwater Law Firm in Oklahoma City, OK, assist injury victims in proving liability so that they can pursue the maximum compensation they are due.
Faulty Safety Harness Injuries
Individuals typically use safety harnesses when they are working or performing other activities that require them to be at a significant height. Unfortunately, this means that when a safety harness is faulty, it often results in a steep drop or fall.
Faulty safety harness accidents have the potential to result in fatalities. In fact, falls are part of the “fatal four” construction accidents, because they are a leading cause of death among construction workers. Even if a person is fortunate enough to survive an accident involving a faulty safety harness, they are likely to suffer serious or catastrophic injuries, which may include:
- Broken bones
- Internal organ damage
- Head, neck, or back injuries
- Traumatic brain injury
- Traumatic spinal cord injury
Who Is Liable?
Determining who is liable for a faulty safety harness accident is essential, because they should be held accountable for all damages related to accident injuries. To prove negligence, the injury victim must show that a person or party was negligent in their duty of care, and that the negligence was a direct cause of injuries. This is often more complex than it sounds, which is why it is so important to work with a personal injury attorney who has a thorough understanding of the law, such as those at our Oklahoma City law firm.
Our attorneys work alongside accident investigators to gather evidence and establish liability. In these types of cases, liability most often falls on the manufacturer of the faulty safety harness; or the employer, contractor, or other party that provided the safety harness. While manufacturers are typically responsible for defective safety harnesses, another party may be held liable if they failed to properly inspect a safety harness before providing it for use, or if they were negligent in the upkeep of safety equipment (for instance, they continued to use an old or worn out safety harness).
Potential Damages for Faulty Safety Harness Injuries
When someone is injured in an accident involving a faulty safety harness, our Oklahoma City attorneys work hard to pursue maximum compensation for the full extent of injury damages, including those that are economic in nature and those that are not. Potential areas of compensation include:
- Medical expenses (past and future)
- Cost of assistive medical devices
- Cost of ongoing rehabilitation or therapy
- Lost wages or loss of wage-earning potential
- Pain and suffering
- Wrongful death damages (funeral expenses, loss of income or benefits, loss of consortium, etc.) if injuries are fatal
Get In Touch
If you or a loved one has been injured in an accident caused by a faulty safety harness, the personal injury attorneys at The Tawwater Law Firm can help you establish liability and pursue compensation for damages. To discuss the details of your case with our legal team, send us a message online or call (405) 607-1400 at your earliest convenience.