In July 2008, an Ohio teenage girl was a passenger on a motorcycle that witnesses say was speeding and weaving in and out of traffic near Shadyside, Ohio. When a vehicle pulled in front of the bike, the driver was unable to avoid a collision, and both the driver and passenger were ejected in…
The most serious safety citation that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) issues for dangerous workplace conduct or conditions is a “willful violation.” OSHA deems that an employer cited for a willful violation either knew or should reasonably have known that a hazardous condition existed that would likely result in the death or…
The National Safety Council deems June as National Safety Month each year, promoting initiatives throughout the month that highlight and stress enhanced safety and the reduction of deaths and injuries in American workplaces. In recognition of National Safety Month, The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (“BWC”) has announced the addition of two new safety…
In a May 19 blog post, we informed readers that the National Transportation Safety Board (“NTSB”) was pushing employers with drivers of large commercial vehicles to install on-board devices that automatically record how much time a driver spends behind the wheel. The agency and other safety groups across the country are greatly concerned that…
Republic Engineered Products Inc., headquartered in Canton, Ohio, is well-known by OSHA officials. And not in a good way. At its Lorain facility alone, inspections have been carried out 25 times since 1990, with agency investigators levying fines and issuing citations more than 75 times. Those violations relate to a number of safety concerns,…
David Zuby, chief research officer for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (“IIHS”), notes that “the laws of physics always are in effect for cars.” Given that scientific immutability, and all else being equal, a driver and his or her passengers will always fare better in a car accident if they are riding in…
The “traditional” office or other work environment for many Ohio employees — as well as for workers throughout the rest of the country — has greatly changed over the past generation. “When I started working a few decades ago, things were pretty simple,” says Maureen McCarthy, a workers’ compensation manager at Liberty Mutual insurance…
Saying that a Michigan construction company was “inviting tragedy on the job” by failing to safely protect employees from excavation accidents while they were working on a construction project in Toledo, an Ohio Department of Labor spokesperson announced penalties of $54,600 against the company. WPM Construction Services of Grand Blanc, Michigan, was inspected in…