Monday, June 24, 2013

RISKY BUSINESS: Wire walking and other dangerous jobs


Risky Business??


Watching Nik Wallenda successfully walk across a tributary to the Grand Canyon was nerve racking. The danger of falling 1500 feet was so obvious that the posting of an EMT in the bottom of the canyon was mere window dressing.

While risks of death seem less obvious in more routine professions than wire walking at the height of the Empire State Building, you may be surprised what the list actually looks like.

The following 10 positions saw the most deaths in 2008:

1. Motor vehicle operators
    Number of victims: 908
   Most common manner of death: 66 were highway-related

2. Construction trades workers
     Number of victims: 720   
     Most common manner of death: 37 were attributed to falls

3. Material moving workers
    Number of victims: 24
    Most common manner of death: 14 fall-related fatalities and 12 were struck by
     objects
                                
4. Law enforcement workers
    Number of victims: 144
    Most common manner of death: 38 were highway-related and 33 were
    Homicides

5. Agricultural workers
    Number of victims: 33
    Most common manner of death: 19 highway-related fatalities

6. Grounds maintenance workers
    Number of victims: 128
    Most common manner of death: 20 deaths each from falls and being struck by
    an object

7. Sales supervisors
    Number of victims: 124
    Most common manner of death: 52 homicides

8. Vehicle and mobile equipment mechanics, installers, repairers
    Number of victims: 110
    Most common manner of death: 30 were struck by objects

9. Supervisors, construction and extraction workers
    Number of victims: 108
    Most common manner of death: 24 fall-related deaths

10. Metal or plastic workers
      Number of victims: 102
      Most common manner of death: 15 from being struck by an object and 13
       from falls

Work related deaths and injuries are unusually covered by workers compensation insurance, and injuries should be reported as soon as possible.  If a work related injury is caused by another party, such as a car crash in a company truck, there can also be a personal injury case.

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Mr. Peel seeks justice for those injured in car accidents, work place incidents, medical malpractice, and nursing homes. He often addresses churches, clubs and groups without charge. Mr. Peel may be reached through PeelLawFirm.com wherein other articles may be accessed.





Friday, June 21, 2013

DEATHS BY ACCIDENT IN NATIONAL PARKS




Accidents in National Parks

As an injury lawyer, the way people are injured or killed is strangely interesting to me. As I write this I am traveling through multiple national parks in the western United States with my family, which has been a dream of ours for many years.

If you asked most visitors to national parks what they are afraid of, it will usually be a bear attack. And, bears have killed people. But it is rare. 

What should they really be afraid of?  Flying. 379 people have died in aircraft accidents in and around the airspace over the Grand Canyon alone. 

In one recent year, the National Park service Reported 160 deaths and 1658 injuries within Park borders.

Not every death is from a fall or a bear attack or a crash, however, about 80 years ago, a 43-year-old prospector was hiking down a place in the Grand Canyon called "Snake Gulch." Apparently it was well named. A rattlesnake loudly rattled at him and reportedly made a partial strike.  While the snake never touched him, the man died of a heart attack!

Nineteen scalding deaths have been recorded in connection with Yellowstone's hot springs and famous geysers since 1870.  One was not an accident. A 24 year old and his friend were there with a dog named Moosie, when the dog jumped in to a thermal pool. The man dove in and swam out to the dog and attempted to take it to shore; he then disappeared underwater, let go of the dog, and tried to climb out of the pool. Now blind, his skin was already peeling everywhere from third degree burns that resulted in the deaths of he and the dog. 

In 1992, a 38-year-old jumped onto a wall at the Grand Canyon and acted like he was falling. He wind-milled his arms trying to scare his teenaged daughter, he jumped onto a short slope to complete the act.  Unknown to his bored daughter, he slipped and fell silently about 400 feet into the abyss. 

Suicides are surprisingly common in national parks. But one stands out.   One man on a scenic helicopter flight, purposely jumped about 4,000 feet. It reportedly took 15 Park Service Personnel to gather the body parts. 
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Mr. Peel seeks justice for those injured in car accidents, work place incidents, medical malpractice, and nursing homes. He often addresses churches, clubs and groups without charge. Mr. Peel may be reached through PeelLawFirm.com wherein other articles may be accessed.



LAW and Technology


LAWS LAG BEHIND TECHNOLOGY


As an injury lawyer, I rely on laws that change relatively slowly over time. After all, injury law itself can be traced all the way back to the Biblical book of Deuteronomy! But the current news stories about emerging technology are far out-pacing the ability of the law to keep up.

Anyone can look up your information, type in your address and get a custom map to your home. Drones are being flown that have the ability to hover outside your window. Satellite images are so sharp and so publicly available that anyone
can look into your backyard from anywhere on earth. Facial recognition technology scans your face in bus stations, airports and even some retail areas, potentially accessing a database that reveals your shopping habits, recent travels and product preferences. Every time you turn on a smart phone, you are located.  Every time you use your credit card, your location and purchase are stored and in most stores your face is usually recorded on video. Google is flying balloons over remote locations trying to allow greater access to the Internet. Your emails and cellphones can be traced and stored by your government. Eye scanners that identify children by iris scans are being put in school buses, sometimes without parental consent. Services are now being deployed that sense when you walk into a shop or restaurant, scan your Facebook profile and other social media for your likes and dislikes, and text you an instant coupon in about three seconds. 

What is legal and what is not? It is getting harder to say. Law cannot keep up with the changes. Think your email is private? Under the federal law, emails 180 days or older are not subject to any warrant requirement.

Frankly, the 535 members of Congress cannot seem to agree on even basic ideas, like a second grade level of budgeting that says you cannot spend more than you make for very long.  Maybe we should not be surprised that it takes leaks and scandals to get anything done. 

It is not surprising that sales of George Orwell's book "1984" are climbing. We are, at least in larger U.S. cities, officially living in a surveillance society.

I think the biggest predictor of whether there is a backlash is whether we have all just decided that there is no more real privacy anyway. Apathy seems to be the flavor of the day when it comes to consumer privacy.

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Mr. Peel seeks justice for those injured in car accidents, work place incidents, medical malpractice, and nursing homes. He often addresses churches, clubs and groups without charge. Mr. Peel may be reached through PeelLawFirm.com wherein other articles may be accessed.