The Four Categories of Struck-By Hazards

Accidents are often categorized into types so that it would be easier to legally class them. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has identified the top four safety hazards in construction sites, including “struck-by” injuries. An experienced Los Angeles brain injury lawyer typically handle claims of victims of struck-by injuries that fall under the following categories:

Struck-by Flying Objects

When a piece of material or part of an equipment become detached from its proper place and strikes a worker’s head, blunt force trauma or a penetrating head injury could happen.

Struck-by Falling Objects

Signs warning about falling debris are all over a construction site for a reason. When you’re working beneath scaffolds, cranes, or any area where overhead work is being carried out, the risk of getting hit on the head by falling tools or materials is all too real.

Struck-by Swinging Objects

When a site supervisor or contractor fails to ensure that workers remain well outside the swing radius of a suspended load and neglects to see to it that heavy equipment operators can see other workers on the ground, he can be held liable if mechanically lifted materials strike or crush workers.

Struck-by Rolling Objects

Rolling object injuries generally mean that a worker has been struck by a heavy equipment or construction vehicle while it is in use. Moreover, rolling object hazards may also indicate head injuries that occur because of objects that move, slide, or roll on the same level where the worker is situated.