Worst Workplace Fatalities of 2011 « Houston Accident Attorney | Texas Personal Injury Lawyer Houston

Worst Workplace Fatalities of 2011

The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health has compiled a list of the worst workplace fatalities that Houston workplace injury lawyers came across last year. The following incidents are included in the list.

A grain elevator explosion at the Bartlett Crane Co. in Kansas in October which killed 6 workers
A chemical dust explosion at a Tennessee facility which killed 3 workers
An electrocution incident at Monsanto Corporation in Illinois that killed 2 teenage workers and injured 8 others
A manhole accident in North Carolina which killed 2 workers
An oil rig explosion in Wyoming In August which cost three workers their lives – the 3 workers were laying a fuel line, which exploded.
A trench collapse incident in Las Vegas in May that killed 2 workers – The trench had not been equipped with support mechanisms to prevent a collapse.
A gas plant explosion in Kentucky in March which killed 2 workers, and left at least 2 others seriously injured – the explosion occurred at the Carbide Industries plant in Louisville, Kentucky.
In January, a resident at a mental health facility in Massachusetts killed a mental care worker.
In July, a backhoe rollover killed one worker in Maine.
In October, a coal mine wall collapse in Kentucky killed 2 workers.

From chemical dust explosions and electrocutions to trench collapses on construction sites, workers in 2011 continued to be at risk of injury or death in a number of workplace environments. Many of these fatalities were entirely preventable. Hopefully, going forward into 2012, we will see more emphasis on prevention of such tragedies.