Forklift accidents can cause serious bodily injuries for people working in warehouses throughout Northern Maryland. Looking up and down Interstate 81 from Greencastle to Hagerstown, warehouses and distribution centers blanket the landscape. They produce jobs. The distribution center economic development along the Interstate 81 corridor has not slowed. Unfortunately, warehouses also bring more work injuries to a community. You can read about common warehouse injuries right here.
Heavy machinery, such as forklifts, pallet jacks, and other powered industrial equipment, can lead to significant injuries in the workplace, sometimes even resulting in fatalities. The latest OSHA data indicates about 100 forklift fatalities and approximately 35,000 serious forklift-related injuries each year. Add to that an additional 100,000 non-serious forklift accidents across the nation per year. These types of forklift accidents are becoming more frequent in the Hagerstown area due to the warehousing sector growth.
There are common reasons these types of injuries occur. They are:
- Operators traveling at excessive speeds and not complying with safety protocols
- Operating with an elevated load
- Failure of the employer to adhere to proper maintenance of forklifts
- Inadequate training of employees that will operate the forklifts
- Improperly using forklifts by providing other employees a ride to another area of the warehouse
- Stunt or erratic driving, otherwise known are goofing off
- Poor communication with fellow employees while operating a forklift
- Forklift collisions
- Tip or roll overs while on the forklift
- Unsafe working conditions, such as too narrow of aisles or congested areas
- Being struck by loads or rack collapses while operating a forklift
- Forklift striking a pedestrian
- Forklift malfunctions
These are only the common ones I hear about in my workers compensation practice. Often times, these type of injuries have lasting effects, such as inability to perform that type of work in the future, enormous personal financial impact on the injured worker, and leads to significant emotional toll on the injured worker.
If you are injured in a forklift accident in Hagerstown area, you may be entitled to workers compensation benefits. Those benefits include wage loss benefits, medical benefits, and even vocational rehabilitation benefits for Maryland injured workers. Besides workers compensation, an injured worker may potentially have a third-party claim. In these type of claims, there can be several potential defendants in forklift accident lawsuits in Pennsylvania. These type of lawsuits are outside the workers compensation arena and involve tort negligence based claims. We handle those as well. However, most forklift accidents I encounter do not involved third-party claims, but unfortunately involve lack of training or user error.
If you have been involved in a forklift accident or any injury occurring at a warehouse, the first and immediate thing to do is notify your supervisor. It seems like common sense, and it should be, but many times, notice is a litigating factor. The second thing to do right away is seek immediate medical care. Document the injury and ALL your symptoms. Finally, the next thing to do is contact the professional, trusted, and proven Maryland workers’ compensation attorneys at Mooney Law.
If you are injured at a warehouse in the Hagerstown and Frederick areas, don’t hesitate to contact Mooney Law right away for an absolutely FREE CONSULTATION. Not only is the consultation free, but you pay no fee UNLESS we recover for YOU. We have recovered tens of millions of dollars on behalf of injured workers throughout Pennsylvania and Maryland. Call today at 717-200-HELP or 301-329-3630 to connect with me. You can also schedule a free consultation by emailing us at info@mooney4law.com. Finally, you can complete the Schedule a Consultation form on our website.
