Chicago Workers' Compensation Attorney Blog

A construction accident has claimed the life of a 44-year-old concrete pump operator working on the Rainbow Dam project just outside Great Falls, Montana. The victim was a long-time employee of Lonesome Dove Concrete Pumping, a subcontractor with the Chicago-based Walsh Construction Co., the Great Falls Tribune reports.

After completing a routine safety inspection on his pump truck, the victim became pinned and was ultimately crushed between his rig and second moving vehicle. He was transported to the hospital where he died of massive internal injuries. He was one of seven siblings, a father of two daughters and two stepsons, a grandfather, and had recently gotten engaged.

Currently, there are about 200 workers on the Rainbow Dam project, which resumed construction of a new powerhouse after a two-day pause in operation since the on-site fatality occurred. The location is now undergoing an Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspection.

As our attorneys noted in an earlier post to our Chicago Workers Compensation Attorney blog, despite a 17 percent drop in industry-specific fatalities in 2009 – largely attributed to the economic downturn – construction remains the leader in work-related fatalities.

In 2007, out of 9,300 recordable cases of construction-related private sector injuries occurring in Illinois, 5,800 injured workers required either time away from work, a transfer to alternative duties or some degree of restriction. The number of days off spanned from one to more than 31, with nearly half lasting more than 31 days, the Illinois Department of Public Health reports.

Overall, 158,100 Illinois work-related injuries are believed to have occurred across all industry in the private sector in 2007. Of these, 47,500 Illinois workers required time off from work and another 34,200 workers required transfers or job duty restrictions.

Properly filing a work accident claim is critical to protecting your rights and the ability to collect damages to support your family as the result of a work accident. In cases where a fatal accident occurs, an experienced injury attorney may also be able to file a wrongful death claim on behalf of surviving family members.