Hackensack Workers' Compensation Law Blog

Perhaps you were utilizing your company’s heavy machinery when you faced an insignificant injury. You worked within the scope of your employment, you utilized the equipment correctly, but an accident caused you to need a quick doctor’s visit to ensure that your injury was not severe. After x-rays, doctors determine that the injury’s effects proved minor, and you can return to your position.

Because the doctor decided that your injury did not need further analysis, you decided not to tell your employer. Unfortunately, two years after the incident, you begin to feel recurring pain, you have lost full mobility in the area, and you need to take frequent vacation days to rest. Now, you want to file a workers’ compensation claim against your employer’s insurance to pay for your associated medical costs and loss of work.

Most employers in New Jersey with 10 or more employees must fill out a 300 log from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration when a worker illness or injury occurs. The details required by the 300 log could aid employers in spotting trends that are contributing to incidents that harm workers.

The log gathers information about the types of injuries and illnesses that occur, including the location, time, types of workers involved and whether they involved any equipment or material. The report also notes the amount of time that an injured or sickened worker missed work or had reduced duties. Employers must keep these logs on file for five years.

OSHA has addressed the topic of pinch point protection in its standards for general industries as well as agriculture, marine terminals, longshoring and construction. New Jersey residents who work around machinery should be familiar with pinch points and what OSHA has to say about them. Pinch points are areas in machinery where workers can get caught: between two moving parts, a moving and a stationary part, or a part and a material.

Installing guards on machinery, which prevent workers from getting their hands and other extremities caught, is an essential first step. OSHA also recognizes the use of "devices." There are, for example, devices to stop machines in the case of a pinch point accident, devices that withdraw employees' hands from a danger area and safety devices that require operators to have both hands on the machine controls.

Half of all adults in New Jersey and the rest of the U.S. admit to driving drowsy, according to the American Sleep Foundation. About 20 percent even admit to falling asleep behind the wheel. Drowsy driving is a serious issue; a study from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety estimates that there are 328,000 drowsy driving crashes every year, resulting in 109,000 injuries and about 6,400 deaths.

The symptoms of drowsiness are easy to spot. Drivers may, for example, miss turns and exits, yawn frequently, have trouble keeping their eyes open and constantly drift out of their lanes. Some drivers become drowsier than they think and undergo periods of micro-sleep, where they suddenly become inattentive for 4 to 5 seconds. This is like driving blindfolded for the length of a football field.