The deceased man's employer has been fined by OSHA before for failing to require life vests for people working over water and not providing fall protections.
By Rick Shapiro, Workplace Wrongful Death Attorney
A boom truck operator working with a railroad track repair crew fell from the bed of his vehicle and apparently drowned in the St. John’s River in Jacksonville, Florida (FL), on February 14, 2012. It is unclear what caused the man to lose his balance and plunge 12 feet into the water, but even if an injury occurred, the man was reportedly alive when pulled from the water by a passing boater. He died at a hospital.
According to First Coast News, the man who lost his life was helping replace rail ties on a bridge owned and used by Florida East Coast Railway. The news website also reported that the deceased man’s employer, Michigan-based Osmose Railroad Services, had been fined by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration following another workplace fall accident made worse by the company’s failure to require life vest for people working over water and not providing fall protections.
This workplace death caught my attention for several reasons. While I am based in Virginia (VA) and North Carolina (NC), I hold a license to practice plaintiff’s law in Florida. I also specialize in helping injured railroad workers and the families of individuals killed in rail yard and track accidents. In fact, in 2011, I helped a man whose leg was shattered while he repaired a rail bridge receive $1.5 million in compensation for the injury that left him permanently disabled.
If any company’s negligence is found to have contributed the deadly Florida accident, I urge the victim’s family to contact an experienced workplace wrongful death lawyer to discuss their legal options for receiving fair compensation for their loss.
EJL
About the Editors: The lawyers at Shapiro, Lewis & Appleton have decades of experience handling wrongful death claims in Virginia (VA) and North Carolina (NC). Check out our case results to see our track record of success. Our wrongful death law firm has offices in Virginia Beach and Hampton, VA, and in Elizabeth City, NC. Rick Shapiro and James Lewis have been listed among the Best Lawyers in America since 2008. They have also been named Virginia Super Lawyers since 2010, an honor fewer than 5 percent of outstanding attorneys receive. To learn more about wrongful death law, take a look at this free consumer report written by one of the firm’s experienced wrongful death attorneys.
