California Personal Injury Lawyers Blog
Rigoberto Yanez, a fifty seven year old man from Los Angeles, California, was killed today when a gate collapsed on him in a tragic work accident in Sereno. According to the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office, Yanez was working at the Chimentis Baking Company early this morning when the gate apparently came off of the track and fell onto him, crushing him to death.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Cal/OSHA, the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, which strives to protect workers and the general public from dangerous conditions and safety hazards, is investigating this California wrongful death incident.
Normally, when a person is injured on the job in California, there is a workers compensation claim made. However, many people do not know that they may have a California personal injury claim in addition to the workers compensation damages they are entitled to.
These situations usually arise where the person is injured on the job, but the injury is caused by a third person or entity. For example, if a person is driving a UPS truck, when it is rear ended by another vehicle, that person may make a workers compensation claim with his employer, UPS, but also may make an car accident personal injury claim for the injuries, pain, suffering, loss of life activities, and other personal injury damages. that he suffers as a result of his injuries from the rear end accident. The third party claim would be made against the insurance company for the person who rear ended the truck.
These situations often get very complicated however, and sometimes the injured party elects not to make the workers compensation claim and only to make a third party personal injury claim, or vice versa. For this reason, anyone injured on the job should contact a workers compensation attorney and if the injury is caused by a third party, that injury victim should call a California personal injury lawyer as well.