Whenever heavy machinery is part of a workplace, the possibility of an injury-causing accident is always possible. The local Occupational Safety and Health Administration office is looking into a Carlisle woman who died in a fatal workplace accident earlier this month. The 52-year-old worker was killed at an Amazon warehouse in Cumberland County.
The woman was driving a pallet truck when it crashed into some shelves at a fulfillment center, which is where the e-commerce company sends out its orders. A logical cause for an employee to be involved in a crash of this nature is a medical emergency, such as a heart attack, but according to the Cumberland County coroner, the employee died from multiple traumatic injuries as a result of the accident.
It will be some time before the OSHA investigation wraps up -- up to six months, according to the area director. In some cases, companies that have been the site of a worker accident might be held to task for a safety violation and issued a fine. While that is certainly possible in this case, clearly, no decisions have yet been made.
It is also true that, upon the close of such an investigation, a company might be obligated to pay a fine for a violation; however, compensation to the victims or the victims' families might not be so easily forthcoming. It might take the intervention of a workplace accidents attorney to make sure that an injured worker -- or the survivors of a worker who has died on the job -- receives proper compensation.
Source: PennLive, "OSHA investigates Amazon warehouse death in Carlisle," Steve Marroni, June 4, 2014
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