Toms River New Jersey Personal Injury Law Blog

Winter weather can pose serious health concerns for workers in New Jersey, especially those with outdoor jobs. Cold weather is often accompanied by ice, snow, cold winds and other conditions that can pose a serious risk to workplace safety. While many people know that working in the heat can lead to heat exhaustion, working in the cold can also lead to hazardous stress on the body. Cold stress includes all of the potential effects of very low temperatures, including numbness, frostbite and hypothermia. Damp air and contact with cold water can exacerbate these symptoms.

It's important that workers understand that shivering can be a symptom of serious cold stress. As the body's temperature decreases, blood may flow away from fingers and toes, leaving exposed skin especially at risk for frostbite. Severe hypothermia can also develop with continued cold exposure, leading to brain damage and other serious injuries. Some workers are at greater risk than others, especially those who may be ill or less physically fit. Employees in agriculture, construction, food processing and fishing may be at the greatest risk for cold-related workplace injuries.

Many construction workers in New Jersey routinely work on scaffolds. The safe use of these platforms depend on well-maintained equipment, competent people installing equipment and fall prevention practices. Many worksites, however, fail to observe best practices, and collapses and falls injure and kill many workers. In 2016, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued 3,900 citations for improper scaffolding practices, making them the third most common category of safety violation.

Every year, scaffold accidents cost employers roughly $90 million because of lost productivity. About 4,500 construction workers experience scaffold accidents each year, and several dozen die. The Bureau of Labor Statistics attributes the bulk of these incidents to falls and substandard platforms.

While it may be tougher to drive on New Jersey roads when the weather gets cold and snowy, it is not impossible to do so safely. To avoid an accident, drivers should increase their following distance to at least eight seconds behind the vehicles in front of theirs. Furthermore, it is not a good idea to use cruise control or to accelerate too quickly. Those who are driving up a hill should not stop or slow down.

Drivers should know whether their cars have anti-lock brakes prior to driving in poor conditions. If a driver or a vehicle is not up to battling snow, ice or low visibility, it may be best to wait until after a storm passes. Those who choose to go out should let someone know where they are going ahead of time. A vehicle's tires and brakes should be inspected prior to going anywhere to ensure that they are in proper working condition.

Workers in New Jersey may face a surprising number of dangerous conditions on the job, especially when employers flout federal safety regulations. At the 2018 National Safety Council Congress, a deputy director of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) laid out a top 10 list of the major safety violations uncovered by the agency during the previous year. The statistics reflected the period from October 2017 through September 2018. In many cases, the violations reflected a consistent pattern recurring repeatedly over the years.

For example, the number one violation has topped the list for the past several years: failure to provide fall protection. Employers have a duty to supply workers on heights with proper protective equipment to prevent falls or mitigate their effects in case of an incident. However, 7,270 violations of this regulation were discovered throughout the year; in many cases, workers on unprotected edges or high roofs had no fall protection equipment at all. Employers also repeatedly failed to provide proper training on fall prevention, the eighth most common violation on the list. There were 1,982 violations during the year, issued when employers failed to train all workers or to ensure that a competent person was providing the instruction.