There are many dangerous occupations in West Virginia. In 30 years practicing law here, I’ve seen more than my share of accidents. I’ve handled cases from injuries in the timber and logging industry, coal mining (both surface mining accidents and deep coal mining accidents).

Oil and gas occupations have their share of injury accidents – whether on drilling rigs, building pipelines, maintaining the rigs, maintaining the pipelines – all can be dangerous jobs. With the advent of Marcellus Shale production, we’re seeing quite a few more burns and severe injuries in that field as well.

West Virginians also work in a variety of major industrial facilities – power houses, chemical plants, manufacturing facilities – and each of those provides their own unique dangerous situations. We see quite a few electrical injuries resulting in severe burns or even death in these facilities.

I once handled a case for a welder who had been told a particular vessel he was to weld had been cleaned and he had gotten a welding ticket, which means he was allowed to be there. No sooner did he light his torch than the whole thing exploded on him. Generally speaking, any time maintenance or construction is going on at one of the larger industrial facilities like the chemical plants and the power houses you’re going to see pretty dangerous conditions existing there that sometimes result in injuries to the workers.

There are many innocuous situations where you wouldn’t even notice it, but danger exists and people get hurt. There are times when people will not properly cover a hole such as a manhole or a hole on a construction site and people will fall into it. There are times when a surface has not been properly cleaned and workers who are unaware of that that are coming on for a new shift and they’ll slip and fall and get banged up.

Sometimes it can be very simple mistakes that people make on the shift before the next shift or by a maintenance crew before the production crew and it’s not always complicated but unfortunately, often it’s very, very serious as far as the injuries that result. The workplace can be very hazardous and you’ve got to be careful to protect yourself and your family.

If you or a loved one has gotten an injury, you want somebody in your corner who knows what they’re doing. You can call the Segal Law firm at (855) 344-9100.