Understand what you’re getting into when you seek out construction work. This type of work requires strength and endurance, neither of which a contractor can acquire overnight. You also need the ability to comprehend blueprints and an understanding of how machinery and various pieces of equipment work. But even with that understanding, you have to worry about construction site accidents. Here’s what parts of your body to protect.
1. Protect your knees
As a construction worker, you’ll spend a lot of time bending, crouching, turning, and lifting. Your work requires you to build and move large objects, moving from one location to the next for long amounts of time. It’s imperative you bend with the knees and make sure your feet are planted firmly before turning. If you’re not careful. you can easily tear a ligament, or even get injured if an object strikes your knee. For those reasons, you’ll want to make sure you have knee protection if you’re going into a particularly dangerous area. Knee injuries can be especially painful. No attorney would want to see you endure the experience. Even if it meant they could represent you in a worker’s compensation claim.
2. Protect your spine
It’s dangerous to operate machinery with your body twisted in awkward positions. Likewise, if you’re lifting large weight and moving objects back and forth, your spine is going to be at risk at some point in the shift. Protect your spine by wearing a back brace if necessary. Remember, an attorney won’t be able to help you earn workman’s compensation if you were reckless and impulsive.
3. Protect your head
You don’t usually need a helmet to work in construction. But the danger behind construction work is that large objects can fall on top of you. While you might have all the equipment necessary to do the job, it helps if construction workers conduct a mental evaluation of how they’re using their bodies. Awareness is critical, so any attorney would want a construction worker to double-check to ensure their mind is working correctly. Head injuries can sneak up on you if you pretend they don’t exist, and attorneys representing clients in construction site accidents know that the costs related to head injuries can be devastating, even when compensation is awarded.
4. Protect your eyes
Safety goggles are the solution to protecting your eyes. But take the risk a step further. When was the last time you got your eyes checked? Your vision is as important as avoiding injury, and if you look closer, you’ll see that beyond the obvious threats, there is the potential for contamination. If you’re not paying attention and rub your eyes, you might suffer eye-related damage that doesn’t show up until well after you’ve left your job. By then, you might not realize that your eye problems are related to the position you held at your job.
When you’re unprepared, these accidents can cripple you and leave you unable to work. For an attorney, that’s a nightmare, even though lawyers are so happy to represent you. Before you ever have to file for a workman’s compensation claim, your attorney wants you to keep this information in mind about protecting your body. As much as lawyers are willing to work with you, they’d rather not see you get injured on the job. Construction site accidents are serious, so you should do everything in your power to avoid them.
