The Texas work accident lawyers at Denena & Points mention the cautionary example of an industrial equipment accident that occurred Saturday night at the B.C. Williams Bakery Service in Dallas. In this frightening work injury accident, a worker fell into an industrial dough mixer and became trapped.
If you’ve ever seen such a machine, you know that these industrial mixers, designed to prepare dough for thousands of loaves at one time, are enormous. They stand much taller than a man, and the mixing blades inside them are even more fearsome. Our Texas work accident lawyers caution that they can sever a man’s limbs or cleave him in half. Even if a man avoids the blade, if he gets pushed down into the highly viscous dough, he can quickly suffocate. The dough for soft white breads particularly has a glue-like consistency.
Someone reaching down onto the mixer can easily get pulled in further by contact with the inexorable vortex of the whirling dough. A slight misstep of loss of balance, and you could topple into an open mixer. Our Texas work accident lawyers note that many mixers are designed with heavy closures so that once in motion they, theoretically, can’t have anyone accidentally fall in. But some industrial mixers and other pieces of dangerous industrial equipment just don’t have all of the safety features that one might like.
When the Dallas worker fell into the bakery mixer, he became trapped in the dough near the blade and suffered severe injuries. Specially trained urban search and rescue workers were brought in to extract him from the industrial vortex. A surgical team from the renowned Parkland Hospital treated the man even as rescue teams worked to retrieve him from the doughy trap. It took an hour or more to free him. He may suffer permanent disabilities and disfigurement from his terrible industrial accident.
It’s not the type of accident that happens often. OSHA, state and municipal agencies are constantly developing new rules and regulations designed to prevent just such dangerous industrial accidents. But the rapid pace of technological evolution and the relentless nature of human creativity can defeat even the most carefully laid regulatory schemes.
On the rare occasions when such accidents do occur, they present special challenges. It’s significant that they also happen to provide fertile learning experiences for the urban search and rescue personnel more usually intended to rescue people from collapsed buildings after devastating tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and explosions.
As this Dallas bakery equipment accident demonstrates, our Texas work accident lawyers emphasize that the modern worker in the industrial or factory setting can be at heightened risk of injury or fatal accident. If you work in the presence of dangerous industrial equipment, take heed of this man’s misfortune and use the lesson of his terrible accident to act with extra caution and mindfulness of safety.
As studies of workers’ industrial equipment accidents show, sometimes the worker himself is at fault for causing the accident through carelessness or horseplay. But often the fault lies with:
Don’t become a victim of the cold, industrial landscape. If you are injured though and you have questions about what you should do to win compensation from those responsible for causing the accident, contact our experienced Texas work accident lawyers for a free and confidential consultation. Our injury law expertise and more than 12 years of experience could guide you to the legal options that will ensure you win the financial recovery you need o cope with your devastating accident.