Most Common Personal Injuries
When it comes to personal injury, there are definitely some key cases they show up time & time again. Whether it’s due to negligence and was completely preventable, or a purely coincidental and unfortunate accident, injuries come in all shapes and sizes. It’s important to understand the most common types as a way to further safeguard yourself from accidents like it. Taking extra precautions at work, in bad weather, on the road and around your home may mean the difference between avoiding or suffering from a particular injury.
Slips & Falls
Slips & falls accounts for millions of personal injury claims across North America, and it’s prevalence is due to the fact that it can literally happen anywhere. From icy sidewalks, uneven stairs, debris filled walkways, water and oil spills on glossy flooring; it’s possible anywhere. These are especially common in public areas and spaces like stores and other commercial spaces, with private owners, the government or a public organization being held responsible depending on the location of the accident. These types of accidents can typically be prevented by following safety measures like putting up signs and blocking off particularly hazardous areas like spills, holes and dips in the ground surfaces.
Car Accidents
Vehicle accidents occur for a number of reasons, from lack of road maintenance, bad weather to impaired driving. It’s important to be diligent with road safety, as it only takes a split second for one of thee accidents to occur. Many of these injuries take some time before the effects are felt, so it’s imperative that you go to the doctor as soon as possible, even if you feel fine directly following the accident. There may also be other internal injuries that may not make themselves apparent until much later.
Product Liability
Defective product can be dangerous, especially when electrical elements or heat is involved. Injury reports and claims lead to things like product recalls, but not before you or someone else who bought the product is subjected to the side effects of its malfunctions. From product-wide hazards like small parts, lack of safety warnings on an item to manufacturing defects on a specific amount of the product, it’s important to know your rights in these situations. This will make it easier to prove the negligence was on the part of the manufacturer, and not yourself.
Work Related Injuries
These types of injuries are most common in fields of work that involve manual labour in some capacity. From construction, handling hazardous or heavy material, using or operating machinery & more, these types of work environments make accidents much more of a reality. Spills, cuts, slips & falls & much worse can happen at an unsafe workplace, so it’s imperative that you safeguard yourself to avoid any mishaps. It’s your employer’s responsibility to correctly train you on proper safety procedures as well as provide any protective gear specific to your job (or provide you with time to get it on your own.) It’s also important to note that you have legal rights to refuse to engage in work you truly feel is unsafe in a way that stretches beyond the normally expected risks of your job, without being penalized. Educate yourself on how worker’s compensation works so you know what your next course of action should be in the event of a workplace accident.