work related accident

MNuTz

MNuTz

MNuTz

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Joined
17 Mar 2004
Posts
4,934
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Market Drayton, Salop
Hi all,

Well, just got back from the doctors after having an accident at work.

I was on a stand-on/ride along electric pallet truck, turned 90 degrees to the left and the battery slid out of the right hand side. It started pouring battery acid everywhere so i jumped off the truck, grabbed the one side and struggled to get it upright (they weigh in around 300kg). As it got just over half way upright its weight carried it the rest of the way and as it hit the floor it spat battery acid up into my face and my left eye.

Washed it out, got into the doctors to get it checked and it turns out ive got a burn on my right eye. It took the nurse over an hour to wash it out and get the PH level back to as near normal as possible, she kept having to stick PH paper in my eye and now ive got to take drops every 2 hours. It was a very unplesant experience!! my vision is now completely blurred in my eye :(

Anyone here ever suffered a work related accident, and what happened about it?
 
at christmas i picked up an christmas tree and one of the twigs went into my left eye and hurt for days, couldnt open it :(

do you have an eyepatch now? get some compensation :p
 
dalepearson said:
make sure an accident report is filed for sure, then from there you could possibly look at seeking some form of compensation.
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I filled out an accident report within 10 mins of it happening, ive just been madea Health and Safety Rep and i actually checked all thr trucks over about 2 hours before so i know exactly what condition they where in. It appears that a clasp inside broke off, allowing the lid to rise. The lid holds the battery in place and it just slid out.

If its not permanent i wont be seaking compensation, i just want the £6.65 it cost me for my eye drops :D

abruzz1 said:
Is the damage permanent? :(
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unsure as of yet, got the doctors again tomorrow to do another check on it.

Andr3w said:
do you have an eyepatch now? :p
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No, they didnt have any and i was so looking forward to doing pirate impressions :D
 
im really sorry to hear that. next time i see a battery spill... im going to run like ****.

learning from other peoples mistake is what im best at.
 
well i went back to the docs yesterday to get checked over again.

My eye seems to be reacting properly to a light source however its still not focusing right, the doc told me to come back at the end of next week to see how it is.

He also said that the damage may be permanent :( Driving etc is fine but reading text on TV or PC is slightly difficult. And i was always so proud that i had perfect vision even though i must have spent a 1/4 of my life in front of a monitor!

Only time will tell!
 
That sounds very nasty! As for compensation over this, can your employer not argue that it was your fault as you tried to lift the heavy machinery alone after it fell over? Just thinking about acid in the eyes makes me cringe, I don't particularly like putting contact lenses in every morning as it is!

Keep us posted with your progress on the eye!
 
Eyes heal real quick and it sounds as though you did the right thing by washing it out straight away and going to the docs so you might find that its all good :)

The only damage it might have caused should be fixable by glasses tho I rekon.
 
As has been said, make sure the accident forms have been completed correctly and apporpriately filed.

Another thing I would suggest is before you start with the accident chasing lawyers (if that thought had crossed your mind), discuss the situation with the company and ask them what they plan on doing etc. Making a legal claim for negligence for the accident (which is what most compensation claims are based on) can often be a cheap way out for a company as it allows them to end liability in an easy out of court settlement with claims direct or whoever. I've never forgotten one of them telling my mum the amount of compensation they thought they could get her... It was less than half in total of what she gets a year from taking it through the proper internal channels and going through the company's insurance system...
 
glad that you are ok.

as for what happens now, it depends whose fault it was really - if the company can show that it was you that was negligent or that you did not follow the correct safety procedure then they could quite legally sack you - if on the other hand, the company did not supply you with the correct safety equipment or that the fault lay with the equipment you were using, then its the companies responsibility and you have a claim.
 
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