Contacting a workers’ compensation attorney as soon as possible after an accident is the best way to protect your rights.
A Fort Worth, Texas woman is suing her husband’s former employer, Texas Industries, for administering a drug test and apparently waiting hours before calling 911 after he had an accident while at work. Texas Industries is a cement and construction company where the man had worked for 38 years.
She says her husband loved his job, but was planning to retire after working for Texas Industries for almost 4 decades. He was 67 when he fell while at work and hit his head. She says her husband had recently had a physical that showed he was in good health.
He was working as a loader and batch man at Texas Industries in Dallas, TX, when the accident happened on July 1, 2011. The wife says that instead of calling paramedics immediately, her husband’s employer ordered a drug test, and instructed another employee to unzip his pants and take urine from him as he lay unconscious on the floor. She filed a lawsuit against Texas Industries on July 7, 2012 that makes these claims. She wonders why it took so several hours for an ambulance to be called.
She is currently being supported by her husband’s workers’ compensation insurance but is concerned because she does not know when the benefits will be discontinued. In her lawsuit, she is suing the company for $15 million, including punitive damages for the wrongful death of her husband. She claims that the company did not provide proper training to employees, nor did they provide the right equipment. Her attorney reiterates that it is unclear why the company chose to administer a drug test at that moment and “There was a total lack of training and safety equipment for him on the date of the accident and reprehensible conduct on the part of a worker doing a drug test on an unconscious, dying employee instead of getting him immediate medical help.”
Texas Industries denies that there was a delay in calling an ambulance because of a drug test and tells a different story. The vice president of environmental, governmental, and public affairs, for the company says that medical concerns are always a priority and that drug testing would have been done at the hospital. According to him, another employee saw that the man had a nosebleed and was walking irregularly, and that employee called the paramedics though he said he was able to continue working. The paramedics were called when he became unresponsive and it became evident that the injury was serious.
Though there were cameras on site at the time of the accident, they were removed the next day. The vice president says that the video was irrelevant because the cameras were not facing the area where Perez was working.
Workers Compensation Lawyers in Missouri
If you or a family member has suffered an accident or wrongful death at work, contact an experienced workers’ compensation attorney in your area. Missouri workers’ compensation attorneys specialize in understanding workers’ compensation laws and dealing with insurance companies. If negligence contributed to the accident, you may be entitled to increased benefits. Contacting a workers’ compensation attorney as soon as possible after an accident is the best way to protect your rights and make sure you will get the compensation you deserve.