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Claims For Stress in The Workplace
Cases of stress in the workplace are on the rise every year and it is becoming a costly problem for all businesses. Studies have shown that approximately 1 in 3 of all workers experience high level of stress and a quarter of all workers state that their job is the main cause of stress in their lives. The latest figures released by the Health and Safety Executive show that absences from work cost the economy over £12 billion and of this it is estimated that stress related illness and absence now costs in the region of £5-7 billion.
So, what is workplace stress and what can you do about it? The Definition of workplace stress is the harmful physical and emotional response that occurs when there is a poor match between job demands and the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker. If you have suffered extreme stress as a result of your job then you may be able to claim compensation however, proving such claims is notoriously difficult as the evidential burden on anyone making a claim is extremely high. Another of the main problems in making a claim for stress is proving foreseeability and you need to ask the question: is it reasonable to suggest that the employer could have foreseen the injury?
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Exploding Cleaning Product Injures Pensioner
Sky and BBC news have recently published reports regarding an elderly woman who sustained injuries when a cleaning product exploded in her face.
Grandmother, Sheila Insch, was in the process of unblocking her drain using a product called ‘Dr Drain’ at her home in Hampshire when the product suddenly exploded causing the substance to splash all over her face. Mrs. Insch was rushed to Southampton General Hospital by her daughter where she received treatment for facial burns. However, Doctors have stated that she was lucky not to lose her eyesight and it was only the instinctive reaction of closing her eyes that prevented this.
Mrs. Insch said she experienced extreme pain and has issued a warning to others using similar products and has confirmed that she followed the instructions provided with the product in full. She said “I read the instructions and put two drops in. It started to bubble so I turned round to see what was happening and it exploded. It hit the ceiling and went straight into my face. I just grabbed something to wipe my face and I kept washing my face all the way to hospital. It was terribly painful, burning, it hurt“. Her daughter also described her horror and anguish stating “There’s nothing you could say to actually describe seeing your mother’s face melting in front of you“.
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Toyota has opened itself up to a lot of problems recently with the recall they had on some faulty manufacturing. The ‘Mail Online’ has said that around 270,000 of the petrol electric hybrids may have to be checked. Toyota hasn’t officially stated that they are having a recall but have admitted that the new models have a software problem that is affecting the brakes!
Toyota has already recalled 8 million of their vehicles over fears of faults with the accelerator and the brakes. Obviously, these are the two main components of a car in particular if the brakes don’t work then you’re definitely in trouble!
The first claim made by a driver was back in September. His Solicitor was representing him to win a case where his Toyota had run into a brick wall at 30mph because the brakes wouldn’t work!! Not surprisingly he suffered serious head injuries.
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Most of us would go to the Dr and if he told us we were green we would probably believe him as we think they know best. Clearly they didn’t in the case of one girl who will remain unnamed.
The girl was told she had a malignant bone tumour in her right leg and underwent major surgery to remove most of the leg below the knee and had a metal plate fitted in place of this. The metal plate was causing her great discomfort and restriction. An example of this is that she was used to playing tennis as a hobby, she used to enjoy it a great deal but she could no longer play the sport because of the horrific mistake.
To make matters a million times worse! The so called “medical professionals” revealed to her that they were wrong and that she didn’t have any form of cancer and the chemotherapy they had been treating her for and the amputation was all totally unnecessary!
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Horse Road Traffic Accident Injury Claims
Road Traffic Accidents are one of the most common types of injuries that occur. The reason for this is more than likely to be the fact that we are all on the road going or coming from work almost every day so the chances of being involved in an accident are a lot higher than if we weren’t on the roads.
But I bet everyone who drives to work in the morning doesn’t think that they could be involved in a situation like the one on the right!!!! That is right, unfortunately this is a picture of a horse being lodged into someone wind screen after a collision.
According to British Horse Society figures, there are over 3,000 accidents on the roads each year involving horses. These figures include several fatalities.
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UK’s Most Dangerous Roads Revealed
Every year thousands of people are killed on British roads in road traffic accidents and a new report recently released by ‘The Road Safety Foundation’ has revealed the top ten most dangerous roads in Britain. The report, titled ‘Saving Lives For Less’ covers 28,000 miles of motorways and A-roads and revealed that half of all fatal road crashes occur on just one-tenth of all Britain’s roads.
The most dangerous road in Britain is revealed to be the A537 which runs between Macclesfield in Cheshire, and Buxton in Derbyshire. The road has severe bends, steep falls and is edged by dry stone walls and between 2007 and 2008, 34 people were killed on this road. The most improved road for safety is the A40 between Landover and Carmarthen.
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A story reported yesterday (30th June 2010) on the BBC News Website (source) about a young girl who has been crushed to death by an electrical gate in Manchester.
The 6 year old girl, named as Miss Semelia Campbell became trapped between a brick post and the wrought iron gate at around 7.30pm on Monday on the Lowry Estate in Moss Side, Manchester. Her Mother, Ms Judith Gilroy, watched on helplessly after the key fob she had failed to stop the gate moving and, although she also later switched off the electricity, she was unable to save her.
A police officer who rushed to the scene eventually managed to pull her out after he smashed the motor but she had already gone into cardiac arrest. She was rushed to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital but tragically she died a short time later.
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A lot of people don’t realise this, but certain regulations have to be followed in relation to hair colouring. People may think, “oh everyone gets their hair coloured, it won’t fall out it’ll be fine”. This could be the reason so many women unfortunately end up looking like this unfortunate lady (right).
As reported in the Re’Voil Hair & Beauty News Blog, the woman (in the picture) was immediately rushed to hospital as she was left temporary blind after a severe allergic reaction to hair dye. That’s right, this woman’s blindness was caused by hair dye!
Even more shockingly this woman also did carry out the 48 hour skin test a few days prior to this incident and had no reaction which led her to believe that this product was safe to use.
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Do You Suffer From “Wrap Rage”
This may sound crazy, but it is 100% true. More than 150 people a day are stabbing themselves when trying to open a ready meal packet or trying to open a stiff food jar using a knife. This was noted by a survey done by ‘Your Magazine’ which gave the questionnaire to more than 20,000 over 50’s.
The problems caused by trying to unwrap food have been referred to as “wrap rage”.
The terrible tea pot cosy- believe it or not, thousands of people have been injured by attempting to pick up the tea pot by the cover rather than by the handle. This has lead to severe burns and scalding.
Even more amazingly the Home Accident Surveillance System last year got figures of 5,310 people being injured whilst putting on their socks, 11,788 people taken to hospital whilst putting on their tights or stockings.
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Legal Action Over Seriously Ill Twins
The parents of two year old twins have begun legal action against a petting farm after their children became seriously ill from contracting E.coli from Godstone Farm, Surrey, in August 2009 – and they are seeking compensation for personal injury.The incident was reported last year, with the twins being just 2 victims of a total of 93 who became infected after the outbreak at Godstone last year. 76 where children under the age of ten.
The twins, Aaron and Todd Mock, who were infected after visiting the petting farm on a school trip, were 2 of the most seriously affected, and had to spend weeks in hospital after suffering from kidney failure.
The legal action against the farm follows the release of a report into the outbreak which revealed that the Health Protection Agency (HPA) failed to take appropriate action to reduce and contain the outbreak. This failure and the lack of action by the HPA lead to the farm remaining open throughout the bank holiday weekend, during which they had over 5000 visitors, despite the fact that they were aware of a number of cases of the bug.
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