A Cleveland, Ohio, city worker died while performing his assigned duties of operating a lawn mower. The mower went over a hill and plummeted into the creek located in a park on the West Side. Such deaths caused by injuries on the job make the employees surviving family eligible for death benefits under workers' compensation.
The accident occurred in Archmere Park. The worker who died had worked for the city for about 13 years and was a 65-year-old man. While he was rushed to a medical facility for treatment, the efforts of medical personnel to save his life were unavailing. A police investigation into the causes of the accident is ongoing.
Workers' compensation provides money to workers injured on the job, including paying for medical expenses, lost wages and any continuing disability, as well as paying benefits to a surviving family if an employee dies as a result of a workplace accident or an occupational disease. It is important for employees injured on the job or the surviving families of those who die from their injuries to retain an experienced workers' compensation attorney to make sure that the claim is properly presented and in a timely manner, as well as that all benefits available are requested.
There are some technical legal defenses that employers sometimes attempt to use to defeat injured or killed employees' workers' compensation claims, such as arguments that the activity being done was done within the scope and course of their employment or that the employee had gone off on a "frolic of their own," essentially an unauthorized personal errand not benefiting his or her employer. Experienced attorneys know best how to respond to these in a manner consistent with state law.
Source: Cleveland.com, "City of Cleveland employee dies after grass cutting accident" Cathy Shaffer, Oct. 09, 2013