Who Is Responsible For John Schmidt's Fault?

Introduction “Accidents happen, everything will be alright” is a common phrase parents repeat hundreds of times to their children. Most of the time the child bounces back and quickly forgets the accident that happened. Many years pass, this child now a working adult. Accidents still happen, but now they are much more complicated. Car accidents are complicated with insurance claims and figuring out who is at fault. Injuries in public places may cause drawn out legal battles and high lawyers fees. Who could forget accidents and injuries at work? Full-time employees spend about 40 hours a week at their place of employment, for a total of 2.080 hours a year. With all the time spent at work a year it is no surprise that employees may injure themselves at work. According to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics (Employer-reported workplace injury and illness summary, 2015), “The nearly 3.0 million nonfatal workplace
Is is Schmidt himself? His foreman, Harry Hiller, did notice before the incident that Schmidt was goofing off. However, Schmidt’s behavior while using the table saw was not noted. Perhaps when Schmidt began to operate the equipment he stopped and was focused, if not he could be at fault. Was it Hiller’s fault? According to Schmidt’s co-worker, multiple employees expressed their dissatisfaction with the safety guard of the table saw to Hiller. Yes, Hiller had maintenance reports, but were there extra inspections done when employees raised concerns? If not, why didn’t the employees contact Dave Donald, the manager of the shop? If Hiller ignored concerns, he could be liable. As manager of the shop, should Donald have researched and conducted thorough inspections of the equipment? Clearly, after the injury, a health and safety report found flaws in the safety feature of the table saw. Many mistakes were made leading up to the accident, but to whom does the legal responsibility fall