About 1,000 People Die Annually from Electrocution. Most Are from On-the-Job Injuries.
The injuries resulting from electrical accidents vary widely from mild discomfort, to burns (the most common, which includes electrical burns and thermal burns), loss of muscle control, broken bones from muscle contraction or being thrown from the electric shock, cardiac arrest, or even death.
The severity of the electrical injury is going to depend on several factors, including the total voltage and amperage of the electrical current, which party of the body the current comes in contact with, how long your body is exposed to the current.
In high-voltage cases, it is not unusual to see injuries not only at the site of contact with the electrical current, but at another part of your body where the current exits the body. For example, your hand may come into contact with an electrical current, which travels through your forearm and exits at your elbow. In that case, you may have a severe burn on your hand and a less severe burn on your elbow.
The causes of an electrical accident are just as varied and can come from any of several sources:
In most electrical accidents, there is some component of carelessness or poor judgment that results in the electric shock and injury.
Depending on the nature of the electrical accident, it may be either a product defect or a premises liability case.
An electrical accident may be the result of a defective product, like a toaster with faulty wiring or a wall outlet that was not built to carry the current it’s designed for. If that’s the case, then your case would not require an analysis of fault or judgment at all, but merely an identification of the businesses in the chain of distribution of the product and proof that it was in fact, the product’s defective nature that caused your injuries.
If, on the other hand, the electrical accident is a premises liability case (which falls under the realm of negligence), we would look for carelessness or poor judgment, like an employer who does not turn off the power before assigning an employee to do some electrical work, an employer’s failure to implement safe practices at a workplace, or a homebuilder who doesn’t ground some of the outlets in a house.
If you have been the victim of an electrical accident, consult with the experienced attorneys at H&P Law.
