WINCHESTER, KY — One man has died after a tractor-trailer mishap that happened in Winchester, Kentucky on Wednesday, May 14th, 2014, according to a news article from WKYT.
Police with details of the crash investigation have said that they believe 56-year-old Craig Smith was fatally injured when he fell from the top of the tanker truck at Apollo Oil.
Scene of the Accident
Craig Smith was taken by EMS personnel to a nearby hospital where he died a day after his arrival. Nobody else was hurt in the accident.
It is not clear if officials from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will be investigating the crash.
Commentary:
I’m not positive on the details around this incident, but there is a pretty good chance this will be handled by workers compensation, which sounds like a good thing, and it can be, but it can also be by and large inadequate in the grand scheme of things. Unfortunately, it is of financial benefit to the employer to short-change victims in this accident, which happens all too often. In the cases of gross negligence however, things can lean toward the victims very quickly with one quick look by a trained investigator. Another benefit to independent investigation? OSHA takes very long with their investigations, sometimes taking from six months up to a year to come to a conclusion, and independent investigation can provide families the truth of what happened on a much faster timeline.
–Grossman Law Offices