Cypress, TX — There was an accident reported at a local Montessori yesterday (Wednesday, September 3, 2014) in Cypress wherein a man was shocked. This is being described as an “electrical” accident, but police haven’t yet identified the man who was hurt, but said that he was 50 years old.
He was apparently working atop the Montessori Child Development building at Huffmeister & Cypress North Houston Road around 10:15 a.m. on Tuesday morning. It’s not clear how the accident happened, the but man was somehow shocked and the Cy Fair Volunteer Fire Department responded to the scene, using a firetruck to access the roof of the montessori.
The news reports said that the man was taken to a hospital and was in unknown condition. So far, this is still under investigation.
Montessori Child Development
Commentary:
Electrical work can be especially dangerous, particularly for those who do it for a living. Now, since this is a legal blog where I discuss my opinions about various topics, let’s talk for a minute about workers’ compensation insurance. Everyone knows what it is, but not every worker is covered by it. A lot of employers in Texas opt not to subscribe to the Texas Workers’ Compensation Program, which means that injured workers don’t have access to those benefits. However, instead of filing for workers’ comp benefits, injured workers have the added ability to file a lawsuit against their employer if the accident was their fault.
In this situation, it certainly looks like the victim was hurt by accident. However, things are rarely as simple as the news reports make them out to be. It’s possible that some sort of defect or malfunction caused this accident, but human error is also a major factor in these kinds of accidents. What I’m thinking of here is whether the worker was qualified and trained to do the work that led to the accident. If someone volunteers their own skills and time to fix something, but hurts themselves in the process, that’s clearly their own responsibility. But there’s a big difference when an employer orders an employee to do something unsafe or perform some task they’re not trained for.
— Grossman Law Offices
