Accidents involving high voltage electricity can easily result in death as well as very serious personal injury. The result of a high-voltage accident is rarely positive in any manner. Approximately 80% of all high voltage electrical shock injuries will include amputation of some type to avoid infecting other areas of the body. Sometimes this disabling condition occurs at the time of the accident. Although high voltage is often considered to be 440-volt currency levels, any electrical work injury can be very damaging because the electrical property that actually creates the damage is the line amp level. The amp level working in conjunction with line resistance, termed as impedance, actually determines the power capacity.

Electrical Fires

Actual contact with a live wire is not always necessary for a high-voltage work injury. Although this typically occurs in the very dangerous profession of electrical line repair and installation, an electrical problem can also result in extensive fires that can escalate quickly in industrial situations. Additionally, falling live wires can create other perils that cause serious burn injury. Falling wires from an electrical fire that trigger a sprinkler system can be problematic also, especially when a live cable falls into any area of pooled water and connects to a conductive material.

Electrical Injuries in the Construction Industry

Although professional linemen actually install the electrical cables from the power service, many construction companies subcontract the electrical service installation in any structure work place. A faulty transformer can cause the electricity to flow to the facility in its raw form without any resistance or conditioning. This is an extremely dangerous situation for everyone involved, not just the electricians.

Professional electricians are always aware of the potential for sever bodily injury, but power surges can occur in many different situations and the novice employee does not always know when danger is present. Injury can occur to carpenters and steel workers just as easily as electricians because the electricity flows unimpeded through all conductive materials. Raw power contact usually results in wrongful death injuries and the construction company should take every precaution available, but those precautions do not always get implemented.

Filing a Workers Compensation Claim

It is always important to hire an experienced construction accidents lawyer that is knowledgeable about personal injury in any burn-injury case because they can be complicated and involve multiple respondents. This is especially true in construction accidents with multiple contractors. When several employers are involved in one work place, the actual responsibility and negligence can be difficult to unravel, which is what occurs in any personal injury case.

The primary employer carrying the workers compensation insurance protection is responsible for filing the claim at work, but they cannot be sued for punitive negligence damage awards if they are legally compliant on all accounts. However, extenuating factors created by other responsible working contractors can represent negligence from other contracting employers. The possibly for multiple respondents is high in electrical injury cases, and it always takes an experienced attorney to maximize a claim.

It is important to hire a personal injury and accident attorney with significant experience in handling electrical work-related injuries because calculating all damages includes the possibility of permanent disability or even wrongful death. Immediate survivors of electrical work-related wrongful death claims are usually the individuals with proper legal standing to file a court case, so it is paramount to determine who that individual will be because the result can also impact any will or estate settlement. Always consider all possibilities when choosing an attorney and pick one with a solid track record of proven success for victims of an electrical injury.

Legal writer Lisa Coleman discusses some different kinds of high voltage work related accidents and injuries that can occur in a construction zone, and encourages legal representation for such victims injured whether by accident or negligence. The Perecman Firm, P.L.L.C. is a construction accidents lawyer firm based in New York that empathizes with the kind of problems that can arise with a serious or fatal injury involving high voltage, and is equipped to represent this kind of client and handle the problematic legalities that follow.