San Francisco Accident Attorneys

Electrical burns make up 4% to 6.5% of all admissions to burn units in the United States and result in approximately 1,000 deaths (electrocutions) each year, most of them preventable. Electrical accidents and electrocution are one of the highest causes of death for workers in the construction industry. When a worker’s body or tool he or she is holding or machine he or she is riding on comes into contact with a live electrical wire, devastating and even fatal injury can occur.

The degree of injury depends on the strength of the electrical current, the length of exposure, the person’s state of health, and the speed and adequacy of treatment. The human body is a good conductor of electricity, and direct contact with electrical current can be fatal. Sometimes the injuries from an electrical accident are easily visible, such as a large burn injury or a charred limb. Other times, the visible electrical burns are minimal. But we can’t see with the naked eye the tremendous damage the electricity may have done to the heart, muscles, bodily organs, or the brain. The victim of an electrical accident may suffer lifelong physical and mental injuries.

There are three main forms of electrical current (not including lightning): (1) low-voltage alternating current (household current); (2) high-voltage alternating current; and (3) high-voltage direct current (industrial power plants and lightning). High-voltage electrical current tends to cause much more serious injuries than low-voltage electrical current. Electrical current that does not enter the body cause a burn to the skin or a mild shock. Serious injuries occur when the electrical current enters the body, passes through organs, and exits from another location.

Each category may be subclassified depending on whether the victim required cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The electrical current may result in injury or death by affecting the electrical conduction of muscles and nerves, causing severe abnormal rhythms in the heart and brain, or by producing internal and external electrical burns both by heating (thermal burns) and by poration (producing holes in cell membranes) of the cellular membranes.

Electrical current passing through the brain—whether low-voltage or high-voltage circuits—produces unconsciousness instantly and directly because of its effects on the brain’s neurons. Alternating current (AC) can produce the serious and often deadly condition of ventricular fibrillation of the left ventricle of the heart if the path of the current includes going through the chest. This may occur when the current flows from arm to arm, arm to leg, or head to arm or leg.

If the electrical current has caused the heart to go into left ventricular fibrillation, it is critical that CPR be administered immediately or that a defibrillator machine be used to shock the heart back into normal rhythm. If a person who has been in contact with an electrical current that has caused his or her heart to go into left ventricular fibrillation, if appropriate life-saving measures are not taken in the first four to five minutes, the victim will die. If emergency medical technicians or CPR has been timely and successfully administered, the victim may completely recover, usually with no apparent injury. However, even if the victim is resuscitated, prolonged cardiac and/or respiratory arrest carries with it an increasing probability of permanent brain injury, persistent vegetative states, and brain death.

Low-voltage electrical injury with cardiac and/or respiratory arrest usually results in death at the scene of the accident. Low-voltage electrical injury without cardiac and/or respiratory arrest is most often encountered in children who bite extension cords. The burns of the child’s mouth are often severe and require extensive plastic surgery. However, damage to the infant’s internal organs is infrequent.

High-voltage alternating current electrical injuries generally do not result in cardiac and/or respiratory arrest, but have extensive injuries from burns and are at risk of acute and chronic problems. Electrical injuries from high-voltage circuits generally are much worse than they appear in the emergency room. The sizes of the entrance and exit wounds do not correlate with the extent of internal injury. For example, serious internal injuries can occur with small entrance and exit wounds. Conversely, large skin burns may occur without internal injury.

Direct current (DC) electrical injuries are generally observed in electrical train circuits, and are often the result of risk-taking behavior by young males.

The power company or other owner, installer, or maintainer of high-voltage wires has a legal obligation (a “duty”) to maintain its highly charged high tension wires at a height that does not endanger the normal use of the highway for travel or other proper purpose. Maintaining a highly-charged wire uninsulated where it could be touched by a hand reaching out to it from an upstairs window is negligence.

It is not necessary to come into direct contact with a high-voltage line to suffer an electrical burn. Electricity has the ability to “jump” up to ten feet; therefore people and equipment should keep at least ten feet away from high-voltage electrical lines. Because of the danger of electrocution in placing a boom within ten feet of a high-voltage line is not generally known or obvious, the manufacturer, distributor, or retailer must affix a warning on the equipment that warns of the danger in bringing the boom closer than ten feet or in direct contact with such power lines. Section 385(b) of the California Penal Code makes it a misdemeanor for any person, either personally or through an employee, to move any tool or equipment within six feet of a high-voltage overhead line.

Electrocution, by definition, is fatal, the cause attributed to electric shock. A wrongful death from electrocution can occur when a person comes in contact with an electrical circuit, such as a high-voltage power line. It can also come from improper insulation of the power line, cutting through an underground cable, or improper wiring which inadvertently electrifies a water source. The risk of electrical injury is greater in electrical workers, construction workers, boating, golfing, and children exposed to electrical outlets, cords, or devices.

Electrical accident injuries vary with the voltage of the conductor. The most dangerous conductors are the electric utility transmission lines, with very high voltage, sometimes over 100,000 volts. At such a high voltage, you do not have to actually come in contact with the conductor to be electrocuted. If you get close to such a high-voltage line, the electricity will arc over to complete the deadly circuit.

Over 20 percent of electrical injuries and electrocutions happen in the workpace. Injuries and deaths due to contact with electricity are more common among construction workers than any other group. Electrocution is one of the top-five leading causes of death in the construction industry. The accident may happen when the metal ladder, crane, scaffold, front-end loader, or conveyor they are using comes in contact with overhead power lines. The injured worker or the family of a deceased worker are usually entitled to receive worker’ compensation benefits for their injuries or their loved one’s death, but such benefits are usually insufficient to fully compensate the injured worker or the surviving family of a deceased worker for their losses.

Hence, when a construction worker has been electrocuted in an on-the-job accident, it is critical to determine whether someone other than the employer or a coworker was responsible for the accident. For instance, if the worker is using a defective drill that causes an electrical injury, it may be possible to sue the manufacturer, supplier, and retailer of the faulty drill without having to worry about limits on the amount of your recovery. If the injured or deceased worker was employed by a subcontractor, it may be possible to bring a negligence suit against the prime general contractor or another subcontractor if their or their employees’ carelessness created the dangerous condition that caused the electrical injuries or electrocution.

Construction workers can suffer an electrical injury or be electrocuted by a live wire above or beneath the ground, from various types of equipment they work with, coming into contact with electrical outlets, or the electric circuitry of a building may be faulty. Electrical burns and electrocution are risks that employees in many different sectors of the job market must deal with on a daily basis.

Consumers can suffer an electrical injury or be electrocuted by a defective product, a live power line, defective and dangerous household large appliances, and faulty and dangerous wiring and/or outlets in the home or apartment. Consumer products that we use every day without a thought can be the cause of an electrical injury, such as hair dryers, curling irons, microwave ovens, power tools, even vacuum cleaners with faulty or exposed wires.

Electric current can cause injury in three main ways:

• Cardiac arrest due to the electrical effect on the heart;

• Muscle, nerve, and tissue destruction from a current passing through the body;

• Thermal burns from contact with the electrical source.

  Symptoms of electrical accidents include:

• Unconsciousness, confusion, vertigo

• Bone Fractures

• Heart arrhythmias (irregular heartbeats, particularly ventricular fibrillation)

• Cardiac arrest (stopping of the heart from beating)

• Chest pain

• Kidney failure

• Fainting

• Headache

• Impaired swallowing, vision, or hearing

• Muscle contraction

• Muscular pain

• Numbness or tingling in the face, trunk, or arms and legs

• Respiratory distress or complete stopping of breathing

• Seizures

• Skin burns

There are two main safety standards concerning electric power and its wiring: (1) the National Electric Code, which sets minimum requirements for safe electricity inside of buildings, such as homes, businesses, and industrial locations, and (2) the National Electric Safety Code, which sets the minimum standards for safe electricity in the power lines and power transmission outside of buildings.

Severe trauma from the electrical and thermal mechanisms of injury can result in the need for victims to undergo multiple surgeries, including amputations. Other treatment for electrical injuries include heart monitoring (to detect abnormal heart rhythms, especially ventricular fibrillation), intravenous fluids, burn care measures, treatment of fractures, pain medication, and surgery for electrical burns. Disability from electrical injury can be related to the patient’s loss of physical abilities and/or the occurrence of neurological, psychological, and psychiatric injuries.

If you have been injured or a loved one killed in an electrical accident, you should contact an experienced personal injury law firm as soon as possible. You only have a limited time to sue, and that time is shortened if the wrongdoer is a public entity, such as in cases where the offender was the state, or a county or city. If the person who injured you was a public employee, it is generally necessary to file a claim for damages with the proper governmental agency within six months of the date of the incident. An experienced personal injury attorney will know how and where to file this claim on your behalf.

It is also important to contact an experienced personal injury law firm as soon as possible after the accident, as the law firm may want to send its own investigator to the scene of the accident to inspect and take pictures of the accident site and any dangerous condition that caused or contributed to the accident, especially before there are any changes to the condition. The attorney or his or her investigator will also want to talk to any witnesses to the accident while the facts are still fresh in their minds.

An experienced personal injury law firm can also help with seeing to it that you obtain appropriate and thorough medical care for your physical, emotional, and psychological injuries suffered as a result of the accident. They can also do everything possible to ensure that you obtain full compensation for your medical expenses, pain and suffering, mental anguish, property damage, lost wages, and all of your other injuries and damages.

Call now and talk to a lawyer for free:  888.222.8286

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