Personal Injury Attorneys / Automobile Accident Lawyer El Paso, Lubbock, San Angelo, Odessa, New Mexico NM TX New Mexico Texas

OUR RESULTS

Cotton Gin Accident
Amputated Finger
$932,000 Net to Client

This is one of many cotton gin cases that we have handled. The lint cleaners on many cotton gins lack specific guards which are required by OSHA standards. The lint cleaners consist of a series of rollers and saws that remove stems and other trash from the cotton that is to be ginned. In this case we discovered that OSHA had done an inspection of the cotton gin several months before our client suffered his injury and had notified the gin in writing that it lacked the appropriate guards on its lint cleaners. Despite this knowledge the gin did nothing to make sure that its lint cleaners met OSHA standards for safety.

Another method of preventing these types of injuries is to use a procedure called lockout/tagout. The procedure requires that the power source to the machine being worked on is shut off and a lock is placed on the power source by every individual who is to work on the machine. This assures that the machine will have no moving parts while maintenance is being performed and cannot be powered-up until all personnel have removed their locks. However, during cotton ginning seasons, ginners are reluctant to turn off the equipment when the delinting equipment gets jammed up with cotton because this slows down production and can reduce the profits the gin makes as well as the bonuses ginners receive.

In this case the ginner and the gin manager both testified that they were aware of lockout-tagout but did not require their employees to follow this safety procedure. Our client was asked to try to clean cotton out the delinter while it was running and the machinery caught his hand, amputating several fingers. Like many others in our region, this cotton gin did not carry worker’s compensation insurance and therefore, we were able to make a claim directly against them and collect from their insurance company.