b'THE OFFICIAL NFBA MAGAZINEcontinued from page: 43above is the minimum that should be doneof his truck cab onto a gravel parking area, he for every accident. This may take up somestepped onto a small stone that bruised the big of the supervisors valuable time; however,toe on his left foot. My client had performed his these interviews should always be done by theusual (excellent) investigation, which revealed responsible supervisor, even in the case of athat the claimant had been wearing standard very minor accident. Also remember that bywork shoes with a thick sole when he stepped being a safety conscious employer, accidentson the stone.are not normally an everyday, or frequent,While the claim was pending on the claimants LEGALLY SPEAKINGoccurrence. Therefore, we are not talking aboutbruised toe, he also filed additional motions to taking a lot of the supervisors time to do anadd additional conditions to the claim. These initial investigation.began with the allegation that the incident had This also means that every supervisor should bealso resulted in a sprained ankle, which had trained in the basics of accident investigation,morphed into plantar fasciitis, which resulted including witness interviews. How you choosein an altered gait, which then, allegedly, had to approach accident investigations should notaggravated a pre-existing low back condition, devolve into taking shortcuts or into pencil- and that had turned into a herniated disc. So, whipping the accident investigation forms.the minor bruised toe had, after about two One thing you should never do in performingmonths, expanded to a herniated disc, with an an accident investigation, no matter how minorextended period of disability. Thanks to my the accident may seem, is to merely hand outclients initial investigation, we successfully an accident report form to the employee(s)defended the bruised toe, which resulted involved, ask them to complete it, and returnin a denial of all of the additional requested it back to you. Employees should never fill outconditions.the investigation forms.In one other case, the employee of a different No matter how minor an accident may seem,client had an employee hobble into her office we still need to remember that there are reallyone morning, right after starting time. This no small accidents or incidents. At the timeemployees job was to use a hand grinder to the accident occurs, you will have no clear ideaclean up large cast iron flanges. These flanges as to how it may evolve. For example, afterwere so large and heavy that he had to use a spending decades doing workers compensationhoist to move them around and to place them defense work for large and small employers,onto his worktable. He claimed that one of these I have seen many minor accidents and/orflanges, after he disconnected the hook on the injuries become magnified MANY times over byhoist, fell off the table had struck is knee. After an aggressive claimants workers compensationhe was taken to the emergency room (he was lawyer. Several years ago, I represented a large,admitted to the hospital), my client took a look self-insured company that employed truckat his work area and found it to be in pristine drivers as part of its workforce. I received acondition. There was no flange laying on the call from my client that he wished me to defendfloor, where one that was accident-related, a suspicious workers compensation claim thatshould have been. Also, all of his tools were had been filed by one of these drivers. Mywhere they were supposed to be put at the end client, who was very experienced in accidentof each workday. After seeing this, she began to investigation and safety-related claims, gatheredinterview employees who had come into work the claim history through his investigation.at the same time as the claimant. She had two The claimant alleged that as he stepped outemployees that signed statements indicating continued on page: 4644 / FRAME BUILDER - FEB2022'