The annual American Burn Association’s public awareness campaign is scheduled for the first full week of February 2022 with this year’s theme being “Burning Issues in the Kitchen.” This year’s Burn Awareness Week is a commendable national effort to help prevent serious and fatal burn injuries while cooking in the home. For more, read: Dangers of Deadly House Fires in Indiana and Illinois
Nevertheless, for many safety agencies and advocates for accident victims and their loved ones, a week targeting the tragedy of serious burn injuries must include a discussion of the likelihood of severe burn injuries on the job or in motor vehicle accidents.
Horrific and life-altering bodily injuries involving burns are all too often caused by someone’s negligence behind the wheel or due to a company’s failure to meet a known legal duty of care and safety.
Burn injuries happen much more often than many realize. Catastrophic burns can be caused by chemicals, heat, electricity, or steam, as well as the flames of a fire. Fire is just one cause of serious burn injuries, albeit fires do cause millions of bodily burn injuries each year. According to the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA), using the latest collected annual data to date (2019), there were 1,291,500 fires in the United States during that one-year time frame, resulting in 3704 burn deaths and 16,600 victims who suffered serious bodily injuries involving burns caused by fire.
For more on the various causes of burn injuries, read our discussion in: Burn Injuries and Death from Accident Burns.
Likelihood of Workplace Burn Injuries
Oftentimes, burn victims are hurt while on the job. According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), there is a “substantial social and economic threat to individuals and families,” caused by workplace burns which “…account for a considerable proportion of all burns.” The NIH references research studies where as many as 45% of all burn injuries in this country are the result of accidents on the job site. Read, Mian, M A H et al. “Workplace-related burns.” Annals of burns and fire disasters vol. 24,2 (2011): 89-93.
Workplace burn injuries in Indiana and Illinois can happen at any job location where the employer has failed in its duty of care and safety to keep the jobsite safe from burn accidents. Industrial accidents involving burn injuries can happen here in places like:
- Steel mills
- Mines
- Warehouses
- Docks / Piers / Maritime sites
- Hotels, Motels, Restaurants
- Construction Sites
- Railyards.
For more on an employer’s duty of care to protect against industrial accidents, read: Industrial Accidents in Indiana and Illinois: Serious Injury or Death on the Job.
Burn Injuries in Motor Vehicle Accidents
Burn injuries are also known to be suffered by motor vehicle accident victims in all sorts of incidents, from semi-truck crashes to motorcycle accidents and collisions involving one or more passenger vehicles (sedans, SUVs, pickups, minivans) and/or pedestrians. These burns can happen during the crash when one of the vehicles involved catches fire, or when there is an explosion due to the intensity of impact.
Motor vehicle accident burns can also happen when the burn victim’s skin comes into contact with a live wire exposed in the crash, or when escaping chemicals result in chemical burns. Hot metal in the motor vehicle accident can burn victims, as well. Steam escaping from radiators after the wreck can also cause severe burn injuries.
For more on legal liabilities for victims of motor vehicle accidents, read: Fatal Motor Vehicle Accidents on the Job: Four Types of Workers Facing Highest Risk of Deadly Work Crash and Illinois’ NSC Warns: Escalating Number of Fatal Motor Vehicle Accidents.
Burn Injuries Are Serious and Life-Changing
Regardless of the type of accident that has caused the victim’s burn injuries, the result, as explained by the NIH, is “lifelong physical and psychological scarring, causing pain and influencing mental health, quality of life, ability to return to work and subsequent mortality.” Read, Jeschke, Marc G et al. “Burn injury.” Nature reviews. Disease primers vol. 6,1 11. 13 Feb. 2020, doi:10.1038/s41572-020-0145-5.
Victims come in all ages, from infants and small children, to adults and elders. Even minor scarring as a result of a burn can have a debilitating effect with the need for extended physical rehabilitation as well as long-term psychological counseling to deal with the resulting mental and emotional damage.
Of particular concern in burn accident cases is the horrific amount of intense pain that the burn accident victim must experience. Excruciating pain and suffering faces severe burn victims for weeks or months, and sometimes for a lifetime. Other travesties for these accident victims are the possibility of permanent nerve or skin damage, as well as an increased risk of infection (which may be deadly) and scarring (keloids). Burns can also result in amputation of limbs either shortly after the accident itself, or months afterward as the body fails to recover from its extensive burn injuries.
For more on burn injury damages, from impairment and scarring to death, read our discussion in: Burn Injuries in the News: Reminder of How Severe and Serious Burn Damages Are for Accident Victims.
Justice for Burn Accident Victims in Indiana and Illinois
Burn accidents change the lives of the burn victim and the victim’s loved ones. The state laws of Indiana and Illinois recognize the need for justice in these matters when the burn injuries have been caused by another’s failure to meet their legal duty of care. This can be a legal duty placed upon an employer, or a supervisor, as well as third parties (parts manufacturers; repair companies; etc.) and drivers whose negligent driving has resulted in the accident.
Burn accident victims may be entitled to legal recompense that includes past and future medical expenses; past and future rehab and psychological counseling costs; lost wages; lost future earning capacity; and of particular importance, coverage of their past and future pain and suffering as well as past and future mental or emotional anguish.
Loved ones may be able to seek legal redress for things like loss of consortium as well as loss of their relationship /interaction with the burn victim as spouse or child.
For more, read: Burn Injury Accident Claims: Calculating Justice for Burn Victims and Pain Awareness: Claims to Cover an Accident Victim’s Pain Damages.
Severe or fatal burns can result from a variety of accidents here in Illinois and Indiana. This month’s Burn Awareness Week brings well-deserved attention to the needs of the public to be aware of the dangers of burn accidents faced not only in the home, but at work and on the roadways of Indiana and Illinois. Please be careful out there!
