Worker Suffers Life-Threatening Injuries in Paving Roller Incident
- A paving worker suffered severe, life-threatening injuries Monday morning when a heavy paving roller ran over him in the driveway of a home on Maiden Lane in Bedford, New Hampshire, according to emergency radio dispatch traffic.
- Bedford police and firefighters responded and prepared to administer CPR after extricating the worker from beneath the machine. Authorities have not confirmed whether he was taken to a hospital.
- Inspectors from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration arrived shortly afterward with Bedford police, photographing and measuring the scene and interviewing crew members from a Litchfield-based paving company.
- Police have not released the worker’s identity or the name of the paving contractor and said more details will be provided as the investigation continues.
End of Second Injury Fund Expected to Spur Employer Appeals, Litigation
- A surge in employer appeals and litigation is expected after Ontario, Canada’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board abruptly moved in July to wind down the 80-year-old Second Injury and Enhancement Fund, workers’ compensation lawyer Les Liversidge told a Sept. 22 webinar organized by the Construction Employers Coalition and the Residential Construction Council of Ontario. Both groups want the fund reinstated, a formal policy options paper and a four-month stakeholder consultation.
- Twenty-five to 100% of the cost of claims prolonged by pre-existing conditions have been taken off employer’s individual accounts and into the SEIF, a collective fun. Without it, Liversidge said, employers will absorb the full cost, which will drive up premiums, and will contest claim entitlement from day one by arguing a prolonged recovery stems from a pre-existing condition. He said injured workers could face delays in benefits as a result.
- Employers also are objecting to the fund’s timing, saying it was announced July 16 but made effective June 16, which they assert was procedurally unfair.
Employee Dies at Chemical Plant in Louisiana
- A worker died Oct. 3 after being found unresponsive in a unit at Westlake Corporation’s Plaquemine, Louisiana, chemical plant.
- Westlake said emergency response teams provided first aid and the man was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The company is investigating and says it will cooperate with all appropriate authorities.
- The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited the facility twice in the last few years: once in March 2025 for failing to report an employee’s in-patient hospitalization within 24 hours after a Sept. 27, 2024, incident.
- The other stemmed from a February 2024 chlorine gas release from a seal pot whose design was not determined for safety. In November 2025, the Environmental Protection Agency noted a fire at a Plaquemine unit that houses hydrochloric acid, chlorine and ethylene dichloride, with no cause listed and no threat to the community.