Missouri SIF Not Liable for Benefits for Psychological Injury

• Missouri’s state-run Second Injury Fund is not liable for a worker’s permanent total disability benefits for a psychological injury she reported following a 2015 shoulder injury, a state Court of Appeals has ruled.
• A 28-year-employee at wire manufacturer WireCo World Group injured her shoulder at work in 2015 and later claimed she suffered from diabetes, hypertension, anxiety and depression, two preexisting mental conditions once connected to a car accident and her mother dying but later attached to her work injury, according to No. WD86436, filed May 21.
• In 2018, she settled her claim with WireCo for her shoulder injury. A year later a vocational assessment found she was totally disabled by the combined effects of her psychological issues, diabetes, migraine headaches and the 2015 injury.
• Among the court’s findings was that there was no evidence that the woman sought psychiatric treatment or addressed her psychological issues in the intervening years beyond how she had historically addressed her anxiety and depression, namely with the same or similar prescription medications she had been taking before September 2015.
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Black + Decker’s MTD Products ‘Could Have Prevented’ Worker Burns in Ohio Blast

• OSHA found that Stanley Black + Decker’s MTD unit lacked safe work practices and training for electrical maintenance employees and for the use of required lockout/tagout procedures for energized electrical equipment, in a U.S. Department of Labor investigation of a December 2023 electrical arc blast at a company facility in Willard, Ohio.
• A 29-year-old maintenance electrician suffered severe burns in the incident that the investigation said MTD “could have prevented.”
• Investigators found MTD failed to provide personal protective equipment as required when employees are working around energized electrical equipment. The blast occurred while the electrician replaced fuses to repair an industrial oven, according to the notice.
• The company faces $222,392 in proposed penalties for one willful violation and four serious violations, according to the notice from OSHA’s Toledo, Ohio area director.
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OSHA Investigating South Carolina Bulldozer Operator Death at Generating Station

• OSHA is investigating an incident last week that left one man dead after a bulldozer he was operating into a coal pile at Santee Cooper’s Winyah Generating Station in Georgetown County.
• Robert Jordan died from injuries he sustained after the ground collapsed under a coal mound where he was operating the equipment, the local coroner determined.
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