Connecticut Personal Injury Blog

Many teens seek summer employment in the restaurant industry. From casual dining chains to high-end restaurants, you'll be seeing more of them taking your orders and busing tables over the next few months. Many you may not see because they are behind the scenes in the kitchen.

Restaurant work can be dangerous for anyone. However, it can be particularly hazardous for inexperienced, part-time employees. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reports that the majority of work-related injuries among those under 18 occur in the restaurant industry. There are several key reasons for this:

• Teen employees have less on-the-job experience, so they often don't know how to protect themselves from common restaurant hazards.
• Teens are more likely to take risks because they don't understand the dangers.
• If they're only working in a restaurant for the summer and/or part-time, they may not get the amount of safety and other training that full-time workers receive.
• They may not know their rights. Minors are often prohibited by law from performing certain hazardous tasks. Connecticut also has restrictions on the hours that minors can work in restaurants and at other jobs, both during the school year and during nonschool weeks. Long shifts can increase the chances of mistakes and carelessness that can lead to injuries.

As warmer weather returns to Connecticut, many people will be spending time in pools owned and managed by others, whether it's at hotels, apartment buildings, community recreational areas or other people's homes. You can't always be guaranteed that these pools are maintained appropriately or properly supervised.

Unfortunately, too many people -- particularly children -- are severely and even fatally injured in pools every year. Statistics from the federal government show that drowning is the second leading cause of death from unintentional injury for children between 1 and 14. It's the leading cause of injury-related death for kids from 1 to 4 years old.

The National Motorcycle Institute (NMI) posits that one of the leading reasons that motorcyclists become involved in crashes is because of carelessness. They note that there are certain actions that they can practice when operating their motorcycles on public roads to avoid hurting themselves or others.

Their researchers point out that a motorcyclist shouldn't start riding a high-performance motorcycle until they've used a less robust, "learner" one for at least one year.

Statistics released in late February by the Stamford Public School System shows that 148 employees filed claims for workers' compensation for injuries that they'd suffered from mold exposure during the 2018-2019 fiscal year. This accounts for 38 percent of all claims submitted by any city employees. Only 80 of those claims submitted by paraprofessionals and teachers were filed for other types of injuries or illnesses.

When asked to comment on the high number of mold-related claims filed in the district, one of Stamford's Board of Education members questioned what the source of the information was. She noted that, as far as she's aware, there have been only three workers' compensation claims filed by custodians, the actual workers who are responsible for cleaning it up. She notes there have been significantly more filed by the teaching staff.