Geographic Location: United States
Industry Sector: Hospitality-Gaming
Client Type: Private
Background Information
Over 40 years of hands-on international cross-industry fall protection experience has made Rauch a leader in expert witness services for complex and highly controversial cases.
Issues and Challenges
The aftereffects of a fall incident have enormous impact on all parties involved. Setting aside emotion and focusing on the actual events leading up to an incident can be particularly difficult when faced with the competing interests of injured personnel or their families, companies, insurers, and lawyers.
In almost all circumstances, evidence and information provided is shaped by the perceptions and interests of the presenting party.
These issues make it challenging for any expert whose task it is to examine all evidence and clearly identify the facts, no matter the source or their own personal feelings, and to then deliver an unbiased assessment of the incident.
Solutions and Recommendations
Set forth the opinions regarding the adequacy of the provision of employee safety training, procedures and protocols and subsequent documentation and records of same to the general engineering and maintenance employee population and more specifically to the injured employee and the group with which the injured employee was working. Opinions were formed based on review of documents that were obtained in the capacity of Expert Witness together with hands-on cross-industry experience and knowledge of local, domestic and international fall protection regulations.
Risk Factors and Assessment
The primary risk factor was seeing the results of the devastating injury and its long-term effects on the individual and his family, and not letting this affect the approach to the case or the unbiased review of the facts and evidence.
Many fall protection expert witnessesrely solely on regulations without first-hand knowledge of how work is performed. This myopic view and approach can lead to incorrect assumptions and conclusions.
In many cases there exist major differences between an entity’s safety department and programs and its workers, who find that the access procedures developed have nothing to do with how a specific area is accessed. Workers find their own way to “get the job done,” safely or otherwise, and fail to communicate issues with management or coworkers, thereby placing workers, companies, and owners at risk.
Through Rauch’s hands-on, first-hand knowledge and experience relative to real world workflow and access and fall protection practices, it is uniquely qualified to assess all of the factors and deliver a sound and unbiased pronouncement.
Project Successes
Rauch delivered an unbiased expert report which demonstrated that the employer provided exceptional safety training, procedures, policies, and protocols to its employees in general and specifically to the injured employee and the group with which the injured employee was working.
Ironically, the report also showed that the injured employee had the most safety training (including in the area of fall protection) of any employee in the company, and that the incident was caused by a combination of complacency and the violation of safety training, established protocols and policies, and normal and generally accepted workflow practices.
