There are many burn hazards we pass by in our daily lives that we may never notice. Open flames and fires are easy to spot and can usually be avoided, but hundreds of people a year in Kentucky suffer burns from electrical sources.
An electrical burn can cause damage to the skin by creating extreme thermal temperatures. Electricity may also travel into the body to cause extreme damage to internal tissue and organs. When an individual’s or a company’s negligence causes a devastating electrical burn, those at-fault parties and their insurance providers must be called upon to help victims as they seek care and recovery.
Schedule a Kentucky Electrical Burn Lawyer for a Free Consultation
A negligent driver, store owner, landlord, and others may be responsible for your electrical burn. When this is the case, those at-fault parties will have insurance that should provide you with recovery support. Sadly, that injury support is not guaranteed, and some insurance companies work to escape responsibility and leave you with the bill for medical care.
A Kentucky Burn Injury Lawyer blocks these unfair practices and protects you during settlement negotiations to make sure you and your family receive everything you need in recovery. Contact Kaufman & Stigger, PLLC, to schedule a free case consultation and find out what level of support you should be demanding for your burn injury.
Kentucky Electrical Burn Dangers
Serious burn injuries result from so many different types of accidents. Victims may come in contact with an exposed wire on an appliance at home or at a business like a grocery store. Victims could suffer an electrical burn during a car accident after a car’s electrical system is damaged.
Employees on Kentucky construction sites, factories, or any office could be forced to use ungrounded or malfunctioning equipment and receive a powerful shock.
These devastating outcomes are very different, and in fact, electricity can be dangerous in many different ways. These are just a few ways you or a family member could be harmed by an electrical discharge:
- Electrical burns – These injuries are caused when electricity shoots through the body. A current usually travels through the hands when a victim is allowed to touch a live source. Electricity travels through the body to cause damage to skin, muscles, blood vessels, and nerves. The heart, brain, and other body organs also suffer damage.
- Arc explosion – Injuries occur when electricity arcs through the air from a high-resistance area to a lower resistance area. Contact isn’t required. Victims are severely burned and will also suffer traumatic injury from the blast wave that is created. Temperatures can reach 7,400 Degrees Fahrenheit and some metals can be melted in the process to send super-heated droplets into the victim’s skin.
- Electrical fires – A shock may start a fire when near any combustible material. Electricity escaping a faulty power cord or machinery or tools can cause a fire and burn victims. A shock can also ignite combustible fumes to spark an explosion and fire.
Who Is Liable After A Kentucky Electrical Burn Accident?
The blame for accidents resulting from dangerous electrical hazards usually rests with a negligent property owner, employer, or manufacturer.
Property owners can include business owners or rental property management companies who don’t repair electrical hazards in their stores or in apartment buildings. A theme-park operator could also fall under this category and face liability after someone receives a shock while on a roller-coaster.
Employers are often negligent for not maintaining equipment properly and/or failing to provide proper safety gear to prevent an electrical burn.
A manufacturer could be found at fault for building and marketing an unsafe appliance or tool that ends up leaving you or a family member with an electrical burn. The crew that installed an appliance in your kitchen may also have created an electrical hazard.
There may be several parties that should be providing support to you and your family after an accident. A Kentucky Electrical Burn Injury Lawyer will determine each and every party that owes a victim fair support. This gives a patient a better chance of earning enough in compensation to pay for all medical bills.
Compensation Available for Kentucky Electrical Burn Victims
Electrical burn victims and their families must make sure to document every hardship they experience after an accident. These damages are listed and included in the injury claims filed with all insurance companies that bear liability.
It’s also vital to include all hardships expected in the future, such as additional physical therapy and any medical equipment needed with a permanent disability. Anything not listed in your claim could end up becoming your family’s financial responsibility.
These are just a few of the details that will factor into your electrical burn injury settlement:
- Totals on hospital bills and estimates on medical care expected to be needed in the future.
- Estimates on lifelong costs associated with a permanent physical disability like medical equipment, additional surgeries, and physical therapy. Career training could also be covered if a victim can’t return to a former occupation.
- Estimates for the long-term costs of permanent disfigurement or a scar. The costs of restorative and plastic surgery.
- Awards for the physical pain endured
- Awards for the emotional trauma endured. This includes the loss of enjoyment of life victims may experience. The loss of intimacy with a spouse or domestic partner should also earn compensation.
- Damage or destruction of personal property.
- Paychecks and benefits forfeited while a burn victim must miss work.
Electrocution and Wrongful Death Claims
Electricity is more than powerful enough to cause a tragic fatal accident. Electrocution is the term used for an accident that claims a life when an electrical current passes through a body.
Families of victims will be devastated by the loss of a loved one. The frustration will grow if it’s discovered that a terrible accident could have been prevented by the action of an employer, a business owner, a landlord, or the manufacturer of a tool or appliance.
Families of electrocuted victims are permitted to seek financial support from an at-fault party through a wrongful death claim. This civil lawsuit asks the at-fault party’s insurance company to help the family with funeral and burial costs and any remaining emergency response fees. Support should also be awarded to protect the family in the coming years when they’ll be without the love and financial support the deceased would have provided.
Contact a Kentucky Electrical Burn Accident Lawyer
After you or a loved one suffers a traumatic electrical burn injury due to someone’s careless act, talk over your options with a skilled Kentucky personal injury attorney. Insurance companies try to work fast so that you don’t have time to learn about every benefit available to you and your family. Don’t sign off on any settlement offer until you know how much your burn injury may be worth.
Contact a Kentucky Burn Injury Accident Lawyer and set up a free consultation. We offer this confidential service to every burn victim with no obligation. It’s a chance to discuss your best options with a real Kentucky lawyer. If Kaufman & Stigger, PLLC, can help you earn the most for your injury claim, you won’t need any money. We don’t get paid unless we win your case.