2y ago

Texas worker accused of being on drugs was actually dying of heatstroke

www.theguardian.com

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1919280

Mother of Gabriel Infante, 24, sues employer for $1m, saying construction workers had no protections from extreme heat

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2y ago

Texas worker accused of being on drugs was actually dying of heatstroke

www.theguardian.com /us-news/2023/jul/20/texas-construction-worker-death-lawsuit-greg-abbott

43 comments

Ahh strong conservative values strike again
had a recorded internal temperature of 109.8F
This guy was almost 110 and they were trying to pour water on him to cool him.
Your can have seizures at 105 and 108 is permanent brain damage territory.
What they need to do is sue for $100M not $1M.
A few headlines of companies suffering big financial losses can convince companies to do the right thing more than some law with a $10k fine. Companies will always do what is less cost/risk. You have to make the cost/risk of employee deaths more.
- That’s what the push for tort reform in the 90s was all about: minimizing the cost of lawsuits brought by injured parties. It never passed on a national level AFAIK, but Texas has a lot of limitations on burden of proof and maximum damages that could affect this case.
  
  Also, and this is entirely speculation, they might be looking for a number that they can actually collect. If you go too big, the LLC can fold and you might not see a dime.
  
  Abbott was the Texas AG and helped re-write legislation that reduced payouts on medical torts almost 30 years after he sued because he was paralyzed by a falling tree.
  https://www.texastribune.org/2013/08/04/candidate-faces-questions-turnabout-and-fair-play/
This was completely avoidable with common sense which most conservatives don’t seem to have.
- Common sense standards for worker protection is literally illegal in Texas.
A foreman insisted Espinoza call the police, claiming Infante’s bizarre behavior was due to drugs, and the foreman pushed for a drug test when emergency medical services arrived.
Yeah, it is not within your right as an employer to direct the medical care of your employee. Piece of shit foreman. He should be directly sued himself.
In case anyone isn't in the know, Gov. Greg Abbott just removed mandatory water breaks for construction workers
- Welcome to your ~~future~~ current capitalist hell-scape. Denied water breaks in record breaking heat waves, dying because of said forced work without water, accused of taking drugs because your dying makes you act odd.
  Brought to you by the same people that deny global warming.
- The Occupational Safety and Health Administration proposed a fine of $13,052 against the construction firm for failing to protect workers from heat hazards on the job, which the company is contesting.
  wow human lives sure are cheap
- Sounds like the tort system is going fix that for them. No employer is going to risk million dollar wrongful death suits for very long.
  
  That's why they hire migrants both legal and illegal. It gives you a better guillotine blade to hold over them
Why hasn't OSHA done something with regards to Texas's evil bullshit?
I just don't understand it. These people in charge need to live outside the country for a while and see different cultures, different points of view, instead of being blindly stuck in their ideology.
- But then they might have to second guess their "us vs them" mentality. And we definitely can't have that. /s
- How would that help this situation? It seems like a corporate greed thing, and plenty of rich shitheads are well traveled.
  If anything we should be asking why a majority of those construction workers probably voted for the people doing this to them.
Everything is dumberer in Texas!

43 comments