Chicago Billboard Worker Injury Lawyer

Billboard workers are exposed to a number of risks on the job, including falls, electrocution, and being struck by vehicles or other objects.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2016, there were 9 fatalities and 2,500 non-fatal injuries among billboard workers. Workers compensation insurance is an important way for companies to protect their employees in the event of an accident or injury.

Billboard worker accidents and workers’ compensation benefits cover medical expenses, lost wages, and death benefits if an employee is killed at work. At Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers, LLC, our Chicago personal injury attorneys specialize in serving as legal advocates for injured workers to ensure they receive maximum compensation for their damages.

Contact an Illinois workers’ compensation lawyer at (888) 424-5757 (toll-free phone number) or use the contact form today for immediate legal advice and schedule a free consultation. All confidential or sensitive information you share with our legal team remains private through an attorney-client relationship.

Dense urban areas and long stretches of freeways are littered with thousands of billboards and outdoor displays that advertise local and national companies and products.

Billboard workers perform a variety of duties, including installation and maintenance on the paper advertisement, physical sign structures, billboard area, and the surrounding property.

The responsibilities and duties of a billboard employee include:

• Climbing without restriction on extension, portable, and fixed ladders.
• Perform duties on working platforms positioned at the height of 125 feet or less under various weather conditions
• Lift 100 pounds or more without restrictions
• Safely operate various equipment, including gas-powered compressors, generators, lawnmowers, chainsaws, and paint sprayers.
• When maintaining or installing bulletin and poster signage, utilize a full range of motion.
• Work with iron or steel girders that are raised and secured in place.
• Erect structural members to build frameworks and structures to hold media boards.

Are you the victim of a work injury caused by someone else’s negligence? If so, you are likely entitled to workers’ compensation benefits.

Contact the workers’ compensation attorneys at Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers, LLC for more information and a free review of your legal rights and options. The attorneys at our law firm represent people suffering workplace injuries in a work accident or from exposure to hazards.

Common Billboard Worker Hazards

Billboard display professionals installing and maintaining media signage are at substantial risk of suffering injuries or being killed on the job. Some of the obvious risk factors involved in performing the duties as a Billboard Worker include:

• Windy Days – While the wind might be minimal at ground level when the workers climb to heights of 100 feet or more, weather conditions can change significantly. At that height, winds tend to intensify in both urban and rural areas.
• Inclement Weather – Working at great height during the storm can pose significant risks and create an unsafe environment. The worksite becomes even more dangerous when lightning is present. Workers should make every effort to climb down from the high structure and protect themselves during a lightning storm.
• Structural Failure – If the billboard structure fails due to a defect, rust, or other conditions, it can create a dangerous work environment for the employee working on the ladder or platform and any unsuspecting worker below. The staff should routinely inspect the building structure to identify any severe injury that requires repair or replacement to minimize problems.
• Electrocution – Faulty wiring, human error, or other metal billboard structure conditions could lead to unexpected electrocution or near-fatal electrical shock.

Billboard Media Workers’ Wages

The annual employment statistics maintained by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics for the year 2016 revealed that there are tens of thousands of billboard workers employed in the United States.

These statistics reveal that billboard workers earned on average $26.94 per hour, or $56,040 every year. This job-related income is significantly higher compared to national averages. See Chart

Billboard Worker-Related Fatalities and Injuries

Even though federal and state agencies have gone to great lengths to improve safety measures for individuals working at significant heights, accidents with injuries and fatalities still occur.

For nearly all injured and killed workers, catastrophic results came unexpectedly due to a variety of reasons, including inclement weather, faulty equipment, electrocution, and falling.

• Case 1: March 2007 – An employee accessing a billboard using a ladder fell to his death during an attempt to “service an electronic display unit on the face of the billboard.”
• Case 2: August 2007 – Worker Seriously harmed by Contracting Boom. Just before noon on August 8, 2007, an employee assigned to fix an advertising sign used a telescopic boom truck while positioned inside the basket. The worker reported that “when the boom was extended out, he found the problem with the sign, and he started to retract the extended boom [realizing that] the boom would not retract.” The worker tried three unsuccessful attempts to retract the boom when the device “started falling in on itself and retracting. He fell about 50 feet along with the basket before impact and struck his face on the basket’s control panel.”
• The worker “seriously injured his face. He was taken to the San Francisco General Hospital.” The investigators could not identify a deficiency and found the lift to be in “good and working order. A thorough inspection was conducted at the shop, and no problem could be found with the operation of the boom.” The employer stated that he was able to operate the boom without any problem.
• Case 3: February 3, 2017 – Two media billboard workers were possibly electrocuted while working on a media board. In February 2018, two men working on a billboard in an urban area during the early morning hours suffered serious injuries. The workers were transported to a local medical center, where one was listed in fair condition and the other in serious condition. An early investigation revealed that the men were likely electrocuted while working on the billboard structure. Initially, the case was reported to authorities as an explosion.
• Case 4: January 2008 – A Billboard Worker is Killed from Impalement After Falling. On January 7, 2008, a billboard worker “was installing the advertisement for an outdoor billboard. He fell a distance of 10.5 to 11 feet and was impaled by a fiberglass stake that was driven into the ground.” The injured worker died from his injuries.
• Case 5: March 2012 – A billboard worker died after falling from a billboard advertisement sign. On February 22, 2012, a billboard worker “was preparing to descend from a billboard after installing an advertisement sign. He fell 30 feet and was killed.”
• Case 6: September 2010 – The employer of a billboard advertising company was killed “while erecting a billboard.” The incident report indicated that on September 10, 2011, at approximately 9:28 AM, “the owner of Ralph Surles Co. was erecting a double steel billboard. The two signs were on the ground in the upright position … one sign had a catwalk on which [the company owner] and his employees were walking.”
• The sign “with the catwalk toppled onto the adjacent sign, pinning both workers. A third worker, who did not witness the incident, summoned emergency responders to extricate both workers.” The owner was killed. “The other employee was airlifted to the hospital for unspecified injuries. Weather conditions and the weight of the two  employees may have contributed to the incident.”

What to Do After an Accident Involving Billboard Work?

There are certain measures that workers and employers can take to minimize the risks of working at elevated heights while ensuring the safety of the workforce, maintaining, building, and installing signs and signage for advertisement.

Employers and employees are required to follow the standards, rules, and regulations outlined by OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) to ensure employee safety. The federal agency enforces fall protection standards to prevent employee injuries from falls.

These standards include:

• “Guard every floor hole where a worker can accidentally walk.”
• Provide a guardrail [on] every elevated open-sided platform for a runway.
• Regardless of height, if the worker can fall into dangerous machines or equipment… the employer must provide guardrails … to prevent workers from falling and getting injured.”
• The employer must “provide working conditions that are free of known dangers.”
• The employer is responsible for keeping “floors in work areas in a clean and, so far as possible, dry condition.”
• The employer must “provide PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) at no cost to workers.”
• The employer must “train workers about job hazards in a language they can understand.”

Both the employer and the worker can take measures when risks involving electrical energy are identified.

These measures require identifying overhead power lines and other wires. Other steps include preparing for inclement weather and avoiding rain, wind, and other changing weather conditions that might affect the successful job and decrease the risk to the employee.

In precarious situations and dangerous conditions, the employer, foreman, or worker should call the electric power company and have the powerlines attached to billboards de-energized.

OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) published a report in 2017 indicating that falls are the leading cause of death in the workplace, representing 39% of all construction-related deaths. The federal agency requires employers to ensure workplace safety to prevent workers from falling and causing severe injuries or death.

Do You Need Assistance to File Your Accident Injury Claim From A Personal Injury Lawyer?

Our workers’ compensation lawyers help injured billboard workers recover the compensation they are entitled to receive under the IL Workers Compensation Act and through civil lawsuits. Call us now for a free case review.

If you have been harmed in a job-related accident or suffered an illness or exposure, you are likely entitled to receive workers’ compensation.

However, our legal team can help you determine if you are also entitled to receive additional monetary recovery from third parties as well. Our lawyers will do everything possible to ensure you receive maximum value for your insurance claim.

Our personal injury lawyers score every legal option to maximize a workers’ compensation claim and seek other financial opportunities, including how to prove a third-party personal injury case. While you might be limited in the amount your family can receive through worker’s compensation, a personal injury claim for compensation has no limit.

The worker’s compensation lawyer reassigned to your claim can handle every aspect of your case. Their efforts include filing a claim, gathering evidence, building your case, presenting the lawsuit in front of a judge and jury, or negotiating your settlement.

How to File a Workers’ Compensation Claim

According to state law, every employee suffering an on-the-job injury can seek legal remedy through the workers’ compensation benefits program.

The law requires that every employer carry workers’ compensation insurance on each employee, including those in the billboard industry that covers all medical expenses, lost wages, and other damages associated with the incident that led to their injuries.

Typically, workers’ comp cases are resolved through the employer’s insurance company to ensure that injured employee receives as much money as necessary for their medical care, ongoing treatment, rehabilitation travel expenses to the doctor, and other costs necessary to return to work.

However, filing a workers’ compensation claim can be challenging, often requiring the skills of a personal injury lawyer specializing in workplace accidents. A skilled attorney can provide immediate legal representation for financial recovery should payments be denied or delayed.

A competent worker’s comp lawyer has the best negotiation skills to overcome many of the hurdles from attorneys who represent employers seeking to minimize damages.

In many cases, the employer’s workers’ comp insurance carrier will deny a permanent partial disability payment for a worker who has suffered a severe work injury and is unable to return to any position at the company.

Filing Third-Party Lawsuits For Financial Recovery Over Workers’ Compensation Benefits

In some cases, personal injury lawyers working on behalf of the plaintiff will find other defendants responsible for the incident that led to the victim’s injuries and damages. Many of these cases involve car accidents where the injured party was driving a company vehicle when they were injured.

These people are entitled to receive additional financial recovery over and above their workers’ compensation benefits.

Typically, potential defendants could include:

• The other driver
• Job site subcontractors
• Visiting vendors
• Property owners
• Employees working for other companies

Do you suspect that someone else’s negligence led to your damages? If so, consider speaking personal injury lawyers specializing in workers’ compensation benefits in third-party lawsuits.

Call our Chicago law office at (888) 424-5757. Schedule a free initial consultation with our office staff to discuss your legal options. A worker’s compensation lawyer can answer questions immediately.

Contact A Chicago Billboard Injury & Workers’ Compensation Law Firm

You never need to make any upfront payment for legal services because our personal injury law firm accepts all compensation cases through contingency fee agreements.

The legal fees are paid only after our attorneys have successfully resolved your compensation case by negotiating an out-of-court settlement on your behalf or by winning your case at trial.

Our workers’ compensation lawyers accept all personal injury cases on a contingency fee basis, meaning if we do not win your case, you owe us nothing!

All confidential or sensitive information you share with your workers’ comp lawyer remains private through an attorney-client relationship.

Resources:

• OSHA Safety and Health
• Accident Information