Chainsaws Recalled Because They Might Not Turn Off

Harbor Freight Tools announced the recall of approximately one million of its electric chainsaws due to a malfunctioning power switch. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reports the power switch is defective, and can allow the chainsaw to continue running even after the operator has turned the switch to the “Off” position, putting the operator…

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CPSC Warns Riders to Keep ATVs Off Paved Roads

Summer is in full swing, with dozens of outdoor activities waiting for us. For many of the adventurous in Oklahoma, that means ATV riding. Going out on an all-terrain vehicle can be lots of fun, but it’s important to avoid an accident and injuries. The U.S. Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recently released a public service…

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Causes and Consequences of Crushing Injuries

On any worksite with heavy equipment and heavy objects, there’s always the risk of a worker having an accident where a part of their body can be caught and severely crushed. These are called “crush” or “crushing” injuries and can result in catastrophic injuries, including amputation of a limb, or even death. If you suffer…

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New Tariffs Could Threaten Oil Production in Oklahoma

President Trump recently announced he is going forward with his plan to apply tariffs on imported steel and aluminum—25 percent and 10 percent, respectively. When he announced his initial plan in March, U.S. allies Canada, Mexico, and the European Union were to be exempt, but the most recent announcement includes all three. The plan has…

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What Is an Oil Well Blowout?

An oil well blowout is an uncontrolled release of crude oil. Blowouts occur when pressure release systems fail. They can also occur if a spark or flame contacts the oil or for other reasons. Oil well blowouts cause death and catastrophic injuries to workers near the scene of a blowout. Prior to the 1920s, according…

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The Electronic Logging Device Requirement for Commercial Trucks

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) requires that commercial drivers, as of December 2017, use Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) to track important data. The ELDs are similar to the black boxes used in airplanes, and help investigators understand how an Oklahoma truck accident happened. The devices replace written records and logs, which often weren’t…

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Traumatic Brain Injury – What It Is, Why It Happens

Our brains are incredibly complex. The medical and scientific communities make frequent breakthroughs in understanding how it works, but researchers agree that much of the knowledge about our brains still remains a mystery. Although modern medicine makes great strides every day in diagnosing and treating brain injuries, there’s still a lot to understand about the…

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Why is Thursday Trucking’s “Deadliest Day” of the Week?

Driver safety technology is evolving, and automakers and trucking companies are paying attention. By installing features like anti-lock brakes, lane drift warnings, blind spot detection, and other safety applications, cars and 18-wheelers should be getting safer. Unfortunately, fatalities continue to occur at an alarming rate on our nation’s roads and highways. In Oklahoma and throughout…

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Cunningham & Mears Is a Proud Supporter of Wings

Our society does a pretty good job of providing educational opportunities to special needs children. But after they graduate high school many of these people are faced with a very difficult reality that there just aren’t many options for them for what they can do. Wings is an incredible organization that was founded with the goal of…

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Oil Rig Explosion Injures Two in Wewoka

An oil rig caught fire and exploded in Wewoka, about an hour outside of Oklahoma City, and injured two workers. The explosion occurred on April 2 while workers were installing an oil and gas pumping unit near Highway 56. Two workers were injured in the accident. One was evacuated by helicopter to a hospital in…

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Construction Site Accidents and the Fatal Four

Here in Oklahoma, we depend on construction workers. We depend on them to build our homes, our shopping centers, office buildings, and medical centers. It’s a physically demanding job and, as a result, the number of on-the-job accidents tends to be higher than other industries. Recent OSHA data reveals that 21.4% of all on-the-job fatalities…

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The Long-Term Effects of Spinal Cord Injuries

One of the most serious injuries a person can sustain is a spinal cord injury. This type of physical trauma can result in paraplegia, an inability to move the lower part of the body, or quadriplegia, which is the inability to move the body at all. With any spinal cord injury, even if the patient…

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Court Ruling Allows Oil Workers to Sue Well Operators

Injured oil-field workers can sue well operators for injuries suffered on a drilling rig, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled in a unanimous decision on March 13, 2018. In December 2013, an oil field worker was hurt on a rig near El Reno and filed suit. That lawsuit led to a State Supreme Court ruling that…

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Why Do Tractor Trailer Rollovers Occur?

Truck rollover accidents can be some of the most deadly crashes on the highway. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) states that an average of four cargo tank truck rollovers happen every day in the United States. And, many of these incidents are preventable, as they occur due to driver negligence or poor truck…

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Oklahoma Oil Rig Explosion Claims the Lives of Five Workers

On Monday January 22, 2018, five workers died in an explosion on an oil drilling rig in Oklahoma, which is being considered the deadliest oil and gas accident since the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010 which claimed 11 lives. The oil rig that exploded is owned by Patterson-UTI, a Houston-bases drilling and hydraulic fracturing company…

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Truck Drivers Scamming Hours of Service Safety Rules

When truck drivers are exhausted, yet continue to drive an 80,000-lb. machine along highways, everyone is put at risk – even the truckers themselves. The mission of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is to oversee the safety of our highways by governing commercial vehicles like trucks that transport good and busses that transport…

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The Dangers of Oil and Gas Extraction: Avoiding Falls

Every workplace carries with it some degree of risk of injury for workers, but some industries, such as oil and gas extraction, are more dangerous than others. PBS News reports that, on average, one oil field worker dies about very six weeks on the job in the Bakken fields, which tend to get a lot…

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Struck-By Injuries in the Construction Industry See a Staggering 35% Increase Since 2010

Struck-by injuries are one of the most common injuries for construction workers. Throughout the United States at roughly 252,000 constructions sites, nearly 6.5 million people work on an average day. The fatal injury rate for the construction industry is one of the highest of all industries, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)…

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Opioid-Related Car Crashes See a Seven-fold Increase

A CBS News story reports that prescriptions for OxyContin (oxycodone), Vicoprofen (hydrocodone) and morphine have quadrupled from 76 million in 1991 to nearly 300 million in 2014. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that opioids killed more than 33,000 people in 2015, which is more than any year on record. One of…

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Sports Waivers In Oklahoma

More adults than ever are choosing to participate in organized sports activities, placing themselves at a heightened risk of injury. Factors that contribute to adult sports injuries include age, lack of agility and poor conditioning. The likelihood of receiving damages for injuries suffered during a sports activity, however, may be limited by various factors — including the…

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Dram Shop Liability In Oklahoma

According to recently published data, approximately one third of all road fatalities in Oklahoma involve drunk driving. If you are injured by a drunk driver in Oklahoma, you may be able to sue a number of parties, including the bar that served the drunk driver. Basis for server liability in Oklahoma Oklahoma’s Supreme Court has held that…

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Combating Insurance Company Bad Faith

Insurance companies have dedicated staffs of insurance adjustors, attorneys and accountants who are charged with minimizing your damage payments. In the best circumstances, the conduct of these parties can be inconvenient and time-consuming. In the worst circumstances, an insurance company’s tactics to deny coverage can cross the line into bad faith.   What is insurance bad…

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