Kentucky man fights for benefits after losing both arms in workplace accident

Here’s a story about an worker in Kentucky who suffered a catastrophic injury at work and now faces the dilemma of pursuing his case through the state’s workers’ compensation system or through the courts.

William “Billy” Parker lost both arms in a recent accident and now has to decide whether to accept a WC payout or sue his employer.

The article reports “… the law is so strict, the Kentucky Supreme Court held in 2004, that knowingly putting an employee in harm’s way isn’t enough to win a lawsuit, even if the employer knew it might kill the worker.”

Experts on workers’ compensation have said the system in Kentucy is so bad that an employer would have to literally ” …shoot a worker for the employee to recover damages against the company in court.”

To add to the devastation of the accident, Billy Parker has the added burden of figuring out how to support his son (he’s a single parent) and pay for adapting his house to the needs of the disability.

As of the publish date of the article (May 19, 2007), Kentucky’s OSHA had yet to release their official report of the accident, with the employer and victim having dramatically different versions of what happened.