A family lost a loved one to a pedestrian accident. It is a tragic story not just involving pedestrian safety but potentially worker safety as well.
What sort of priorities determine your work processes? For people in all types of professions, speed is a priority. Cooks and servers must be reasonably quick in order to get good tips. Writers must meet deadlines. Factory workers are supposed to get a certain amount of work done in a given period.
What about delivery drivers? Speed is certainly a work priority, but is it a more obvious threat to workers’ safety and other people’s safety, too?
A specific civil suit against Jimmy John’s opens up the door for the work safety question. Last August, a delivery driver who was supposedly speeding caused a fatal pedestrian accident. Though the driver wasn’t the one killed in the traffic accident, the risk was still there that he could have been at injured.
The negligence case against the sandwich franchise highlights the “freaky fast” delivery that is the focus of Jimmy John’s advertising campaigns. Family of the killed pedestrian argues that the driver was going too fast when he hit and killed the victim. Overall, the family suggests that it is the company’s fault that the accident happened.
Does that argument stand in regards to worker safety? What if a delivery driver were hurt in an accident while on-the-job? If he or she were speeding, is that because the company basically encourages a driver to do so?
Workers’ compensation cases can be complicated. Though a worker might always want to believe that his employer is on his side, sometimes an attorney is needed who can help ensure that a work accident victim’s best interests are indeed served.
What do you think about the Jimmy John’s “freaky fast” delivery push and its potential impact on safety?
Source: Pittsburg Post-Gazette, “Jimmy John’s sued in pedestrian’s death,” Richard Webnar, Feb. 5, 2014