An Edmonton mine worker who was injured while working at the Minto Mine in Yukon is suing the owner of the mine, Capstone Mining, and mine contractor and former employer Pelly Construction, for damages for his injuries.

The worker, Timothy Hansen, filed a statement of claim in Yukon Supreme Court last week. The accident that led to the suit occurred in July 2009, as he was operating a Caterpillar 330 loader, and rocks and debris fell from above, striking his head and body. The claim does not specify whether the rocks fell from the worker’s own loader bucket or elsewhere. At the time, he was taken to hospital and diagnosed with traumatic brain injury and musculoskeletal injuries.

In his suit, Hansen says he continues to suffer pain and a lack of function in his left hand and arm, as well as emotional distress. He claims that he continues to receive medical treatment for his injuries and to have a reduced quality of life, a reduced ability to earn money, and an ”impaired ability to engage in occupational, domestic, social and recreational activities.”

The suit also accuses two fellow employees of negligence leading to a lack of safety guards on the loader, a broken cab window, and a lack of other safety equipment. He claims he told one of the individuals his concerns, yet alleges nothing was done to address them.

His suit asks the court to grant him regular and special damages, as well as claiming his insured benefits on behalf of the Yukon government.

I was just reading some news reports about legal cases where people had injured themselves with defective equipment (hey, you have to read stuff like this if you write a blog about safety), and the real tragedy about all of them is that these cases are often long and drawn out, and the plaintiff doesn’t always win.

The problem is that liability isn’t always so cut and dry in these cases. You say the drill bit just plain snapped off, the company says they didn’t recommend it for that kind of wood. You say a power saw exploded (this kind of malfunction is more common than you think), they say you didn’t run a proper safety check.

The companies who put out cheap, shoddy products do eventually get their comeuppance, but they don’t take it lying down. A company is going to do everything it can to dodge a lawsuit.

So if you use a lot of construction equipment, power tools, or anything else that can seriously hurt you if it’s not up to par, what can you do to protect yourself? If you can find a good lawyer in the first place, the company would rather spend a million bucks fighting the case than a few thousand to pay for your stitches, because being found to have knowingly put out a bad product, that hits them where it really hurts; not their wallet, but their reputation.

Just look at what happened to Firestone after all those tires exploded. A product recall and bad press aren’t too high up on any CEO’s list of ways to have a good time, which is exactly why they’re always more willing to settle out of court than fight and, possibly, lose a case.

So what you really want to do is simply prevent these mishaps as well as you can. It’s so hard to get money out of a power tool company that there’s actually a field of law devoted entirely to amputation. There are two things you can do to prevent injury, even in the event of a shoddy product…

Do your research

Check out as many customer reviews as you can and look for any comments on how safe the product really is.

Practice your regular safety routine

Check a drill bit for any cracks or imperfections before inserting it, wear your goggles and hard hat, and so on. It won’t prevent every accident, but if you get hurt while not following the proper safety code, that’s going to hurt your case.