Posts Tagged ‘DC’

News roundup: complex care, WV, VT, obesity & more

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

Happy post holiday weekend. This is a big vacation week, but if you are one of the many who is on the job today, here’s a serving of a few news items that caught our attention.
Complex Care – here at Lynch Ryan, we focus on helping injured workers to recover and get back to normal life activities, including work, as soon as possible. But the reality is that some workers have serious injuries that require long-term recovery or permanent care. The Work Comp Complex Care Blog focuses on issues related to injured workers who require ongoing care. A few notable recent posts on things that can have a positive impact on outcome over the long term: Success Story: Simple Change Makes A Big Difference For Injured Worker and Standing Improves Mobility and Wellness in Patients Confined to Wheelchair.
West Virginia – We’ve been seeing a spate of stories about state workers comp programs moving from BrickStreet to private carriers. BrickStreet has been the sole provider of such insurance for government agencies, but that changed as of today, July 1. BrickStreet says this is to be expected, the same thing happened when competition went into effect for private sector clients two years ago.
Vermont is cracking down – Vermont employers who don’t carry workers comp beware: your business may be shuttered. Previously, when an employer was found to be without workers comp coverage, there was a five-day grace period to obtain coverage before business closure, along with a fine of $150 a day. The Vermont legislature recently increased penalties for noncompliance – employers found without workers comp coverage must now be closed immediately and fines have been increased to $250 per day. In addition, as of September, the Labor Department will add four limited service positions to step up enforcement.
OSHA challenge – CalOSHA is convening a panel on how to better protect workers in the adult film industry. OSHA’s existing state blood-borne pathogens regulations already cover condom use in productions filmed in the state, but many in the industry oppose mandatory condom use. It’s a serious issue — Los Angeles health officials have linked eight of as many as 22 possible HIV infections identified between 2004 and 2008 as tied to the industry.
Economic indicators – Roberto Ceniceros offers a roundup of recent economic news. In another post, he cites a recent news report noting that five Ohio pension funds and the state’s Bureau of Workers’ Compensation owned 30 million shares of BP stock, and wonders whether other state comp funds might be similarly affected.
Catastrophic risk scenarios – Jared Wade of Risk Management Monitor tells us about 7 potential disasters worse than the BP spill.
Obesity – At Booster Shots, the LA Times health blog, Tami Dennis notes that the obesity rate now tops 25% in two-thirds of the states, with Colorado being the only state coming in under 20%. The data is from a recent report F as in Fat: How obesity threatens America’s future (pdf), which was issued by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
DC court says no to PTSD – the D.C. Court of Appeals denied benefits to a former Pepco employer who sought benefits for a work-related case of post-traumatic stress disorder. Benjamin Ramey claimed that he suffered fear and embarrassment that resulted in PTSD after being tested for being drunk on the job. After the drug testing, Ramey was placed on suspension and enrolled in a rehabilitation program, but fired when he was ejected from treatment due to continued drinking.
Note to fraudsters – If you are out on workers’ comp disability benefits, you may want to think twice about accepting a part in a Hollywood film.

Fail-Safe Failure

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

At least nine people were killed yesterday when a Red Line Metro Rail train crashed into an unmoving train. Washington D.C. trains are equipt with the latest fail-safe technology. Accidents are not supposed to happen: trains are controlled by computers, which theoretically prevent any two trains from occupying the same space at the same time (the textbook definition of an accident).
Something failed yesterday. The key player in determining the cause was the second train’s driver, Jeanice McMillan, 42. She died in the crash.
The accident occurred in full daylight. The first train had stopped due to traffic ahead. The second train, traveling at high speed while rounding a slight curve, crashed into the stationary train: the brakes had not been applied. We may never know what McMillan was doing at the time of the crash, but we can guess that she either was not looking ahead or was too panicked by what she saw coming.
It is too early to point fingers, but Metro officials have already singled out McMillan. A Metro source said McMillan was “relatively inexperienced”, ranking 18th from the bottom on the seniority list of 523 train operators. She had been a Metro employee since January 2007. Train operators must first operate a bus for a year before they can apply to operate the train. They then receive about 12 weeks of training. Among the many things we will learn in the coming weeks is just how effective that training program is.
The Operator’s Passive Role
Lyndsey Layton, a Washington Post staff writer, describes how the system is supposed to work:

The trains in yesterday’s crash were supposed to be in automatic operation, which means the operators would have been relying on the computerized system to run the trains. The only function required of a train operator during automatic operation is to close the doors after a station stop.

This raises an interesting issue: if computers operate the trains, how much attention on the part of the driver is required? With little to do between stations, drivers may tend to “zone out” because they don’t have to pay as close attention as they do when running trains manually. The computerized system creates a false sense of security.
Four years ago the signal system briefly failed in the tunnel between Foggy Bottom and Rosslyn, forcing a quick-thinking operator to stop his train manually to avoid a crash. The operator of one train noticed that he was getting too close to the train ahead. The signal system was telling him the track was clear, but he hit the brakes anyway. For reasons that we may never know, McMillan was unable to do this yesterday.
The problem may lie in the concept of a system that cannot fail. Ultimately, no mechanical system can be totally fail-safe. Perhaps DC needs to re-evaluate the role of drivers and figure out a way to keep them more actively involved on a moment-to-moment basis. We are all lulled into a false sense of security by the technical wonders that surround us. As yesterday’s crash demonstrated, that security might be an illusion.