Angel Celaya, 48, suffered serious personal injury in a workplace accident the afternoon of September 21, 2009 after he fell off a scissor lift. According to a news report in The Orange County Register, Celaya was working in one of the buildings at Boeing's Huntington Beach campus when he fell off the lift. Huntington Beach firefighters responded to the call, but Celaya was pronounced dead just nine minutes after his fall.

I offer my deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Angel Celaya for their tragic and heartbreaking loss. My heart goes out to everyone who knew and loved this man. Please keep them in your prayers.

Work Injury Statistics in California

According to the California Department of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal-OSHA), in 2005, a total of 453 people were killed in industrial accidents. Out of these fatalities, 59 deaths were attributed to falls and 25 were caused by workers getting trapped in machinery.

In this particular case, it's not quite clear what caused this fatal job injury. There are many questions here. Who was Celaya working for? What kind of a job was he doing? Was Celaya properly trained to perform the task he was doing at the time of his fall? Were all the required safety procedures being enforced? Was there any negligence involved on someone's part that caused this accident?

An Experienced Personal Injury Lawyer Can Help

The tragic aspect of an industrial or workplace accident is that it can cause devastating injuries that can prove fatal or result in permanent, lifelong disabilities for the worker. In many cases, the injured or deceased worker is the sole breadwinner for his family. Workers and their families are usually covered by California workers compensation benefits. However, these benefits are woefully inadequate and often do not compensate an injured worker or his family to cover medical expenses, loss of earnings, cost of long term care and other related losses and damages.

In cases where a death is involved, the family of deceased worker may be able to file a wrongful death claim against a "third party" who could be a contractor, sub-contractor or the manufacturer of a defective product that may have caused the fatal injury. Such third party claims are worth a lot more to families than workers compensation benefits. An experienced Orange County personal injury lawyer will be able to explain to families of victims about their legal rights and options in such cases. The best injury law firms will offer free and comprehensive consultations to injured workers and their families.

The BISNAR|CHASE personal injury law firm is not representing any of the parties mentioned in this article at the time the article was posted. Our source for the facts is cited in the article. If you were involved in this incident or a similar incident and have questions as to your rights and options, please contact us or another reputable law firm. Do not act solely upon the information provided herein. Get a consultation. Most of the best law firms will provide accident victims a free consultation.

We cannot fully inform any party or family member about their rights, options or the economic viability of any claim for compensation without a full investigation and consultation. We will not be conducting an investigation into this matter unless we are retained by a party. We will provide a free, confidential consultation to any, not at fault, person named in this article. The free consultation offer extends to family members as well.

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