You have no idea how much corporate bootlickers love to bootlick. Even at the expense of their own kids.

I guarantee you this guy is an avid Newsmax watcher.

In fact, I'm suspicious of both of his parents:

“I told Mom not to get angry … upset,” he interrupted, then paused. “What did I say?”

and

“I cut my legs off. Then, of course, she yells at me.”

Oh Rotschy. L&I isn't the only regulatory agency penalizing them. I would not set foot in a building their crews constructed.

I came here with the same quote about the dad not blaming. Seriously. WHAT. They’ve been fined for this kind of shit before, repeatedly. Son loses his legs and he’s still brown nosing them??

Also yeah the mom getting mad was also a red flag. Oof. Sounds like this poor kid has had to grow up too fast, and it got him hurt by trusting in this program. They also mentioned they never went through a safety plan or anything. Oi vey.

Tbh, sounds like child labor to me even if it was "legal". Like school credit for hours on a construction job wtf? Like I thought maybe he was some how doing a metal working/machinist class and somehow got fucked up by a lathe or something, but Jesus fucking Christ, what are you gonna learn doing construction work?

I couldn't even read the whole thing, it made me too sick!
I don't know American regulation, but there is absolutely no way that would be a legal workplace here.
Handling such machinery requires a certificate. Even a simple forklift does.

It looks in the same category as equipment like lawnmowers. That is, kids shouldn't be operating them, especially not without close supervision and thorough safety training.

This is gross negligence by the boss, and it's very very common in smaller construction companies and crews. Allowing a minor to operate heavy machinery is ~~dumb~~ illegal to start with, but the kid learned unsafe behavior from his coworkers, who likely never had any proper safety training themselves. Garbage in, garbage out. (Walk behind trenchers are shite anyway, pay the extra $50 to rent a ride-on trencher)

There is a place for teenagers on a construction site, but it's not in high risk areas or work. So much can be learned about work ethic, practical skills, and the challenging realities of construction without risking life and limb.

I grew up in a construction household. My dad was a small time contractor. Custom homes, spec builds, one at a time, bank financed, that sort of thing. I go into that detail to say we weren't rich, not even middle-class until I was almost graduated from high school (secondary school). Also this isn't an endorsement for how I was raised, just my lived experience.

I learned to run a skid-steer at 13. I was cutting lumber for the framers by the time I was 15. In many ways the skills I learned as a child set me up for success as an adult. But I also learned so many unsafe practices and endangered myself from a young age because of that casual familiarly with dangerous work and locations. The entirety of my twenties was spent unlearning bad habits and practices. I'm still working at it now.

The only time teenagers should be working on construction sites is if the company has a very strong safety culture, which means they won't put kids in high risk situations. Parents should absolutely be checking these things before allowing their kids to work

Now, I gotta ask.... Why are you implying that it's better for a person 2 years older to handle the same machine with the same lack of safety features/proper supervision? Everyone here is making a big stink about this being a "kid", but a few years older and this is the reality for many many people. Also the same age we let them start driving.... So why are you only seemingly outraged that it was a kid? Shouldn't you be outraged that it could happen to anyone, and in fact regularly does, and is usually not given any attention?

To be fair, they may have signed an NDA as part of their workers comp agreement. The prosthetics he has are pretty rare to see on people, as most private and socialized insurances won't cover microprocessing knee units.

The vast majority of the time when you see a high end powered knee unit on a guy that young, it's because they had a workers comp case, or they got them at the Walter Reed veterans hospital.

The knee looks like a Genium x3, which alone can bill for around 100k. His prosthetic feet bill for around 10k a piece, and then there's probably another 50k for custom sockets.

Even if he did harbor a grudge against the employer, in his position it would be difficult to rock the boat and potentially be on the hook for his acquired medical cost.

It's unfortunate, but I've definitely had a patient who was successfully sued for losing their leg at work. Word to the wise, don't get hurt on the job in Kansas.

Yeah that kid will look back in 15 years and wonder why the fuck his parents didn't try to hold someone accountable. So many people failed to protect this child, he doesn't even realize it.

If only there were multiple layers of safety so that any single one of them would have prevented the incident. Oh well, more children for the child grinder.

And by events, he means skirting of regulations. But sure, it was totally unavoidable.

I wish my high school had this program when I was there. We were all getting pushed to work on computers and shit and I wanted to part of it. I remember teachers actually saying "if you don't learn about computers you're gonna end up being a plumber or garbages man" fuck I wish I made as much as garbage men and plumbers do.

My school looked down on and shit on labor jobs so it was never pushed on us as an option.

A pretty standard hydraulic trencher. Have you ever seen one? They're serious business, and you should absolutely, under no circumstances, step away from the controls while it is running. He shouldn't have been using it in the first place, but even if he was, he should have been told that. Repeatedly. With great emphasis, and accompanied with graphic descriptions of what can happen if you don't respect the machine. From the report it sounds like he got a brief overview and someone maybe watched him using it for a couple hours. Then they told him to work it by himself with no supervision the next day.