A struck ramp worker could recover economic damages for medical costs, lost earnings and earning capacity, lost retirement benefits, and paid daily help. The worker could also seek non-economic damages, meaning human losses without a receipt, for pain, suffering, mental anguish, disfigurement, and loss of enjoyment of life. Here a ramp worker means ground crew handling bags, carts, and tugs on the ramp.
Federal OSHA investigated an April 23, 2013 incident where a tug pulling carts struck and ran over a tug operator, according to the OSHA inspection detail. The operator suffered a fractured abdomen. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 6.7 nonfatal injury and illness cases per 100 full-time air transportation workers in 2016.
Table of Contents
- What counts as economic damages?
- What counts as non-economic damages?
- What does workers' compensation pay first?
- When can a worker sue someone besides the employer?
- What records protect both claims?
What counts as economic damages?
Economic damages mean measurable money losses from an injury. Federal regulation 32 CFR 45.9 includes past and future medical and hospital expenses plus lost earnings and earning capacity, as stated in the current regulation text. The same regulation also includes lost retirement benefits and paid household or daily-living services.
For a cart strike, that can mean ambulance, emergency surgery, hospital stay, imaging, and physical therapy, plus future follow-up care. It can also mean missed shifts, overtime, reduced hours on light duty, and lower future earning power after lasting limits. Paid help for cooking, cleaning, rides, or home care during recovery can count when receipts show payment.
What counts as non-economic damages?
Non-economic damages mean human harms without a bill or pay stub. Federal law includes physical and emotional pain, suffering, inconvenience, impairment, and mental anguish, as described in the federal definition. The same definition also includes disfigurement, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of society and companionship, and other nonpecuniary losses.
Nonpecuniary means losses not priced in dollars. A fractured abdomen can bring acute pain, prolonged soreness, sleep loss, anxiety, and limits on lifting, walking, and work. Scarring or lasting weakness can support disfigurement and impairment claims. Lost time with family, missed activities, and reduced enjoyment of daily life fit the companionship and enjoyment categories.
What does workers' compensation pay first?
An injured ramp worker often starts with a workers' compensation claim. The California Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Workers' Compensation, says the system provides five basic benefits. They include reasonable and necessary medical care, temporary disability payments for lost wages during recovery, and permanent disability payments for lasting impairment.
Those benefits focus on treatment, wage replacement during healing, and payment for lasting harm. Keep every referral, restriction note, and payment stub because the file sets the baseline for later claims. Ask for written work limits at each visit.
When can a worker sue someone besides the employer?
A separate negligence claim is possible when someone other than the employer caused the harm. New Hampshire's labor agency says an injured worker may sue a third party other than the employer, co-employees, or insurer, as explained in the third-party actions guidance. The key is fault by that outsider, such as a contractor, equipment owner, or outside driver.
A third-party award does not simply add to workers' compensation already paid. The same New Hampshire agency states the compensation payer holds a lien to recover benefits paid from any third-party settlement or award. That lien reduces the worker's net tort recovery, so early benefit records matter.
What records protect both claims?
Start a file on day one and add to it after every visit. Save emergency records, imaging, prescriptions, therapy notes, and bills for all treatment.
Save pay stubs, schedules, overtime history, and every written restriction. Also keep equipment and scene proof for any negligence review. Request maintenance and inspection records promptly because they can change or disappear.
- Tug and cart numbers, time, gate, direction of turn, and names of witnesses.
- Photos of the path, lighting, markings, and damage to equipment or clothing.
- Maintenance, inspection, training, and prior incident records when available.
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