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Rotschy, which routinely hired teenage workers amid recent labor shortages, violated the law when supervisors assigned tasks known to be dangerous and prohibited for minors to perform.
L&I later issued significant fines against Rotschy for the incident, but has for years approved special “variances” for the company to hire minors despite its history of serious safety violations.
For their part, Derrik and his parents say they do not hold Rotschy responsible. It was a fluke, an unlucky break — not the company being neglectful, they said.
“I don’t think Rotschy failed my son in any way,” Derrik’s dad said. “All these events culminated into this accident.”
I hope they were paid very, very handsomely to say that.
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.”
I got the same vibe. From the kid’s expectations and reactions, to the parents’ own words on the incident:
“I don’t think Rotschy [the company] failed my son in any way,” Derrik’s dad said. “All these events culminated into this accident.”
The kid is on defense from the moment he tells his mom that something bad happened to him, then his dad absolves the company of any wrong-doing. Healthy, loving, supportive families don’t react like that. If his parents aren’t chugging the kool-aid, I’d be astounded.
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.
Okay, so who the fuck thinks it’s cool to let kids use machinery capable of ripping up rocks and dirt with relatively little effort?
Show of hands. No one?
Somebody belongs in jail over this.
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?
… exactly the right lessons for those in power.
Jesus fucking Christ, what are you gonna learn doing construction work?
Wheelchair-based sports apparently.
I got school credit working at McDonalds. You learn all sorts of stuff, like how to show up on time (something I was shocked I would have to later teach people as a manager) and I personally learned the phrase “you got time to lean, you got time to clean” (which I use to this day to irritate my children). Obviously, no child should be put into a dangerous job, but you do lean some things by actually experiencing the work environment. And construction is a legit, respectable job/career that (if done right/safely) a teen could learn a lot from.
Which subject did “show up on time” give you credit towards?
Keeping employed?
Is that a school subject in America?
You are supposed to learn more at school than just the classes. Among other things you should learn how to interact with other humans in a decent way, and how to not be tardy, how your actions affect others, and more
Then again, we are talking about america
Yes you are. But that’s not how school credit works?
I learned to read a tape measure, covert fractions to decimal, practical application of the Pythagorean theorem, and quite a bit about the application of dimensions and measurement in three dimensional space.
I didn’t think it’s bad for a kid to have a job, provided the hours are limited, do not interfere with schooling, and are integrated into school curriculum. Parents also have a duty to monitor the employer, and the employer should view the teenager as a trainee who might make the company money as an adult, not a source of direct profit.
So, you know, a fantasy
There’s a ton of practical knowledge and skills a student could learn from a properly structured experience in construction. The focus needs to be on education first with productivity being a bonus, however, which I’m skeptical was the case here due to the outcome.
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.wanna know what’s really getting to me?
There’s a very high chance he wasn’t even being paid a proper wage (it’s required that they’re paid minimum wage. But I doubt very much that they paid higher than that.) And, there’s a non-zero chance that somebody at the school or schoolboard was taking kickbacks for the cheap labor.
in any case, looking at their Child Labor Laws would expressly forbid this.
Specifically in non-agro:
- Operating forklifts or other heavy equipment such as earthmovers, tractors, backhoes, etc.
- Loading, operating, or unloading of paper/cardboard balers or compactors
- Jobs where respiratory protection or hearing protection is required
and in construction:
- Wrecking, demolition, trenching, or excavating
Yep, and tow motors.
Sounds like it wasn’t legal there.
But the place that’s going to illegally let a 16 year old use a ditch witch probably isn’t too concerned with proper safety training either.
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.
It’s trencher, it’s specifically mentioned in WA labor law as forbidden.
Basically, a high powered chain saw, except its blades are larger for digging.
Jesus that machine he was using looks like it would take off way more that just legs if it lurched.
A bigger question I have is who the fuck has a 16 year old working construction??? I’m fairly certain there’s no way any of that kind of work falls into “legal for a minor to operate” especially considering minors aren’t even allowed to operate cardboard compactors at retail stores.
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
dumbillegal 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
No need for the strikeout, it’s dumb and illegal
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?
No, the reason is that minors have special protections because they don’t have the rights adults do. Most importantly, the kid cannot live independently without emancipation, and the kid has no voting rights. He cannot vote for representation that would improve his situation (regardless of who he voted for does it or not).
However, as a minor, he is entitled to an education in the US, and knowingly putting his life at risk puts that education to risk. And people can argue until they are blue in the face about being in “life risking situations” but child labor laws have explicitly forbidden this sort of dangerous work because others profit off of it, leading to incentive to circumvent that entitlement.
This isn’t just about safety, this is about rights. This is about law. And more importantly, this is about the interference of education when money comes into play.
Well the fact he still works there and that the parents don’t “blame” the company makes this prime boringdiatopia material.
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.
I kinda doubt they would be doing an interview like this if they signed a NDA. But maybe I am wrong.
Depends, but most of the time with NDA they don’t prohibit you from talking about how an accident happened. They just don’t allow you to assign liability/responsibility to the company.
The victim and the family of the victim kinda fell over themselves to make it clear that they don’t blame the company, despite the fact that they were so negligent.
“I don’t think Rotschy failed my son in any way,” Derrik’s dad said. “All these events culminated into this accident.”
The fuck?? That kid never had a chance.
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.
100%
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 grew up in Washington State. At first this sounded like WANIC, a program where high schoolers can learn trade jobs instead of taking 1/2 periods of class. I didn’t see it referenced at all in the article.
It is a cool program though. You can do things like Fire Fighters Academy, learn construction skills (although not like this trenching stuff AFAIK). I took classes at DigiPen, a college for video games, and ended up going there after high school.
If you have kids in school in WA, consider WANIC as it is paid by the state.
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.
They make good money but it’s brutally hard on the body.
I’ve been doing labor for 15 years already with no reward. Luckily 5 years ago I joined a union so at least I’m on my way to having an actual pension and future
Clearly fines are just a cost of doing business for Ratchy. Whoever approved Derrick to work on that machine should be arrested. Same goes for the other violations.
lost his legs for a fence? Jesus. Wtf kind of trenching machine were they using?
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.
This is what passive violence looks like.
