[CharacterCounts]

The employer is liable for an employee's acts of negligence, for the employer's own gross negligence, and for extraordinary risks of work.

Surely, sending a student worker (who may not even be considered an employee) up on a lift rated for no more than 10 MPH winds in a 50 MPH wind would fall into the gross negligence category.

[Mr. Lucky]

You've described the doctrine of respondeat superior which would attribute fault to an employer where an employee causes injury to a third party. It is of little significance vis-a-vis an employer's liability for a workplace death of an employee because fault is not a factor. There are only real exception, at least in Indiana, is where the employee is injured through the employer's serious and wilful misconduct. In that case, the review board may double the award.