Van Waters & Rogers and Hartford Insurance

HOWE, Justice: Plaintiffs Van Waters & Rogers and its insurance carrier, Hartford Insurance Company, seek to set aside an Industrial Commission order denying them a 15% reduction in worker's compensation payable by them to defendant Kenneth R. Workman as a result of an industrial accident. Plaintiffs contend that Workman willfully failed to use safety goggles provided by his employer, Van Waters & Rogers, which resulted in his eye injury being worse than it would have otherwise been, and that the 15% reduction set out in U.C.A., 1953, 35-1-14 of Utah's Workers' Compensation Act should have been imposed. On December 13, 1982, Workman delivered a tank trailer of hydrochloric acid to a mine site in Westvaco, Wyoming, for his employer. He arrived at around 10:30 p.m. on a cold windy night. He was wearing his safety face shield when he first attempted to start a compressor mounted behind the cab of his truck. He intended to use the compressor to force the acid in the tank through a discharge pipe and into a hose which he was going to connect to the customer's storage tank. He encountered difficulty in starting the compressor. The shield began to fog with the condensation from his breath. He attempted to work with one hand while raising the shield with the other. When he found he could not work with one hand, he exchanged his shield for his hard hat and goggles, and continued working for about 20 minutes. The goggles fogged, and the wind tugged at his hat and banged it against the tank. The available light was poor. He ended up trying to hold his hat on with one hand and work with the other. He stated at the hearing that it was like fixing your lawn mower with the light of a street lamp in zero degree temperature. He returned to the cab of his truck to exchange the hard hat for a stocking hat to shield him from the cold and resumed attempting to start the compressor. He could have removed the goggles from the hard hat and worn them with his stocking hat but did not do so.