Blog de Abogado en la Ciudad de Nueva York
Another summer in New York City has ended, but not before the even more construction deaths occurred the city. As with so many fatal construction accidents, these involved workers who suffered fatal injuries in a fall or as a result of falling objects. Falls and falling objects consistently are the most frequent forms of fatal construction accidents, yet a lack of proper protection continues to remain a major problem in the construction industry.
In New York, the law requires construction site owners and general contractors to provide all workers with the protection they need to safeguard against “elevation-related” risks of harm. When that doesn’t happen and a worker gets hurt, that worker can obtain an award of compensation for the harm he/she suffered. To learn more about the legal options available to you related to your construction accident, reach out to an experienced New York City construction accident attorney.
In the more recent incident, PIX11 reported that 59-year-old J.P. was standing inside the bucket of a cherry picker repairing a traffic light in Queens. At around 2:45 a.m. a tall box truck passed through the intersection where the traffic signal was located and slammed into the cherry picker’s bucket, causing the worker to fall roughly 20 feet to the ground.
The PIX11 report also indicated that the intersection where J.P. was working wasn’t blocked off. The worker allegedly had “a few cones in front of his truck” and “the lights were blinking.” CBS2 reported that J.P. was working alone at the time and that, in the accident’s aftermath, investigators were investigating to see if proper safety protocols were followed at J.P.’s work site.
In a tragic accident like J.P.’s, the results of the investigation may be immensely important to the family the worker left behind. New York law says that construction workers must be provided with proper safety protections against “elevation-related” risks of their jobs. That includes things like falls. If the investigation results in the investigators issuing a citation or citations for safety failures, then those citations could become extremely valuable evidence in any legal action the family might take as a result of the fatal accident. These citations might go a long way toward providing highly persuasive evidence that the protection provided to the worker was inadequate.
A few weeks earlier, a building collapsed in the Bronx, leaving one construction worker dead and two other seriously injured, according to CBS2. The first responders discovered that the workers appeared to have been working on the building’s second floor when the partial collapse occurred, causing material from the third floor to crash down on them from above, trapping them in the building material.
Just like with fall-related accidents, accidents from falling objects are also covered by New York’s laws protecting construction workers. Property owners and general contractors are required to be sure workers have the safeguards they need to protect them from falling objects, such as building material. If proper protection is not provided, then the worker or the worker’s family may be entitled to substantial compensation in a lawsuit.
Whether you were hurt at your construction job due to a fall, a falling object hitting you or some other reason, you may be entitled to seek recovery through the legal system. Call the New York City construction accident attorneys at Arcia & Associates to discuss the details of your accident. Our experienced team has many years of handling a wide variety of construction injury cases, and will help you choose the best path forward to meet your needs. Contact us at 718-424-2222 to find out how we can help you.