More Recent Construction Site Injuries Part of Continuing Trend in New York
Several construction workers have been injured or killed as part of an alarming trend of unsafe working conditions for New York construction workers in recent years. Read on to learn about the accidents, and contact an experienced New York construction site accident attorney if you have additional questions.
Several injured, one dead, in New York City construction accidents over the last month
On July 12, a 28-year-old Staten Island construction worker was killed recently while working on scaffolding at a job site in Upper Manhattan. A beam fell from scaffolding off the 13-story Morningside Heights building and struck the worker on the head. He was taken to Mount Sinai St. Luke’s hospital where he was pronounced dead. The building had five prior construction violations, which were all resolved.
The next day, a worker fell down a hole at a worksite in Brooklyn and had to be rescued by firefighters. The worker suffered serious injuries and was sent to Bellevue Hospital for treatment. The city Department of Buildings then responded to a complaint that the worksite was unsafe for workers and sent inspectors that same day.
Most recently, on August 2, a construction worker hurt his leg while working inside 3 World Trade Center and was taken to Bellevue Hospital. The injury was not life-threatening.
Injuries in line with increasing trend of fatal construction worker injuries in New York
A report released by the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH), an organization funded by trade unions, found that injuries to construction workers have skyrocketed in recent years, hitting a 14-year high in 2015. Seventy-one workers died in 2017 in New York. While the fatal injury rate in New York City has decreased over the past five years, New York state has seen a 29.5% increase in the fatal occupational injury rate for construction workers in the same time span. From 2006 through 2015, 464 construction workers died on the job across New York state.
NYCOSH found a large decrease in OSHA inspections in NY over the last twenty years, likely contributing to the increase in fatal injuries. NYCOSH found that, in 2014, over two-thirds of safety inspections at work sites in New York found safety violations. Falls are the leading cause of construction deaths: 2015 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that 49% of deaths in New York state and 59% of deaths in New York City were caused by falls. NYCOSH emphasized that non-union sites are much worse for workers, finding that around 94% of workers who died on private worksites were non-union.
If you or someone you love has been injured in a construction site accident in New York, find out if you have a right to compensation for your injuries by contacting the knowledgeable, effective and dedicated Hudson Valley personal injury lawyers at Rusk, Wadlin, Heppner & Martuscello, LLP for a free consultation at 845-331-4100 (Kingston) or 845-236-4411 (Marlboro).
