There are roughly 500 construction accidents in NYC every year.
Most of the victims are workers. Some are pedestrians who happen to walk under scaffolding when something goes wrong.
Some common sources of injuries are:
- Falls, including slips, trips, and falls from great heights.
- Struck by objects, especially falling objects or moving objects, such as swinging booms.
- Electrocution, including burn damage, nerve damage, and cardiac arrest.
- Caught in/between accidents, such as accidents that track workers between walls and vehicles, or accidents where body parts are pulled into machines.
- Highway collisions on roadway projects
- Forklift and heavy machinery accidents
It is incumbent upon contractors to maintain the safest possible work conditions at a construction site. They should be taking precautions such as:
- Posting warning signs
- Installing guardrails or handrails
- Ensuring proper site lighting
- Ensuring the proper maintenance and construction of scaffolding
- Ensuring employees are equipped with proper PPE
- Keeping work areas free from clutter
- Stacking materials properly
- Securing tools properly
- Using proper lockout tagout procedures
- Training employees on avoiding hazards at the jobsite
Who pays for these accidents?
It depends. There are many people engaged in a construction project. It could be the owner, the engineer, the contractor who was working on the property that day, the manufacturer of the equipment or materials, the architect, or more. Determining which party is responsible is part of your New York construction accident attorney’s job.
If you are an employee, you can file workers compensation for these cases as well. You then use a personal injury case to fill in the gaps on paying for lost wages, pain, and suffering.
If you are a pedestrian who was injured while passing by a construction site, then you can recover by launching a personal injury claim.
We’ll start by making the case that the other party was negligent and you got hurt as a result of their negligence. This will allow us to maneuver their insurance company into offering a fair settlement. To this end, we investigate every angle of a construction accident claim. For example, we may examine equipment maintenance schedules to see if the owner of the equipment that hurt you was following a manufacturer-recommended schedule.
Either way, you have a limited amount of time to file a claim. If you’ve been injured in a construction accident, reach out to our office to schedule a case review today.
