Construction Boom in NY Means More Accidents and Injuries for Workers

Over the past few years, construction has been on the rise in New York with more buildings and businesses moving on into the city. You may have heard about the cases in the news: A 36-year-old construction worker installing decking and fell 19 feet to his death after losing his balance. A 58-year-old Indian immigrant working on a façade on a building and tumbling eight stories off of scaffolding and onto a sidewalk shed. A 33-year-old plummeting 110 feet from an office building after attaching plywood to a parapet ledge. The stories are as equally disturbing, unfortunate, and usually entirely preventable.

The sad fact is that too many people are afraid to speak up about adverse conditions in the construction workplace due to the fact that they could possibly have their jobs held against them. The construction trade is made up of many immigrants who are most vulnerable for losing their jobs because of their legal status. Many of these same people have not been adequately trained and are not paid legally by their employers. Too few employers focus on safety as a whole and put lives at risk.

Negligence of Employers

There are many problems regarding construction workplaces in our modern times. For instance, as many people have said who have worked on different New York construction projects over the past few years, they have had to pick up the slack when employers fail to secure them in the workplace. For instance, many workers do not have the proper safety training that they need to excel and keep themselves from becoming injured. Furthermore, many employees are finding that they are supplying their own equipment because employers are not doing it for them; this could include such things as hats, gloves, and welding masks as well as equipment used on scaffolding to keep a worker from falling. It has been found that the key to saving lives is to require these employers to train all workers in many areas of safety procedures so that more of these fatal accidents can be prevented.

Injuries Sustained in New York Construction Projects

In 2015 alone, there were 16 construction accident deaths at NY worksites. There are several different injuries that are most prevalent in these accidents such as broken bones, lacerations, eye damage, head trauma, and other significant personal injuries. Construction accidents, if severe enough (like those sustained when falling a long way from a scaffold) can even cause death. One New York construction worker said in a statement that she suffered a workplace accident because she was forced to complete work in a trade she had never learned before. Many of these workers are forced into difficult positions and feel as if they must do the unsafe work so that they do not lose their job security. These same workers are usually not paid well even though they put in many hours of laborious work.

Construction work carries its own risks, which is why safety is of utmost importance on the job. However, some employers fail to see the risks and this is why injuries occur. If you have sustained injuries from a construction job and feel like negligence was at play, you may be able to hold your employer or another responsible party liable for your injuries. Call us today to get the compensation you deserve. At Maggiano, DiGirolamo & Lizzi, we have the experience to handle your construction case.