New York Construction Accidents Law Blog

American workers in New York and other states may enjoy more legal protections than their counterparts in other industrialized nations do, but recent events and data reveal that worker's safety is still lacking. In 2011, around 13 U.S. workers were killed on the job every day. The relatively high prevalence of worker deaths is believed to be a result of numerous factors, such as insufficient funding for agencies like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

In the recent case of a Texas fertilizer plant that exploded and killed no less than 15, it was revealed that the facility's last inspection was in 1985. The Government Accountability Office also revealed that the workplace safety rule making process is fraught with delays as a matter of course. New rules generally take around seven years to be drafted and implemented, and a quarter of them require at least a decade.

A 24-year-old Massachusetts man was killed April, 13 in a work-related accident in New York. State police reported the man was unloading a 1,700-pound pipe from a flatbed at the National Grid staging yard in Ballston Spa when it fell on him and pinned him to the ground. He was extricated and taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. The victim had been employed as a subcontractor for Feeney Brothers Excavation Corp. out of Dorchester.

When employees are injured or killed on the job from a falling object, investigations into the incident are immediately launched. Investigators scrutinize whether federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations were followed and if the accident was preventable. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 21 deaths in New York in 2011 involving contact with objects and equipment. "With every one of these fatalities, the lives of a worker's family members were shattered and forever changed. We can't forget that fact," says acting Secretary of Labor Seth Harris. 

May Day - May 1 - celebrates workers. Another day, Worker's Memorial Day, took place last week, remembering those who died on the job in the last year. Most of the workers who died might have been alive today had the proper safety precautions been observed.

This is particularly sobering in light of efforts in the construction industry to weaken or eliminate entirely laws that protect workers. One law that has become a particular target of the so-called "reformers" is the Scaffold Law, also known as Labor Law 240. This law requires building owners and general contractors to provide workers with protection against falls - the most common cause of injuries and fatalities in the construction industry.

Construction Safety Week, which began Monday, was kicked off by New York City Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri, who opened the 2013 Build Safe/Live Safe Conference. At the opening, he announced the results of Operation: Low Rise, which involved a two-month sweep of low-rise construction sites in New York's five boroughs. The inspections resulted in 879 safety violations and at least $965,450 in fines and penalties. Twelve percent of the locations received full or partial stop work orders.

In addition to conducting the inspections, building inspectors handed out more than 10,000 flyers in English, Spanish, and Russian encouraging workers to take safety precautions while at their job sites.

Construction fatalities were up in 2012 over 2011, with eight reported last year and five in 2011. Buildings on low-rise construction sites - nine stories or less -- accounted for seven of the fatalities. Injuries from construction accidents also increased, from 128 to 175. The majority of injuries involved falls.