A 49-year-old worker was killed in a construction accident in Brooklyn after he fell four stories. According to a report in the New York Daily News, the victim was working on a demolition project and breaking apart a section of roof on the Flatbush Bank building the morning of May 27 when the piece of concrete on which he was standing gave way and he plummeted about 50 feet to the ground.
Fatal Construction Accident
The city had authorized permits to demolish the Flatbush Bank’s Renaissance Revival-style building, which was built in 1927 and approved permits for the building’s demolition in March. The current building owners plan to replace it with a nine-story hotel and apartment building with commercial space on the first floor. Officials said the worker, a Bronx resident, was not tethered to anything when he fell from the building located at Flatbush Avenue and Duryea Place next door to Kings Theater.
Medics rushed the man to a local hospital, but he succumbed to his injuries. A neighbor said he saw the worker fall from the roof and wondered why he wasn’t tethered. New York City Department of Buildings officials have begun an investigation into the worker’s death and have issued a stop-work order at the site. We offer our deepest condolences to the family members of the deceased worker. They will be in our thoughts and prayers.
Fall Protection Saves Lives
According to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), out of 4,779 worker deaths in private industry during the year 2018, 1,008 or 21.1% were in construction. This essentially means that one in five worker deaths in 2018 were in construction. The leading causes of private sector worker deaths in the construction industry were falls, followed by struck by object, electrocution, and caught-in/between.
Personal fall protection systems can go a long way in preventing a number of fall-related deaths in construction. A lot of construction activity in New York requires working from a height or elevation. Ironworkers, steelworkers, carpenters, masons, laborers or electricians typically need to use scaffolds, platforms, ladders etc. to carry out their tasks.
Contractors and construction companies (owners and managers) are required under the law to maintain a workplace that safeguards employees from falling off overhead platforms, elevated workstations or into holes in the floor. OSHA requires that fall protection be provided at elevations of 4 feet in general industry workplaces, 5 feet in shipyards, 6 feet in the construction industry and 8 feet in long-shoring operations. In addition, OSHA requires that fall protection be provided when working over dangerous equipment and machinery, regardless of the fall distance.
Construction companies, building owners/managers etc. have a responsibility to provide fall protection to workers as well as other personal protective equipment at no cost. Workers should also receive safety training and information about how to use protective equipment in a language they can understand.
Protecting Workers’ Rights
Workers in New York are protected by New York’s Scaffolding Law (Section 240 of the New York Labor Code), which requires contractors, owners and their agents to be responsible for providing necessary equipment such as scaffolds, ladders, hoists, stays, irons, ropes, blocks braces and other devices to keep workers safe from fall-related accidents. Under this section of the labor code, workers injured in scaffolding accidents have the ability to bring civil actions against the general contractor and property owner/manager responsible for the safety of the jobsite.
Workers who have been injured in a construction accident can seek workers’ compensation benefits from their employer which usually covers medical expenses and a portion of lost income. In addition, they may be able to file a third-party claim for substantial money damages and thus have two sources of compensation. Third-party claims are filed against parties other than the employer or co-employees and may include general contractors, sub-contractors, building owners, managing agents, construction companies, etc. In cases where a worker dies from injuries suffered on the job, surviving family members may seek death benefits through workers’ compensation and/or file a wrongful death claim against a third party who may be held liable for the fatal incident.
Contacting an Experienced Lawyer
If you or a loved one has been injured in a construction accident, the experienced New York personal injury attorneys at the Law Offices of Kenneth A. Wilhelm can help you better understand your legal rights and options, and also fight hard to recover just compensation for you. Our law firm recovered $3,375,576 for a construction worker (an undocumented immigrant) who was injured on the job – one of the highest construction case settlements in New York that year.
Please contact us TOLL FREE 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-800-WORK-4-YOU (1-800-967-5496). WE CAN EVEN COME TO YOU. There is no attorneys’ fee unless we recover money for you. We can also help with personal injury and/or medical malpractice cases in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, or Florida. If you have been injured in any of the 50 U.S. states, please call us and we will try to help you with your case.
Other TOLL FREE phone numbers for us are:
1-800-RADIO-LAW, 1-888-WYPADEK, OR 1-800-LAS-LEYES
Please visit us at: www.WORK4YOULAW.com
Source: https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-brooklyn-construction-worker-dies-fall-20210527-fpeuwrfkcnekflelkbjsus4b3i-story.html