Two Workers Seriously Injured in Bronx Scaffold Accident

 Two workers suffered major injuries in a scaffolding accident after they fell down 20 feet from a platform. According to a report in the New York Daily News, the two men were working on a 12-story apartment building on Third Avenue near East 167th Street in the Morrisania section of the Bronx when they fell. Both men suffered head and neck injuries and one of them was reportedly in critical condition. A co-worker at the site said he saw the two men on the ground and one of them was bleeding from the head. The worker said the men fell through an opening in the scaffolding.

Ongoing Investigation into Scaffolding Safety
The Daily News reports that the men worked for a masonry company and were installing stone slabs on the building’s façade. Three wooden planks were missing from the scaffolding on which they were working and they fell through the gap, witnesses and the site’s safety coordinator said.
The New York City Department of Buildings issued a partial stop work order after an inspection revealed that the scaffolding did not have an end railing and wasn’t fully planked. Also, workers at the site did not produce scaffolding training cards when asked. In May, the city had slapped a violation on the general contractor on the project for failing to cover up holes on the floor. That violation is reportedly still pending.
Scaffolding Safety
Nearly 65 percent of the construction industry – workers such as bricklayers, masons, painters, carpenters, ironworkers, electricians, etc. work on scaffolding. That’s an estimated 2.3 million construction workers, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reports.
Protecting these workers from scaffold accidents may help prevent 4,500 injuries and save about 60 lives each year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports. A recent BLS study shows that 72 percent of workers injured in scaffold accidents attributed the incident either to planking or support giving way, or to workers slipping or being struck by a falling object.
Why Do Scaffolding Accidents Occur?
Scaffolding is a common fixture in construction sites because it is necessary to accomplish work at higher elevations. However, falls from scaffolds result in catastrophic or even fatal construction accident injuries. Here are some of the most common causes of scaffolding accidents:
• Poor construction: It is imperative that a professional oversees the construction of scaffolding to ensure that it is safe and compliant with OSHA standards. However, it is common for a number of construction companies and contractors to use shoddily constructed scaffolds that lack safety features. A safety specialist is required to check and approve all structures including scaffolding before workers begin the job. When a scaffold is constructed with substandard materials, or in such a way that it is unable to withstand the weight of the workers, it may cave in or collapse.
• Lack of training: Workers are required under the law to receive proper training regarding how to use the scaffolds. Improved worker awareness helps prevent accidents.
• Lack of safety features: Scaffolds that are properly constructed should have toeboards attached to keep workers safe from anything that might fall on them. Without toeboards, an object on a platform can get kicked down and strike a worker who is at a level below.
• Fall protection: When workers don’t have fall protection such as harnesses, safety nets and guardrails, they may fall down and suffer serious injuries.
Laws and Liability Issues
New York City’s Scaffolding Law governs the use of scaffolding, staging and other structures that workers use to carry out their jobs at construction sites. The law primarily requires general contractors, building owners and managers etc. to provide the necessary equipment to protect workers from on-the job falls. It also gives injured workers the right to bring civil actions against parties responsible for the site’s safety such as construction companies, general contractors, and building owners and managers.
The law states that unlike other types of injury lawsuits, an injured worker’s own negligence, unless it’s the only 100 percent cause of his or her injuries, will not preclude recovering compensation, when falling from a scaffold, ladder, etc. A worker can be 99 percent at fault and still win the case.
Protecting Workers’ Rights
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 cases in New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, or Florida. If you have been seriously 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
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bronx/workers-injured-falling-scaffolding-bronx-article-1.3538964