A man suffered injuries in a construction accident after falling off a sidewalk shed at the exclusive Carlyle House on the Upper East Side the afternoon of Feb. 15. According to Patch.com, the worker suffered a back injury after the fall. Initially, FDNY reported that the worker had fallen from a ladder.
A subsequent Department of Buildings inspection discovered that the worker had fallen off of stairs attached to a sidewalk shed at the upscale location on East 77th Street and Madison Avenue. The contractor was issued violations by the DOB for a failure to immediately notify the department of the injury and for an unrelated failure to provide safety barriers at the construction site.
City records show that the building has been undergoing facade repair work since last year. Patch.com reports that the New Jersey-based contractor, since 2015, has received seven violations from the DOB’s scaffold safety team for issues at this worksite. Our thoughts and prayers are with the injured worker. We wish him the very best for a speedy and complete recovery.
Protecting Workers Against Falls
Construction companies, contractors and other responsible parties must set up, assess and maintain worksites with care in order to prevent employees from falling off scaffolds, overhead platforms or other structures. OSHA requires that fall protection be provided at elevations of 4 feet in general industry worksites, 5 feet in shipyards, 6 feet in the construction industry and 8 feet in longshoring operations. OSHA also requires that fall protection be provided when working over dangerous equipment or machinery regardless of the fall distance.
Further, OSHA recommends the following measures to protect workers from fall-related accidents and injuries:
• Guard every floor hole by using a railing and toe-board or a floor hole cover.
• Provide guardrails and toe boards to prevent workers from falling and getting injured.
• Provide workers with safety harnesses, safety nets, stair railing and handrails, depending on the nature of the job.
• Keep floors and work areas clean and dry to avoid slip and fall or trip-and-fall accidents.
• Train workers about job hazards at the site and on using their safety equipment in a language they can understand.
Rights of Workers in NYC
A lot of construction work in New York City requires ironworkers, steelworkers, carpenters, masons, bricklayers, painters, window washers, and electricians who carry out their job while on scaffolds, ladders, platforms, etc. Workers injured in falls can bring civil actions against general construction companies, managing agents, building owners, some contractors and sub-contractors, property owners/managers, etc. Construction accident injuries can be debilitating and sometimes, even catastrophic or fatal.
New York’s Scaffolding Law (of the New York Labor Law) requires on many buildings 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. Since this law was enacted in the early part of the 20th century, workers injured in scaffolding accidents have had the ability to bring civil actions against the contractor and property owner/managing agent responsible for the safety of the jobsite.
A construction accident victim can seek workers’ compensation benefits from his or her employer. In addition, workers and their families may be able to file a third-party lawsuit for substantial money damages against a number of parties, 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.
Contacting an Experienced Lawyer
If you have suffered injuries in a construction-related 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. Our law firm also recovered $3,000,000 for a man who fell and suffered two broken legs when he walked into an open elevator shaft. Also, one of our clients obtained a verdict for $43,940,000 and another of our clients got a verdict for $23,500,000, both in medical malpractice cases.
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, lead poisoning and medical malpractice cases including, brachial plexus palsy (Erb’s palsy) and cerebral palsy cases in New York, 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
Source: https://patch.com/new-york/upper-east-side-nyc/worker-injured-ues-carlyle-house-fdny