Spring of 2015 has started with a rash of serious construction accidents, two already this month. On April 1, a construction worker died after he fell six stories at a job site in Brighton Beach. Just this week on the 6th, another construction worker was buried up to his neck in debris after a freak accident and was pronounced dead on arrival at Lenox Healthplex later that day. Construction accidents aren’t unusual, but the number of resulting deaths lately certainly is.
In many cases of construction workers being injured on a job site, workman’s compensation laws handle the situation in a defined way. In exchange for paying for a construction worker’s lost wages and health expenses, employers can’t be sued for negligence. Two notable exceptions in New York are the Scaffold Law (Section 240) and the “Safe Place to Work” Law (Section 241).
The Scaffold Law can provide monetary damages in addition to Workman’s Compensation when project owners and/or general contractors are negligent in providing adequate safety measures. Safe Place to Work demands that all areas are unobstructed, shored, equipped, guarded, arranged, operated and conducted as to provide reasonable and adequate protection and safety. Failure to meet either law’s dictates might be grounds for a personal injury case.
Yet in cases where a construction worker dies due to injuries sustained while on the job, those cases are tried under Wrongful Death laws. When a person dies due to the misconduct, negligence, or recklessness of another, that is a wrongful death. Families of anyone who dies in a construction accident, has the right to hire a wrongful death attorney in NYC.
