Workplace Injury and Construction Accidents

Every day, construction workers are exposed to safety hazards that lead to serious injury. Skilled trades such as electricians, millwrights, pipe fitters, iron workers, mechanics, masons, painters, carpenters, roofers, instrument mechanics are required to perform tasks that expose them to fall hazards and other serious safety risks. Laborers must rely on others to insure a safe work environment and the use of safe equipment such as vehicles, ladders, hand tools, electrical equipment and lifting devices to perform their jobs. Outside contractors coming on to the work site are often exposed to injury due to sloppy housekeeping or unsafe material handling equipment. Yet, when a worker is injured or killed, management is quick to blame the worker as the cause.

For over 20 years Williams Cuker Berezofsky has championed the rights of the injured worker in recovery of money to make up for the harms and losses suffered by employees and their families. Williams Cuker Berezofsky accomplishes this goal by looking beyond the minimal compensation offered by workers compensation. Instead, we recognize opportunities to recover from third parties which allows us to recover the total amount of your losses to achieve justice. While insurance carriers may try to blame the worker, Williams Cuker Berezofsky conducts a thorough and detailed investigation which seeks to identify (1) what steps should have been taken to prevent the harm, and (2) who are the parties responsible for breaking the rules and failing to take appropriate safety precautions.

Third parties on construction sites generally comprise:

• Construction managers or general contractors in charge of overall planning, scheduling and coordination of work. The Construction Manager or General Contractor is usually responsible for environmental safety of all employees working on the job site, insuring the use of proper personal protective equipment, conducting safety inspections, maintaining a safe and healthful work environment and enforcement of safety regulations
• Owners of the site have responsibility to make sure that contractors hired to do the work are competent and are accountable for putting in place an adequate construction safety program.
• Architects and design professionals must incorporate adequate safety measures in their design documents and contract specifications.
• Subcontractors who create hazardous conditions or fail to follow federal and state safety codes and regulations
• Consultants who fail to recognize a hazard or warn the owner of a dangerous condition.
• Manufacturers and suppliers of machinery and equipment that is defectively designed or fails to provide adequate warnings or instructions regarding use.
• Suppliers of toxic chemicals for failing to warn of the health hazards or the use of proper protective equipment.

As most workers on construction sites know, preventing injuries requires planning and coordination from the top down. In fact, accident prevention is a legal requirement. While the list of potential risks is too large to mention here, an example of the hazards third party contractors must protect workers from include:

• open excavations, falling objects, welding operations, temporary wiring and overhead electrical lines
• openings in floors, roofs, skylights or any opening into which a person can walk
• operation of material handling equipment, power shovels, concrete mixers or supply trucks that are found not to be in safe condition or operated by inadequately trained personnel
• failing to provide appropriate ladders and scaffolding or failing to properly train in the use of such equipment
• failure to provide safe means for workers to gain access to the working platform
• potential injury during excavation work due to failure to test soil loads and hydrostatic pressure, identify underground utilities or install adequate of barricades
• failing to provide site specific fall protection including the use of full body harness, warning lines, guardrails, and safety nets
• inadequately designed or installed bracing or structural shoring that will not support the intended load

To consult with a member of the firms’s workplace accident group submit a free case evaluation form.