CONSTRUCTION ACCIDENT ATTORNEYS SERVING NEW YORK, NEW YORK

By nature, construction sites are some of the most dangerous places for workers. Massive equipment, deep digs, tall heights, and incomplete structures make a job site ripe for accidents, injuries, and deaths. Injured workers sustain anything from minor cuts and bruises to permanently disabling injuries. The financial, physical, and emotional tolls can be devastating.

If you’ve been injured while working at a construction site, don’t assume workers’ compensation is the only way you can recover damages. You have options. Regardless of your immigration status, you still have legal rights to seek full and fair compensation. 

For more than 35 years, Raskin & Kremins LLP has provided formidable representation for clients in personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits. If you live or work in New York City or in Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, or surrounding counties, call our office today.

COMMON CONSTRUCTION ACCIDENTS

In 2019, there were 565 construction accidents in New York City resulting in 595 people injured and 12 deaths. The  Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) classifies the majority of construction fatalities into four categories:

Falls

Injuries or death caused when a worker fails to use personal fall equipment or when that equipment fails. Injuries also occur when there is a failure to establish and maintain perimeter protection, cover and secure floor openings, and when ladders and scaffolding fail or are used incorrectly.

Struck by Objects

These accidents occur when a worker is stuck between fixed and moving objects, for example, between a concrete wall and a piece of earth-moving equipment. This might also include being struck by unsecured objects as they fall.

Collapsed Structures

Injuries or death caused when a trench or excavation five feet or deeper is not shored up adequately to prevent collapse.

Electrocutions

These occur when buried or overhead power lines are not identified or marked, when equipment, ladders, or scaffolding come into contact with them, and when power tools are not properly grounded and insulated and ground-fault circuit interrupters are not employed.

FILING A THIRD-PARTY CLAIM

If your employer is a subcontractor, they should have workers’ compensation insurance. Workers’ compensation claims require proof that injuries are work-related, but there is no finding of fault. You’re not at fault (unless you were using drugs or alcohol), and your employer isn’t at fault.

However, In a third-party claim, you establish that the owner, developer, or general contractor was negligent. You can file a personal injury claim if a third party did or failed to do something that would have protected you from injury. And if a loved one was killed while working at a construction site, you might be able to file a wrongful death claim against a third party for failing to provide a safe work environment.

POSSIBLE COMPENSATION

Worker’s compensation provides for medical expenses, lost wages while you’re unable to work, and for percentages of partial or total permanent disability caused by your injuries. New York workers’ compensation provides some support for loved ones in the event of a job-related death, including funeral expenses, but those benefits are tied to the worker’s average weekly pay for the preceding year.

In personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits, injured workers can receive compensation for pain and suffering, spouses can receive compensation for loss of consortium, and a worker’s future income potential, not their current average weekly wage, figures into the equation. In addition, a judge or jury could award punitive damages to punish the third party for its failure to provide a safe work environment.

HIRING A NEW YORK PERSONAL INJURY ATTORNEY

You need to retain an attorney who represents clients in not only workers’ compensation but personal injury and wrongful death claims because those responsible typically carry far higher limits on their liability policies. Your attorney needs to have the expertise to conduct thorough investigations of circumstances, equipment, and take witness testimony. They may need to retain the services of an accident reconstructionist, product expert, or a structural engineer. It’s not always easy to prove a third-party claim, so you need an experienced and knowledgeable attorney.