We’ve talked about the process for filing a construction accident lawsuit in other posts. In this one, we want to highlight the causes for these injuries.
Reason being: if you’ve been injured on a construction site and aren’t sure whether your situation merits a lawsuit, seeing an example that sounds like your situation can be helpful.
So let’s dive in.
Construction accidents with cranes
Any type of construction with cranes is already a dangerous scenario. Any small mistakes could have major consequences given the sheer scale of everything involved -- especially if the job deals with demolition.
Much like cutting down trees where one has to be very conscious of surrounding objects and people and take care to control the direction of the fall, construction demolition requires careful forethought to avoid injuries.
If the crane arm knocks walls or other structures down into an uncontrolled fall, any person in the path of the debris could be seriously injured.
Construction scaffolding accidents
Construction projects that involve walking around on unfinished floors and structures several floors above ground are another common source of construction injuries.
Any time corners are cut, safety regulations aren’t followed, or people are rushed there’s a chance for a serious fall.
We’ve seen cases where scaffolding gave out or collapsed with a construction worker still on it, causing them to fall great distances.
Unfortunately, the outcome of those falls is often grievous injury or even death.
Window cleaning accidents
This one is related to the scaffolding accidents mentioned above because window washers are often on lifts or scaffolding to do their jobs.
In a very similar way, if those lifts were to give out, come loose, or collapse it turns into a terrible situation very quickly. With the sheer heights some window washers are working at in New York City, tremendous care must be taken with the equipment and procedures to ensure everything goes to plan.
And luckily it usually does work out safely. But now and again there are instances of negligence where, after the fact, it was clear that the only reason the accident happened was because someone did not do their due diligence.
Construction sites not exercising proper safety precautions
This one is probably the most common cause of construction injuries. Not necessarily because people are always careless, but simply because this particular point can come from such a variety of missteps that a lot of things fall into it (categorically).
This can be cases where the crews were not wearing proper gear, such as hard hats, or were being asked to work in conditions that typical safety guidelines prohibit.
It can also mean the lack of proper signage around the construction site, poor coordination of different work being done that creates safety issues, and other similar situations.
Your options after a construction accident
Generally if you are working as part of the construction crew on a job site you’ve signed employment waivers that mean you cannot sue your employer when injured.
This is where Workers Compensation comes in as an immediate recourse to get you the help and financial assistance needed.
However, when there is true construction negligence at play there are circumstances when you can sue a third party other than your employer in addition to seeking Workers Comp.
The third party is usually the property owner, who is responsible even if your employer can’t be. In certain other cases, the responsible party could even be the city of New York itself.
The most important aspect of building a construction negligence case is establishing a clear case of serious, permanent damage you’ve sustained — and that the injury was clearly the result of some other party’s negligence.
