Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf is a New York Plaintiff's personal injury law firm specializing in automobile accidents, construction accidents, medical malpractice, products liability, police misconduct and all types of New York personal injury litigation.

Articles Posted in Construction Accident

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Bronx DA ClarkThree contractors have been indicted by the Bronx District Attorney’s office for manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide charges in the death of a construction worker. The victim was Segundo Manuel Huerta Mayancela, who was crushed by 1,000 pounds of debris at the construction site in 2019. 5 other construction workers suffered injury in the accident. The contractors involved in the incident have been charged for falsifying credentials, flouting safety standards and disregarding worker’s protections.

The contractors were charged for creating egregiously dangerous conditions at the building site, where they flouted building safety codes and ignored worker’s protections. According to the investigation carried out jointly by the NYC Department of Investigation and the Bronx DA, the contractors falsified credentials and permits and ignored oversight requirements, creating a dangerously unstable structure that led to Mayancela’s death.

The Bronx DA, Darcel D. Clark, said that the death of Segundo Manuel Huerta Mayancela was entirely preventable and that the construction site was a death trap waiting to happen. She emphasized that workers are not expendable, and anyone who puts construction workers at risk in an already hazardous profession would be held accountable. Clark also highlighted that the case predates the Carlos’ Law, which was enacted to create greater accountability for tragic and avoidable injury to workers at New York construction sites and increase penalties for criminal corporate liability for the death or serious physical injury of an employee.

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Factors in New York construction worker deaths in 2021Construction sites are inherently dangerous, and falls are one of the leading causes of death and injury in the industry. That’s why it is essential for construction companies to provide their workers with fall protection equipment and follow the safety standards set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Unfortunately, some companies prioritize profits over their safety, and the consequences can be deadly.

A recent case in point is the ALJ Home Improvement Inc. of Nanuet, New York. Despite being cited for 33 violations in seven federal workplace safety inspections in the last four years, including nine willful failures to provide required fall protection, the company was again found to be exposing its workers to potentially lethal harm just six months after an unprotected employee’s fatal fall. This time, an inspector with OSHA observed three employees on a roof 18 feet above the ground without required fall protection.

ALJ Home Improvement’s callous disregard for the law and the safety of its workers is unacceptable. OSHA Area Director Lisa Levy, stated that “the company repeatedly refuses to comply with OSHA standards and make worker safety a priority, choosing instead to put profit over the lives of its employees. The reality is that a safe workplace is actually a more profitable workplace.”

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leading causes of NYC construction accident fatalities
Last year’s construction worker fatalities and injuries reported in the NYC DOT “2022 Construction Safety Report” reinforce the importance of the New York Labor Law Section 240, also known as the “scaffold law” or “scaffolding law”, that holds owners and/or general contractors strictly liable for construction workers who suffer injury or died as a result of missing or inadequate safety equipment at elevated work sites.

The report highlights a significant increase in construction activity in 2022 in every neighborhood in New York City, especially in Brooklyn and Staten Island, with an 11% increase in initial permits for new projects and a 122% increase in initial permits for new building projects. The increase in new building permits is attributed to developers obtaining permits before the implementation of the 2022 NYC Construction Codes and the expiration deadline of the 421-a tax program. Additionally, there was a 15% increase in initial demolition permits issued and a 9% increase in the issuance of Final Certificates of Occupancy for completed projects.

The rise in construction activity in the city also led to a rise in accidents, with falls remaining the number one cause of fatalities in the NYC construction industry

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JFK airport where two construction workers were killedTwo construction workers lost their lives after being buried under rubble while moving utility lines at JFK airport. This incident highlights the importance of workplace safety, particularly in high-risk industries like construction.

According to The New York Times, 41-year-old Francisco Reyes and 28-year-old Fernando Lagunas Pereira were trapped under rubble after a 30-foot trench collapsed at the Calpine JFK Energy Center, a power-generating plant that supplies electricity to the airport. The accident occurred around 11:00 am. More than 60 firefighters, multiple units of police, and medics to try to save the workers. However, despite the efforts of emergency responders, it took two hours to recover the bodies of both workers who were pronounced dead at the scene.

While the exact cause of the accident is still under investigation, it is clear that a tragic loss of life has occurred. As attorneys who have represented numerous clients who have been injured or killed in construction accidents, we know all too well the devastating impact such incidents can have on workers and their families.

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deadly-construction-site-at-126-LafayetteA construction worker died and 3 others suffered personal injury after a wall collapsed at a Manhattan construction site located at 126 Lafayette Street near Canal Street.

The accident occurred on Tuesday around 1:00 pm. Workers were demolishing a 3-story building. They had already demolished the third floor when a rear wall collapsed, burying a 64-year-old worker under a mountain of rubble. Two other workers tumbled from scaffolds and another one was also injured.

Firefighters arrived quickly at the scene and used  their owns hands and hand tools to remove the victim from the rubble. The 64-year old worker was rushed to the hospital where he later died from his injuries.

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After a dip in 2020, construction accident deaths in New York State and New York City were on the rise again in 2021 according to the recently released “Deadly Skyline” report.  “Deadly Skyline” is an annual report released by the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH). NYCOSH uses the most recent available data from the United States Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (DOL BLS) to compile an annual report on construction accident deaths in New York City and New York State.

A total of 61 hard hats died in NY State in 2021 compared to respectively 71, 69, 58, 55 and 41 in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. Since 2016, during which a record number of construction workers died in NYS, the number of fatalities gradually declined to reach its lowest since 2013. While the slowdown in construction activity due to the Covid19 lockdown was a factor in the 2020 dip, the number of fatalities reported in 2021 jumped above the number of fatalities reported in 2019 and 2018.

fatalities in construction NY State 2021
Among the 61 construction workers who died in NY State,  20 of them died while working on a construction site in NYC. Construction workers fatalities also increased in 2021 in NYC compared to 2020 but remain lower or equal to the number of fatalities reported annually between 2013 and 2019 in the city. With the exception of 2020, construction fatalities in NYC never went below 20 since 2012 ands the only time they went down to 20 was in 2017.

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OSHA picture of the fatal construction accidentThe negligence of a contractor caused the death of a construction worker in Poughkeepsie in 2017. Maximiliano Saban died and another of his colleague suffered personal injury after a wall collapsed on them.

The wall collapsed because the contractor, Finbar O-Neil who owns OneKey LLC, did not follow OSHA safety rules. O-Neil had to implement a soil compacting plan involving piling large quantities of dirt called surcharges on top of the construction sites of 3 buildings. An engineering company prepared the plan on how to use the  surcharges. However to gain time, O-Neil decided that, instead of following the plan, he would build a wall that would retain one of the surcharges so that workers could start to work on the building next to it. He made the decision on his own without consulting with engineers to know if the wall would sustain the surcharges.

On the day of the accident, some construction workers complained that construction machines were on the top of the surcharges adding dirt to it. Later on during the day, Maximiliano and a colleague were working next to the wall when it collapsed. They both ran away but Maximiliano was unable to escape.

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SST new cardNew York City construction workers and their supervisors who are working on large or complex construction sites will be legally required to have a Site Safety Training Card issued by the NYC DOB Training Connect Platform.

These cards are equipped with a chip and can be scanned to validate their authenticity. This new legal requirement will take effect on February 1st 2023. Workers who have a SST card issued before January 1st 2022 have to contact the facility that provided them with training and ask them to replace their card with a new card that can only be issued through the NYC DOB Training Connect Platform.

Since  2017, after a peak in construction accident fatalities in New York City, a new construction law was adopted in an effort to reduce construction workers injuries and fatalities. The law  requires every hard hat working on a New York City construction site to attend site safety training classes and to carry a card attesting that they did it.  Unfortunately, while every worker is supposed to sit in classrooms for a certain amount of hours and learn about site safety, some unscrupulous contractors didn’t want to allow their workers to spend so much time sitting in classes and just issued fake cards to them. Other workers got fake cards from unscrupulous individuals and unauthorized course providers started to proliferate issuing invalid certificates to workers.

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location of the deadly accidentA construction worker died after falling from a scaffold in Manhattan last Monday morning. The accident occurred at a residential building located at 263 West End Avenue, on the corner of West End Avenue and 72nd Avenue in the Upper West Side of Manhattan (see picture).

According to a preliminary investigation of the Department of Buildings, the 36 year old construction worker whose identity was not revealed, was installing netting on a scaffold at the 15th floor of the building when he fell to his death onto the sidewalk shed.  So far, the investigation of the DOB found that the worker did not receive site safety orientation before he started his work.

A full stop order was issued as DOB continues its investigation. The building owner, Riverside Towers Corporation, had an active work permit for façade repair and for the scaffold at the time of the accident. The  worker was employed by Rennon Construction and the General Contractor of the site is J&S Waterproofing. (read more in Construction Dive)

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construction workers have a high risk of fatalityDespite OSHA’s efforts, the death rate on construction sites in the US has not declined for the last 10 years, questioning the effectiveness of the agency.

While there is no doubt that OSHA is doing a great job developing and implementing safety standards, it does not have enough resources to proprely inspect jobsites. Additionnally fines are not only too low to dissuade bad actors but also most of the time they are not being paid and OSHA has little resources to go after those who don’t pay. Also on the top of deaths purely related to construction accidents, the opioid crisis and suicides are also taking a toll on construction workers.

For the last decade, out of every 100,000 construction workers, 10 died on the job. Among those fatalities 3 out of 5 died from what is known in the construction industry as the “Fatal Four”:

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