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 Scaffold Accidents

Published on:

By

time-warner-centerTwo window washers narrowly escaped a fatal accident on Friday morning after their scaffolding became unstable and began swinging wildly 78 stories above the ground on West 58th Street. The workers, who were wearing safety harnesses, were not properly secured with safety lines, leaving them at extreme risk of falling. Firefighters from the FDNY had to break windows, stabilize the rigging, and pull the workers to safety.

This harrowing incident highlights the dangers that window washers and other high-rise maintenance workers face in New York City. While safety harnesses are required by law, they are useless if not properly attached to secure anchor points. The fact that these workers were not tied off is a shocking and preventable oversight that could have led to a catastrophic outcome.

Negligence and Liability in Window Washer Accidents

Continue reading →
Published on:

By

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)

Continue reading →
Published on:

By

Our NY personal injury injury law firm is proud to announce that our partners Anthony H. Gair and Christopher J. Donadio obtained a $6.5 million settlement for a construction worker injured in Manhattan.

The case involved a worker who was injured while performing demolition work at a large construction site. On the day of the incident, the worker was instructed by his foreman to remove any material that was attached to the permanent ceiling on the second floor of the work site. In order to perform the work, the worker was required to use a large blowtorch while standing on a mobile scaffold. Unfortunately, the provided mobile scaffold did not have any safety railings. While the worker was performing his work on the scaffold, he lost his balance and fell headfirst to the concrete ground six to eight feet below.

The worker was rushed to Bellevue Hospital where he was diagnosed with a skull fracture and a brain injury. He was forced to undergo several surgeries as a result of his injuries.

Continue reading →
Published on:

By

workers on suspended scaffoldRepairing facades can be dangerous. Many construction workers died or were injured while repairing facades in New York  without counting the multiple close calls where workers find themselves dangling out of suspended scaffolds  like the worker in the below video who was lucky he could get back on. Sometimes workers are left dangling in the air until FDNY comes to the rescue.

The NYC DOT recorded 4 deaths and 61 injuries related to accidents during facade work since 2015 and recently released a worker alert to raise awareness about the danger of using a suspended scaffold to repair facades.

Here are a few steps that workers should follow to reduce the risk of accident when doing facade repair

Continue reading →
Published on:

By

location-of-the-fatal-scaffolding-accidentA construction worker died and 3 others were injured in a scaffolding accident in Manhattan. The accident occurred yesterday afternoon around 4:20pm at a 12 story condo building located at 136 East 36th Street near Lexington Ave in Murray Hill.

According to witnesses, two hard hats on a suspended scaffold were repairing the facade at the 11th floor level when a piece of the parapet fell into the suspended scaffolding. In a chain reaction, the rig then fell onto the street shed, destroying it.

According to the Daily News a 50 year old worker died in the accident. 2 other workers suffered serious injury and are in critical condition. Another one suffered minor injury.

Continue reading →
Published on:

By

311 E. 50th Street scaffolding accident locationA stone fell on the head of a NYC construction worker and killed him on Monday. 51 year old Nelson Salinas from Queens was on a scaffold, repairing the facade of  an Upper East Side residential building in Manhattan when the accident occurred.   A delivery man saw him dangling in midair with his head covered in blood and called 911. The worker was rushed to the hospital but he couldn’t be saved.

Nelson Salinas who was employed by Vlad Restoration, was performing minor facade repair on a suspended scaffold system. He was located at the 7th floor level of the 14-story building locates at 311 E. 50th Street near Second Ave when a coping stone that may have been knocked loose by the equipment used to secure the scaffolding to the facade fell on his head.  According to the Department of Buildings investigators the stone was a piece of the building’s parapet.  Read more about the accident in the NY Daily News

Preventing NYC Scaffold Accidents

Continue reading →
Published on:

By

Trinity Grace ChurchA NYC hard had suffered critical injury after he fell from scaffolding at a church construction site in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  The man who was employed by 4M Construction was doing brick work on the Trinity Grace Church located at 231 Ainslie Street in Williamsburg. He was on scaffolding when he fell two stories onto the sidewalk shed. The accident occurred Monday afternoon around 2pm.  The emergency responders rescued the man and rushed him to the hospital. A neighbor told the NY Daily News that he previously called 311 because he was worried about the unsafe conditions at the construction site.

Read more in the NY Daily News

Picture of the accident location: courtesy of Google Map

 

Published on:

By

Scaffold Accident Soho, Manhattan6 people were injured in a scaffold accident in New York on Sunday. The accident occurred at the corner of Prince and Broadway in Soho. The area is a popular tourist shopping and dining destination. It is usually packed with pedestrians all day long.

Soho is also a very windy area of Manhattan. Sunday high gusts of wind that were shooting from the North down Broadway took down a large scaffold located on the sidewalk just at the exit of the subway station. According to the FDNY a large plywood piece on the scaffold acted as a sail and took down the entire structure.

A couple of pedestrians got buried under the pile of metal and wood while other passersby who witnessed the scene ran to the rescue.  People started to frantically move the metal and wood pieces to pull people out of the debris.  Shortly after the firefighters and ambulances were also on the scene of the accident. A woman who suffered critical head injury as well as five other people injured by the debris were rushed to the hospital.

Continue reading →
Published on:

By

brphoto__2573607_christopher_donadio
Our NY personal injury law firm is proud to announce that our attorneys Ben. B. Rubinowitz and Christopher J. Donadio obtained a $6.25 million verdict in a construction accident that occurred in Manhattan.

The case involved a construction worker, who was injured while performing brick restoration work on an apartment building. On the day of the incident, the worker was ordered to climb on to a rope scaffold that was positioned on the fourth floor of the apartment building to obtain tools needed for the brick work. The worker was unaware that the scaffold was not properly secured. While the worker was walking on the scaffold, it shifted and caused the worker to fall 30-40 feet on to the concrete courtyard below.

The worker was rushed to Harlem Hospital where he was diagnosed with fractures to his left elbow and pelvis. While in the hospital, he underwent an irrigation and debridement of his left elbow, as well as an open reduction internal fixation of the elbow. While in the hospital, the injured worker developed an ileus, which is a disruption in the normal operation of the bowels. As a result of the ileus, the worker suffered severe abdominal distension that was managed with nasogastric and rectal tubes. After a week at Harlem Hospital, the injured worker was transferred to Bellevue Hospital for a surgery on his pelvis consisting of an open reduction internal fixation, as well as for further management of his ileus.

Continue reading →
Published on:

By

A construction worker died in a scaffolding accident in New York City last Sunday. The 58-year-old hard hat was working on a construction site located at 1382 Nostrand Avenue in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, NYC. The man was found on the ground by a paramedic team. He was transported to the hospital in critical condition. He didn’t survive his injuries and was pronounced dead shortly after his arrival at the hospital. A preliminary investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) indicates that a part of the scaffolding went vertical causing the worker to fall.

The site was immediately issued a stop work order by the NYC Department of Buildings. The building and the ex building owner have a long history of violations, neglect and non compliance. This building as well as another one next door located at 241 Linden Blvd were sold to an LLC associated with investor Steven Vegh for $3.7 million in December 2016. They previously belonged to Lewis Alleyne and other associates. Lewis Alleyne is a Brooklyn slumlord who miraculously escaped jail in 2011 after failing to fix more than 500 building violations and ignoring fines. Together this building and the other building located at 241 Linden Blvd have lost all but 3 of their rent stabilized apartments between 2007 and 2014.

The building where the construction worker fell has several open violations some of them immediately hazardous such as defective stairs and windows and exposed lead paint. Also it wasn’t exactly clear what type of work the man was doing on Sunday. Despite all the violations the owners were able to get a permit for a sidewalk shed.

Continue reading →
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
Badges
Super Lawyers Best Lawyers Martindale-Hubbell
SEE NEW JERSEY DISCLAIMER PAGE- AWARD METHODOLOGY