New York Construction Accident

Published on: November 3, 2014

Dozens of personal injuries suffered by New York construction workers during accidents at the World Trade Center site have not been reported

Freedoom%20Tower.JPG 34 serious personal injuries suffered by workers during construction accidents at the New York Fredoom Tower have not been reported to OSHA according to a NY Daily News investigation that came out Yesterday. Some of the non reported accidents left workers with spinal fractuers, broken limbs and fractured hips.

The study also mentions that for 3 years in a row the injury rates at the WTC were higher than the New York State and the National average rates.

Among the non reported accidents at the New York construction site, the study mentions a worker struck in the head by a 60 pound bundle of rebar, a worker who fell 20 feet after the collapse of a scaffold and another worker struck by a large steel plate.

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Published on: April 29, 2014

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says changes to the Scaffold Law are not on his priority list and are unlikely to happen this year

By GGCRBHS&M

Labor Law 240 known as The Scaffold Law protects New York construction workers from elevation related construction accidents. Recently the construction industry and real estate developers have been making another legislative push in Albany to change the law to their advantage. In response to this push, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said last week in an interview with the Crain’s editorial board that he had no intention to change the law. Cuomo said that changes to Labor Law 240 were not a top priority for business interests or for him.

Cuomo also added that the law couldn’t be changed because of the strength of its supporters, particularly the New York State Trial Lawyers Association. The trial lawyers as well as immigrant rights and community organizations support the law because even though it is not perfect it remains the only way to make sure construction workers are adequately protected from dangerous accidents.

Read the Crain’s article

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Published on: April 21, 2014

In a new attack against Labor Law Section 240 (Scaffold Law), the NY construction industry lobby paid more than $80,000 to the Rockefeller Institute to fund a study that misuses sophisticated statistical techniques and produces inaccurate results

By GGCRBHS&M

New York Labor Law Section 240 or Scaffold Law was enacted more than 100 years ago to protect construction workers from elevated work related accidents. It holds general contractors, owners and others liable if unsafe conditions at the job site lead to a worker’s injury or death (to learn more about NY Labor Law 240 see recent presentation by NY Construction Accident Attorney Anthony Gair)

The construction industry has been trying to repeal and amend this law since it was created and the last attack came with a report entitled “The Costs of Labor Law 240 on New York’s economy and Public Infrastructure” and published by the The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, the public policy research arm of the State University of New York. The report uses questionable statistic methodologies to blame The Scaffold Law for creating more accidents and more injuries.

The Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) discovered that the report was actually commissioned by the New York Civil Justice Institute, a front group that was specifically created for this purpose by the Lawsuits Reform Alliance of New York who paid $82,800 for it. The Lawsuits Reform Alliance of New York is well known for lobbying against laws protecting plaintiffs in favor of the construction industry and other corporate interests. The CPD and the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH) just published a paper entitled “Fatally Flawed: Why the Rockefeller Institute’s Scaffold Law Report Doesn’t add up”

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Published on: July 6, 2013

New York Construction Accident: Man crushed to death by steel pipe

By GGCRBHS&M

A construction worker suffered fatal injury on Governor’s Island, New York. He and his son were standing next to a forklift that was unloading a heavy sewer pipe when a strap securing it broke. The 6000 pound pipe crushed the man to death in front of his son.

Read full story in Daily News.