Although the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) spends considerable funds to prevent accidents at construction sites, construction work is an inherently dangerous activity with an average of 200,000 workers injured each year in the United States. Formed in 1970 under the chairmanship of Nixon, OSHA’s mission is: “To ensure safe and healthy working conditions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards and providing training, outreach, education and assistance.”
The agency calls the most common causes of worker death “the fatal four”: falls, electrocutions, objects striking a person and getting caught between objects or parts of the construction site. Sixty percent of all construction work-related fatalities are the result of one of these four types of accidents.
Falls are typically from ladders, from upper levels of buildings under construction, slips or trips, or falls from scaffolds (or as a result of scaffold collapse). Unstable surfaces, improperly placed ladders, insufficient fall protection such as ropes for those hanging from high places, or holes / openings are the most common causes of falls. Some injuries are the result of electrocutions and falls when contact with electricity causes the worker to lose their grip.
In the category of “objects that hit a person” are motor vehicle collisions, which are the most frequent cause of these types of accidents. Workers are often run over by cars or machinery while on the job. OSHA requires all drivers on construction sites to walk around the vehicle before moving to make sure no one is around. In addition to vehicle accidents, anything on a construction site can come loose and fall, hitting a worker: ladders, scaffolding, cranes, tools, bricks, stones, etc. The possibilities of getting caught between objects are practically endless on construction sites, such as between machinery or between building materials.
Who pays for construction injuries?
Workers ‘or workers’ compensation insurance exists to pay for injuries in these cases, but the specific rules vary from state to state. In most states, if negligence was the cause of the accident, particularly what is called “gross negligence,” the worker can also file a separate lawsuit against the parties held liable. The worker is the plaintiff in the case, and those allegedly negligent are the defendants.
Workers ‘or workers’ compensation insurance is not involved when the person injured in a construction accident is not a worker on the site. These people can be residents of the building or people passing, either on foot or in vehicles parked next to or passing in front of the construction site. They can also be people who visit the site. These injured non-workers can file lawsuits against the entities responsible for maintaining a safe location. Of course, if someone is on the site without permission, he or she can be held wholly or partially responsible for their own injuries.
The defendants in these cases can vary from the general contractor and subcontractor to the manufacturers of machinery or equipment, such as defective or defective scaffolding, electrical wiring, etc.
When it comes to gross negligence, those responsible can also face criminal charges. In one such case in New York, a crane collapsed and killed seven people. The district attorney called the actions of the responsible parties “reckless and negligent rigging practices” and the owner of the rigging services company was arrested for failing to properly stabilize the crane to the building. Typically, eight slings are used for that type of crane, but in an effort to save money, the company used only four slings. OSHA issued violations against the company, which had to pay a $ 200,000 fine.
A new investigation into that accident led to another arrest. The Building Department inspector at that site was found to have falsified the records. It was suspected that he was paid to essentially look the other way and not inspect the crane at all. This was one of the few accidents that eventually led New York City to institute new rules for cranes.
The Complexity of Construction Injury Cases
While a plaintiff can sue all parties on a construction site, determining who was negligent and responsible for the accident may require considerable investigation. These sites almost always involve a number of different entities with a variety of contracts between them. Some of those contracts will include indemnity clauses, which stipulate that you will not be held liable if an accident occurs. Sometimes this can leave most of the blame on the general contractor.
Another question is whether the accident occurred due to an engineer’s error or an error in the execution of the engineer’s plan. So it must be proven that the error actually caused a safety hazard which then caused the accident. Sometimes a worker has not received sufficient training to operate the required equipment on the job. It is generally considered the responsibility of the general contractor to ensure that all workers are properly trained and that subcontractors are meeting their obligations.
To reach an accurate conclusion as to fault, an accident scene investigation must be conducted immediately before anything is modified or moved. Witnesses should also be interviewed immediately while the incident is fresh in their minds.
If more than one entity or individual is found to be at fault for an accident and the resulting injuries, the degree of fault of each party must also be determined or agreed. This means that the percentages are often attributed to each defendant, so that the money paid to the plaintiff for injuries and damages is divided evenly among those responsible.
Due to the number of parties often involved in construction injury lawsuits, it is not uncommon for these cases to go unresolved out of court. Such an out-of-court settlement means that the parties have agreed on the amount of money to be paid to the injured parties. If they cannot agree and the case goes to trial, a judge or jury decides how much money each defendant must pay to bear the costs of the injuries.