Construction projects involve a great number of workers who rely on the timely completion of each other’s work to maintain budget including, excavators, fork lift drivers, concrete workers or brick layers, masons, carpenters, welders, insulators, window installers, roofers, plumbers, electricians, pipefitters, steamfitters, sheet metal workers, dry wall tapers or plasterers, heating and air conditioning installers. It can be easy to see how a construction accident can occur with the following factors:
• The number of participants required for each construction project
• The hazards associated with each project
• The reliability in the safeguards of the project.
Construction Accident Facts
• Construction is the third leading cause of injury related death. �
• 15.2 deaths per 100,000 workers.
• Only mining and agriculture experience higher rates.
• The top five causes of construction worker death is falls from height, vehicle accidents, electrocution, machine operation or defective products, strike by a moving object.
As Pat James Crispi, Attorney at Law of New York, New York explains, “There is no margin for error when it comes to a construction site. The damage can result from a construction accident is devastating. The public requires a greater commitment of resources for the enforcement of existing safety rules and regulations. This would involve the hiring of more and better qualified safety inspectors, including OSHA employees, to more stringently monitor construction sites. Such measures would go along way towards preventing unsafe practices from being undetected, and would improve safety for workers and their families who depend on them.”
In the end, to error is human, construction accidents may be unavoidable and construction workers and their family’s lives can be impaired beyond reason. The following represents a high price to pay for a construction accident, including:
• Death
• Traumatic Brain Injuries
• Spinal Cord Injuries
• Orthopedic Injuries
• Bone Fractures
• Cancer
• Mesothelioma
• Siderosis
• Cadmium Poisoning
• Beryllium Disease
• Chloracne
• Acute Solvent Syndrome
• Photo-irritant Dermatitis
• Lead Poisoning
• Silicosis
• Manganese Poisoning
• Peripheral Neuropathy
• Chronic Toxic Encephalopathy
• Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
• Polymer Fume Fever
• Acute Inhalation Injury
Costs Scenario: Associated with a Common Construction Accident Victim
The average lifetime cost of care for one paraplegic construction worker is $428,000 and quadriplegics costs are $1.35 million with an average age of injury at 25. Only 52% of all paraplegic and quadriplegics have private insurance at the time of injury. As the bread winner of the family with children at home, the injured worker made an average of $100,000 per year before the construction accident. After the construction accident, it is unlikely he will regain employment making the life expectancy of costs to care for family over a 20 year period an additional $2 million. -1- In fact, the ripple effect that occurs for the public is equally damaging. As Mike Roberts, Attorney at Law, Gladsten, Alabama adds, “There is a great cost consequence for all citizens associated with providing ongoing financial compensation and medical care to injured construction workers and their families.”
Construction Regulations and Lawsuits
It’s important to examine the layers of protection that may be provided through federal and state regulations for injured construction workers. Depending upon the state, there may be one or more layers of protection offered to construction accident victims. The types of regulations that offer protection vary among the states. Generally speaking, there are administrative regulations, tort laws and civil laws. There are federal OSHA requirements and some states also have their own state OSHA requirements. Within the host of regulations is the idea of liability and the right to compensation should a construction accident occur.
Personal injury legal cases involving construction workers focus on understanding the circumstances surrounding the accident. This information is reviewed to determine factors that may reduce the exposure of liability for a general contractor, commercial building owner or other third party such as understanding the degree of control used to avoid the accident, execution of reasonable care by all relative parties, and other possible causes or contributors to the construction accident.
Exceptions to the Rule: Strict Liability
There is also strict or absolute liability that applies to certain types of cases such as falling from an elevation or product liability. Product liability is enforced when injury or death occurs because of a product such as asbestos that causes mesothelioma. In the case of product liability, one or more third parties may be held liable for the injury or death.
Worker’s Compensation and Third Party Liability
Worker’s compensation is often the standard remedy. Yet, protection through worker’s compensation is not usually adequate to compensate for the injuries sustained in a construction accident. Thus, injured workers have an additional reason to pursue litigation against other responsible third parties. As Mike Roberts, Attorney at Law, Gadsten, Alabama explains, “It is worker’s compensation that forces victims into lawyers offices because there so no where else to turn.” The examples in states of New York and Alabama demonstrate a small sample of the complexity in liability that occurs after a construction accident.
New York Construction Accidents
New York construction workers have the sole remedy of worker’s compensation for personal injury that occurs on the job. Exceptions to this regulation are scaffolding accidents, otherwise elevated accidents or getting struck by a moving object such as a hoist. These cases fall under the category of absolute or strict liability whereby the responsible party for the injury cannot be questioned and is undoubtedly the general contractor and the owner’s responsibility. In addition, New York requires that both the general contractor and owner of the commercial property be responsible for safety requirements. Finally, liability often must be evidence based to win a lawsuit relying upon the circumstances surrounding the case such as the degree of control used to avoid the accident. Some legal cases for construction workers in New York involve liability for third parties.
Alabama Construction Accidents�
Alabama construction workers can submit for worker’s compensation as well. The state does not have its own OSHA requirements and relies in part upon federal OSHA regulation violations for the determination of evidence based liability. Liability may be deemed upon one or more third parties such as the owner, general contractor and/or subcontractor. Many injured Alabama construction workers are faced with reduced protection due to arbitration clauses signed by the construction workers’ employer, general contractor and/or subcontractor. In some cases, the construction worker signed a fine print arbitration clause within a larger document. In numerous cases, arbitration becomes the only option and the outcome produces inadequate compensation for the worker. In fact, the injustice of holding a constructor worker accountable to arbitration simply because a third party signed an arbitration clause is one fallacy in the interpretation of the law that is under scrutiny now. As Mike Roberts explains, “Resources available to enforce OSCA regulations are not as plentiful or as effective as they were in years past. There needs to be more resources devoted to enforcing OSCA regulations and the regulations need to be stronger across the board.”
Weather we are talk about the need for stand by personnel to alert construction personnel of oncoming vehicles that others cannot hear due to excessive noise, workers needing an alert while working in a closed space/pit, or the requirement of three safety components in building excavation (safety harnesses, safety lines and nets), one exception to any safety regulation can create a construction accident. Add this to the potential of a toxic substance used during construction that produces disease, it becomes clear that construction workers risk their lives every day and should be compensated appropriately when a construction accident occurs.
Equally important, construction workers who are injured in on the job accidents should seek out the advice of an experienced construction accident attorney in their state as soon as possible after the accident. They are skilled at understanding the laws and terms for liability.
Connected Topics: Personal Injury Attorneys and You, Worker’s Compensation, Auto Accidents, Product Liability, Personal Injury Compensation, Brain Injury, Getting the Most Out of Your Insurance.
-7- Family Caregiver Alliance, http://www.caregiver.org/caregiver/jsp/publications.jsp?nodeid=345&expandnodeid=386
Tags: construction accident lawsuits, construction accidents, excavator accident lawsuit, fork lift accident lawsuit, personla injury attorney, worker's compensation lawsuits