New York City Construction Accident Law Blog

Recent news articles have sent mixed signals about how healthy the construction industry is, but the fact remains that companies must strive to limit New York construction accidents despite economic factors.

A story from Bloomberg News reports that construction spending has continued climbing in recent months, while a Wall Street Journal story states that new construction fell in 2011.

Our New York construction accident attorneys hope that the industry as a whole will recover soon from the economic woes of our nation. At the same time, industry officials must not simply look at the bottom line. Safety must be a priority and cutting corners to save dollars -- which puts workers and the public at risk -- isn't the answer.

According to The Wall Street Journal, New York's construction industry showed signs of weakness, with a 31 percent drop in the value of construction projects between 2010 and 2011. The story attributes a drop in government spending on infrastructure and fewer new, large buildings for the year-to-year decline.

The drop in construction value dropped from about $20 billion to $13.8 billion in 2011. But residential construction projects increased in value by about 25 percent to $2.9 million in 2011, according to a recent report.

The Bloomberg story reports that construction spending nationwide is on the rise, however. Building outlays were up 1.5 percent in December, the biggest increase since August. Analysts had called for a 0.5 percent increase.

This article, too, recognizes that a drop in government spending could hurt the progress of the industry, which was hit hard by the recession in 2007. In many areas of the country, new commercial construction left projects half-complete when the recession hit, costing investors and construction companies millions of dollars.

Private construction increased 2.1 percent in December from November, which was noted as the largest gain since May. The value of private construction was $529.7 billion annually, the largest increase since December 2009.

While the articles aren't all good news, it shows that the industry is trying to get back on its feet. The industry certainly is needed in order to ensure our country continues it's economic recovery from the recent downturn. While companies may be looking to cut funds as a way to recover, they must make sure they are paying to provide proper safety training and providing protective gear and updated equipment.

Builders who were involved in a fatal 2008 construction accident involving a crane in Manhattan want their settlements kept secret, the Associated Press reports.

New York construction accident lawyers remember like it was yesterday when news hit that a crane had fallen through a building, killing seven people just a few blocks from the United Nations. The major accident terrified many New Yorkers as people died and cars were crushed -- panic set in for many people in the neighborhood.

New York crane accidents are extremely dangerous and, as shown by this accident, can be deadly. Workers must be properly trained not to overload cranes because one wrong move can be devastating.

According to the news article, a builder and developer are putting up a fight to ensure that the public doesn't see the details of the settlements they reach with the families of six dead construction workers. But a judge has ordered that the information be public.

An appeal of the judge's order will further delay the case. In March 2008, a 200-foot crane toppled near the United Nations, killing six workers and a woman who was vacationing in the city from Florida. There are many more lawsuits pending, from others injured but not killed and from people whose cars or other property was destroyed.

In the last two years, the workers lawsuits were settled. Attorneys for other plaintiffs say that by keeping the settlements out of public view, they don't know how much the companies would pay to settle the cases and keep them out of court. But the companies have argued that by putting the settlements into public view, it would cripple future settlement negotiations.

This isn't the first crane tragedy in New York City. In fact, just two months after this accident, another New York crane accident turned deadly as a crane toppled, crushing a building -- heavy bricks fell to the ground, crushing cars and killing two workers.

In 2010, another crane tilted and hit a 25-story building near Wall Street. Luckily, no one was injured.

Cranes are important in a place like New York City, where tall buildings require tall equipment to work on them. But these construction accidents are avoidable. Proper training, properly securing this machinery and knowing their limits is critical.

Bloomberg Businessweek recently reported that New York City construction accidents dropped 18 percent in 2011, which the city attributed to safety measures put in place since 2008.

While this is certainly good news, it doesn't solve all the ills of the industry and it still leaves New York City construction accidents as one of the most deadly and injury filled occupations citywide. Our New York City construction accident lawyers still believe there are far too many accidents, despite what the numbers purport to show.

According to the United States Department of Labor, of 4,547 worksite deaths in 2010, 751, or 17 percent, were in the construction field. About 14 percent of fatal injuries at work were due to falls and another 16 percent were due to contact with objects and equipment -- both of which are common in the construction field.

And given that many contractors often work on a single site, there are times when negligence, a lack of proper training and foolish moves can lead to an injury of a worker from a different company. It's also possible for the public -- especially in crowded and busy New York City -- to be injured if proper precautions and policies aren't followed.

In those cases, an injured person may require compensation for injuries that were caused as a result of someone else's negligence. And while a decline in accidents is good news, it doesn't stop the fact that New York City construction accidents are among the easiest ways to get hurt at work.

According to the news report, construction accidents dipped 18 percent and those that resulted in injury dropped 7.8 percent. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the decline was based, in part, on measures put into place in 2008 to try to keep construction workers and passersby safe.

In 2011, five accidents resulted in death, a jump from four in 2010. In 2010, the total number of construction accidents in the city was 157, but that number fell to 128. Mishaps that caused injury dropped from 165 to 152.

These numbers come as construction activity increased by about 8 percent. Rules that prohibit smoking caused a drop in workplace fires, while cocoons used to hold tools have worked to prevent materials from falling. New rules began going in place after three people died in two crane accidents in a three-month span in 2008.

More details are emerging about the December incident where a 41-year-old woman was killed in a New York elevator accident.

The terrifying incident happened when the door of an elevator suddenly closed and the elevator rose while she wasn't fully inside, Bloomberg News reported. The impact killed her instantly.

Our New York City construction accident lawyers are concerned because we recognize that heavily-used elevators during construction can not only injure construction workers, but also the public once the building is completed and opened. These machines are vital in New York City, given our large skyscraper buildings. But they also take a lot of abuse.

The wear and tear of these machines can cause problems, but so too can poor maintenance. Elevator companies are required to do routine inspections, but if that is botched, it can put a lot of people in harm's way.

Fox News reports that a criminal investigation has been opened into the woman's death because electrical work done by the maintenance company hours before the woman died may have led to the accident. The news station reports that the only cited problems with the elevator car to this point have been paperwork problems. But it appears there may have been other issues that led to the death.

Whether large freight elevators that carry heavy equipment up floors during the construction of a building or passenger elevators that are moving up and down at fast rates all day long, these machines can wear down and cause major injuries in New York elevator accidents.

If crews ignore the posted maximum weight for the elevator time and time again, the car can suffer damage, which can manifest itself in problems later on. Sadly, this isn't just an issue for construction crews, but also for the public.

While these machines get used over and over again during the construction of a building or during a remodeling project dozens of stories up, they are then used by everyday people, who have no idea how much abuse they have taken. We trust that these will work properly, but sometimes the negligence of the contractors or the workers inspecting them cause them problems that we can't know about until it's too late.