Multiple news sources have reported a serious accident that occurred at the 3 World Trade Center construction site on Wednesday, August 29, 2012, just days before Labor Day. The incident involved a 36 year old construction worker who fell 15 feet to the ground while installing a steel beam on the site. The injured worker was taken from the scene to the Emergency Room at Bellevue Hospital, and likely fractured both arms in addition to sustaining a head injury.
Falls such as this one highlight the importance of maintaining safe work sites in New York City, especially where workers are forced to labor at substantial heights. Laws requiring proper fall protection, such as New York Labor Law Section 240(1), are critically important to keeping site owners, employers and general contractors honest when it comes to creating and implementing effective safety plans.
At Block O’Toole & Murphy, LLP, we are dedicated to representing injured construction workers in New York, including those who have suffered falls on the job like this one. We are also working to maintain, and expand the laws that serve to protect workers from getting injured in the first place.
If New York’s existing laws that make owners and general contractors financially accountable for these accidents are weakened or repealed, does anyone actually expect safety standards to do anything other than decline?
The answer is obvious.