The city’s Department of Buildings releases monthly statistics about construction accidents in the five boroughs of New York. The latest available numbers are for September 2014, and this blog will summarize the report.
2014 Construction Accidents Will Exceed 2013
From these statistics, it appears as if New York City is going to exceed last year’s numbers for construction accident injuries and fatalities. In 2013, for example, there were more reported accidents in 2014 than in 2013 for the period ending on September 30. The only category in which this is not the case was Excavation and Soil Work. In 2013, there were four such accidents; in 2014, there were none reported by the end of September. In the other five categories, 2014 numbers were higher than 2013 numbers during the same time period.
In 2013 there were 137 construction accidents in the period January through September. In 2014, there were 175 during the same months. Of these, 42 were in the category of Material Failure, seven in the Mechanical Equipment category, 7 in the Scaffolding/Shoring category, 68 in the Fall category and 51 in the Other category.
There were also more fatal accidents in the period covered than last year. In 2013, there were two on-the-job fatalities between January and September. In 2014, there were five during the same months.
Manhattan Leads the Way in Construction Accidents
Most of the increase in accidents occurred in Manhattan and the Bronx. In Manhattan there were 85 construction accidents between January and September 2013. The number grew to 122 in the same period of 2014. In the Bronx, there were no construction accidents during the nine-month time period in 2013; in 2014 there were 10. Three fatalities occurred in Manhattan this year; there were none in Manhattan through September of 2013. Brooklyn and Queens have had one construction fatality each through September 2014, the same as last year at the same time.
The month that had the most construction accidents by September 2014 was February, with 28. September was a close second, with 27.
The trend toward more construction accidents is similar to that reported about a year ago. In January of 2013, the New York Daily News reported that the number of construction accidents in the city increased from 2011 through 2012. In 2011, there were 119 on-the-job accidents, compared to 186 at the end of 2013. Who knows how many there will be in 2014? The report suggests that the number will be even larger.