Construction Accidents
Construction Site Accidents
In the United States, approximately one million workers have been killed on-the-job since the 1920's. Our country’s prior industrial history is even more egregious. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated annual workplace fatalities at 30,039 in the early 1920’s. 75,000 railroad workers died in the quarter century prior to World War I alone. The construction industry was just as dangerous, if not more so.
The International Association of Bridge and Structural Steel Workers (Iron Workers), for example, lost a full one percent of its membership to workplace accidents in fiscal year 1911-12. A leading skyscraper construction firm admitted at the end of the 1920’s that one worker died for every 33 hours of employed time during the previous decade. The United States led the world in casualty rates; coal worker fatality rates were triple that of the United Kingdom, to cite one example.
Shamefully high fatality and injury rates continued beyond the early twentieth century. Into the 1990’s, the Iron Workers continued to report losing about 100 members a year to workplace accidents. Responding to National Safety Council statistics, which suggested that 14,000 Americans are killed and 2.5 million permanently injured in the workplace every year, the United States Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 “to assure so far as possible every working man and woman in the Nation safe and healthful working conditions and to preserve our human resources.” At the time of OSHA’s passage, the country was losing more men and women to workplace accidents than to the war in Vietnam. Today, according to OSHA’s own numbers, 6,000 American workers per year die from workplace accidents, 6 million American workers per year suffer injuries due to such accidents, and 50,000 American workers per year die from illnesses related to occupational hazards.
Death and disability due to unsafe or unhealthy workplaces remain America's hidden epidemic. In 1994, there were 6.8 million job-related injuries and illnesses in the private sector alone, an average of more than 18,000 injuries and/or illnesses each and every day of the year. U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Annual Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, 1994. The cost of these injuries and illnesses has been estimated at $120 billion for 1994 alone, according to the National Safety Council, Accident Facts (1995 Edition). Researchers at Mt. Sinai Medical School have estimated that 50,000 to 70,000 workers die each year as a result of major occupationally acquired diseases such as cancer, lung disease and coronary heart disease. Landrigan PJ, Baker DB, “The recognition and control of occupational disease,” Journal of the American Medical Association 1991;266:676-80. In 1998, the number of confirmed deaths due to occupational injuries in the U.S. was 6,026, approximately one-tenth the estimated number of deaths due to occupational illnesses. U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, “National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries,” 1998, U.S. Department of Labor, August 4, 1999.
The aforementioned statistics show that work in the American capitalist-industrial complex has been, and continues to be, extraordinarily risky. Wages and statutory workers compensation systems are ways of compensation for, and limitation of, the hazardous nature of certain types of labor. The passage of OSHA served as just one acknowledgement that these systems are inherently incapable of achieving these purposes.
OSHA was implemented with these systematic inadequacies, as well as our country’s hazardous industrial history, in mind. OSHA was enacted to provide prevention; however, as discussed earlier, a high incidence of occupational injury and illness persist. Tort law, operating outside of the workers’ compensation regime, can contribute to both prevention of and compensation for hazards by forcing those responsible for risk to pay fully for the human consequences of it. The imposition of liability through tort law is meant to discourage conduct which is harmful to society, foster reasonable conduct and create incentives to minimize risks of harm. Hopkins v. Fox & Lazo Realtors, 132 N.J. 426, 448 (1993); People Express Airlines, Inc. v. Consolidated Rail Corporation, 100 N.J. 246, 266 (1985); Weinberg v. Dinger, 106 N.J. 469, 494 (1987); see also Prosser and Keeton on Torts 4 (5th Ed.1984) (noting that "prophylactic" factor of preventing future harm is a primary consideration in tort law). Tort law provides the bite to work in conjunction with OSHA’s bark. It provides real economic incentive for firms to invest in safety for their workers, rather than turn a profit on their potential for injury.
Given the realities of the job site and the virtual unchecked power the general contractor has to control the site, under well-settled construction law in New Jersey the general contractor on a work site has a non-delegable duty to maintain a safe workplace that includes “ensur ‘prospective and continuing compliance’ with the legislatively imposed non-delegable obligation to all employees on the job site, without regard to contractual or employer obligations.” Alloway v. Bradlees Inc., 157 N.J. 221, 237-38 (1999), citing, Kane v. Hartz Mountain, 278 N.J.Super. 129, 142-43 (App. Div. 1994). State public policy and OSHA impose a duty on the general contractor to ensure the protection of all of the workers on a construction project, irrespective of the identity and status of their various and several employers, by requiring, either by agreement or by operation of law, the designation of a single repository of the responsibility for the safety of them all. Alloway, 157 N.J. at 238, citing Bortz v. Rammel, 151 N.J.Super. 312, 321 (App. Div. 1977), cert. den. 75 N.J. 539. As a matter of public policy and federal law, the general contractor is the single repository of responsibility for the safety of all employees on the job. As such the general contractor bears responsibility for all OSHA violations on the jobsite. Meder v. Resorts International, 240 N.J.Super. 470, 473-77 (App. Div. 1989), cert. den. 121 N.J. 608; Kanes24, 278 N.J.Super. at 142-43; Dawson v. Bunker Hill Plaza Assocs., 289 N.J.Super. 309, 320-21 (App.Div.1996). 22 Originally in Meder, and restated in such cases as Dawson, New Jersey courts have held that “violation of the obligations imposed by the federal regulations supports a tort claim under state law.” Meder at 477, 573 at A.2d 922. Dawson, 673 A.2d 847, 852.
At Keefe Bartels & Clark LLC, our attorneys are experienced in bringing construction accident personal injury cases. We understand construction site safety law and OSHA and will apply that law to assert the victim's right to recover.
Jurors need to understand the realities of a construction site and the tremendous risk workers who are trying to support their families are wrongfully exposed to every day. They need to understand that if a worker complains or refuses to work in the face of these dangers, they will probably be labeled a troublemaker and quickly replaced.
Our attorneys help juries understand that if a worker complains or refuses to work in the face of these dangers, they will probably be labeled a troublemaker and quickly replaced. This is all the more the reality in the case of non-union immigrant workers who are routinely exploited on the job.
Contact our construction attorneys today for a free consultation regarding a construction site injury. We are experienced in investigating a wide range of construction site accidents including the following:
- Burns
- Electric shock
- Crane accidents
- Equipment failure
- Industrial equipment
- Falls from scaffolding
- Ladder accidents
- Back injuries: herniated disc, chronic back pain
- Spinal cord, traumatic brain injuries, paralysis
- Defective products
- Paralysis
- Wrongful death
- Trench collapse and cave in cases
- New York Labor Law 240
It is critical that you hire an attorney immediately after a construction site accident. We will begin a thorough investigation into your accident to preserve necessary evidence. We will take photographs, collect documentation, contact witnesses, and consult with industry experts to support your claim. In the case of an emergency, we have been able to send out investigators the same day to ensure that evidence is preserved.
Our attorneys are experienced in explaining to jurors the exploitative realities of construction sites today and will challenge insurance company backed positions that OSHA does not need to be followed, does not apply, and that the accident is the fault of the worker.
We are experienced with OSHA requirements, industry standards in residential and commercial construction and renovation. With our broad range of skills and experience in the area of construction site accident injuries, our team of attorneys is able to provide comprehensive legal services and counsel to victims and their families. Our success in other cases involving construction companies, developers, and insurance companies throughout New Jersey allow us to quickly file and handle cases to get results.
At Keefe Bartels & Clark LLC, we prepare meticulously for trial and collect all of the necessary evidence before we file to ensure optimal results. If you or your loved one has been injured in a construction site accident, our attorneys will provide a free consultation and begin preserving evidence for your case. We are dedicated to providing our clients the service and advocacy that yields results. "You can always settle a case you prepared to try - but you can not try a case you prepared to settle!"
For more information or to speak with an experienced Newark, New Jersey construction site accident lawyer, contact Keefe Bartels & Clark LLC.