Construction Accident

Published on: January 13, 2015

Latino workers continue to have a higher risk of dying in a construction accident

The recent case of Delfino Jesus Velazquez Mendizabal, a Mexican construction worker who died while working at a demolition site in Staten Island, NYC is a tragic example of how dangerous the construction industry has become for Latino workers.

Often undocumented and working for small contractors who are less regulated, Latino workers are exposed to much higher risks and dangers than other construction workers.

In the case of the death of 43 year old Mendizabal, his employer Formica Construction did not have a valid permit to perform the demolition at the site. It is also not the first time that Formica Construction has been negligent and put its construction workers at risk of an accident. Ken Formica, the construction company’s owner was convicted of criminally negligent homicide after one of his employees, 39 year old Lorenzo Pavia was asphyxiated and died as he was working in an unsafe trench that caved in on him.

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Published on: December 8, 2014

How to prevent residential construction accidents related to fall from height?

By GGCRBHS&M

fall%20prevention%20in%20residential%20construction.png Falls from heights are the most common cause of construction workers deaths and this number is especially concerning in the residential construction sector. To address this issue, OSHA is now enforcing similar safety standards in home building and in commercial construction. Despite this effort, falls in residential construction continues to kill thousands of construction workers every year.

Recently a group of researchers from the Washington University of St Louis joined forces with the Carpenters’union and residential contractors to launch 3 initiatives targeting apprentices, foremen and contractors as part of a research study. A revised apprenticeship training taught foremen and contractors how to choose fall prevention methods adapted to each specific situation and subsequently how to communicate these methods to their workers. As part of the study, contractors can also try new fall protection equipment on their construction site.

Participants not only increased their fall prevention knowledge but also communicated better between themselves about fall risks and how to prevent them. The study also led to a higher use of fall protection devices by workers.

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Published on: November 10, 2014

The NYC Department of Buildings is not doing enough to prevent dangerous crane accidents and other construction accidents

By GGCRBHS&M

After two fatal crane accidents killed several people in Manhattan in 2008, 65 safety fixes were identified by consultants but only 8 (12%) of them were implemented, 17 (26%) were partially implemented, 18 (28%) were in progress and 22 (34%) had not been implemented according to a recent audit by New York City Controller Scott Stringer.

In 2008 the Building Department paid CTL Engineers & Construction Technology Consultants $3.9 million to prepare proposals on how to improve safety at New York construction sites and avoid catastrophic crane accidents such as the collapse of a 300-foot crane that killed 7 people on East 51st Street in Manhattan or the collapse of another crane that killed two construction workers 2 months later. The consultants provided a list of 65 recommendations and were paid another $1.9 million to assist the DOB with the implementation of these recommendations. They were supposed to have 49 of the 65 changes implemented in the next two years but they fell far short of that according to Stringer’s investigation.

The audit identified serious weakness in the New York Cit Department Building Oversight that costed tax payers million of dollars.

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Published on: November 4, 2014

Contractors were not only not reporting construction accidents at the World Trade Center but they also tried to conceal them

By GGCRBHS&M

Many construction accidents at the World Trade Center have not been reported to OSHA but when they were OSHA investigators ran into roadblocks as they tried to figure out what lead to personal injuries.
Yesterday the NY Daily News looked at the case of Nick Giovinco, a construction worker who suffered two fracture ribs and four lower lumbar fractures after falling 18 feet off a scaffold. Witnesses testified that the tower was shaky and wasn’t braced. Additionally there was no ladder. Witnesses saw the scaffold tipped as Giovinco got to the top but his employer blamed him and said he lost his grip and fell.

Dozens of personal injuries suffered by New York construction workers during accidents at the World Trade Center site have not been reported

By GGCRBHS&M

Freedoom%20Tower.JPG 34 serious personal injuries suffered by workers during construction accidents at the New York Fredoom Tower have not been reported to OSHA according to a NY Daily News investigation that came out Yesterday. Some of the non reported accidents left workers with spinal fractuers, broken limbs and fractured hips.

The study also mentions that for 3 years in a row the injury rates at the WTC were higher than the New York State and the National average rates.

Among the non reported accidents at the New York construction site, the study mentions a worker struck in the head by a 60 pound bundle of rebar, a worker who fell 20 feet after the collapse of a scaffold and another worker struck by a large steel plate.

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Published on: October 30, 2014

Thankfully nobody was injured in a terrifying NYC construction accident during which a giant drill bit pierced the F train tunnel and sliced the top and the side of a train with 800 passengers on board

By GGCRBHS&M

A contractor who was supposed to expand a construction well as part of the MTA East Side Access project used a massive drill bit at the wrong location and pierced a F train tunnel at the same time as the train was passing by. The drill bit cut the top and the side of the train triggering the train’s emergency brakes. It’s a miracle that nobody was injured.

The MTA East Side Access Project is a mega construction project from the MTA to bring Long Island Rail Road trainsto Grand Central Station. The contractor has been identified as Griffin Dewatering New England Inc.

The accident happened near the 21st St subway station In Long Island City, Queens, NYC.

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Published on: October 20, 2014

Two construction workers prepping for asbestos removal from a government building were injured when a part of a ceiling fell off in Mineola, Long Island, NY

By GGCRBHS&M

Two New York construction workers got trapped in dangerous asbestos debris and suffered personal injury after a ceiling collapsed and a 30×50 piece of concrete with metal reinforcing rods fell on them. The two workers were part of a crew of 19 people prepping the old Social Services building in Mineola for asbestos removal when the accident happened. The 17 other workers had to be decontaminated for asbestos. See video below

Published on: October 2, 2014

10 of our Personal Injury Lawyers selected for the 2014 New York Super Lawyers list

By GGCRBHS&M

New%20York%20Super%20Lawyers.jpg
We are proud to announce that for the ninth consecutive year our attorneys have been named to the New York Super Lawyers list. In 2014 ten of our lawyers were selected. These are: Ben B. Rubinowitz, Anthony H. Gair, Howard Hershenhorn, Jeffrey B. Bloom, Richard M. Steigman, Jerome I. Katz, Ernest R. Steigman, Stephen H. Mackauf, Seymour Boyers and Christopher L. Sallay. Peter J. Saghir was again selected to the Rising Stars list.

Our firm is located in Manhattan and handles all types of catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death cases from traffic accidents, construction accidents, medical malpractice to product liability in New York and New Jersey.

Since 1919, the firm has built is reputation as one of the top injury law firms in the United States by limiting its practice to a select group of serious and substantial tort cases so that extensive personal attention and meticulous trial preparation are afforded to each of our clients on all matters. The results speak for themselves as for the last 10 years our firm has obtained verdicts or settlements exceeding $1 million for more than 425 cases.

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Published on: September 24, 2014

27 year old worker dies in Midtown Manhattan Construction Accident

By GGCRBHS&M

A New York City construction worker was crushed to death by a concrete slab that fell off a building adjacent to a construction site in Midtown Manhattan. 27 year old Rodalfo Vasquez-Galian was working on securing the foundations of a future hotel located at 326 West 37th street when the piece of concrete weighing thousands of pounds came loose. According to Rick Chandler, the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Buildings the excavation digging “compromised the foundation of the neighboring building”. In May a complaint that the construction was causing dangerous vibrations in neighboring properties was dismissed after a city inspection. The construction site was also closed in August for one day because of safety violations. Tritel, the construction company owned by hotel developer Sam Chang, has received more than 200 building violations since 2006.
Read more in the New York Times

Published on: August 14, 2014

New documents indicate that the leader of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance, an anti New York Scaffold Law lobby pressured the SUNY’s Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute to incorporate changes to a study to increase its estimates of the cost and impact of the Law

By GGCRBHS&M

In April, we wrote about a controversial study related to the New York Scaffold Law that steered debate between the Construction Industry and Construction workers advocates. The study was published by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, the public policy research arm of the State University of New York and funded by the Lawsuits Reform Alliance of New York, an organization lobbying against laws protectingworkers in favor of the construction industry and other corporate interests.

The study drew so much controversy that Freedom of Information Law requests were filed to find out if the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute was pressured by the lobby during its research or after the release of the report.

Last week the Institute produced the draft report that researchers submitted to Tom Stebbins, the leader of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance as well as as email correspondence between them.

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