Falls, Slips & Trips Are a Serious Construction Worker Hazard

New York City construction accident lawyers discuss the dangers.

Construction workers often sustain serious or fatal work-related injuries in slip, trip, and fall accidents, according to a recent workplace safety study conducted by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Specifically, the study found that 35.3 percent of construction fatalities involved slip and fall accidents. In addition, slip and fall construction accidents result in more than 21,000 workplace injuries each year, according to the BLS.

In many cases, injured construction workers or surviving family members can receive workers’ compensation benefits that cover their injury-related costs. Sometimes, the victim may also be eligible to file a third-party claim. But getting the compensation you deserve can be difficult. At the Law Offices of Pasternack Tilker Ziegler Walsh Stanton & Romano, LLP, our attorneys are here to help. If you were injured in a New York construction accident, contact us today to review your potential legal options.

How common are workplace slip and falls?

Construction sites aren’t the only places where slip and fall accidents happen. Unfortunately, slip and fall accidents remain one of the most common types of work-related accidents in general. Each year, more than 1,000 workers, on average, die in slip and fall accidents on the job, according to Occupational Health & Safety online.

Annually, more than 1.1 million workers sustain non-fatal injuries that result in time off from work due to a slip and fall accident, according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC). In addition, the CDC reports that roughly 18 percent of all non-fatal workplace injuries require time off from work.

Here’s another number to consider – 12 percent of all slip, trip, and fall accidents at work involve construction workers, according to the BLS. And among construction workers, construction laborers face the highest risk of any worker being injured in a work-related slip and fall accident.

Why do slip and falls happen on construction sites?

Work-related slip and fall accidents, especially involving construction workers, occur for many different reasons, including:

• Wet floors due to water or other liquids on the floor.
• Loose floorboards, which can be especially common at construction sites.
• Uneven floors, especially in unfinished buildings.
• Trip and fall accidents on electrical cords and wires.
• Unmarked hazards, such as an opening in partially-finished upper floors.
• Unsafe scaffolding, resulting in a scaffolding collapse.

How to prevent slip and fall accidents on the job site

Construction companies are obligated to ensure their construction sites are safe and free of hazards that can result in slip and fall accidents. Safety steps construction companies can take include:

• Provide construction workers with safety training to avoid and anticipate possible dangerous situations.
• Inspect the construction site each day before starting work to look for possible hazards.
• Immediately fix any potentially hazardous conditions (uneven floors, holes in floorboards, etc.).
• Provide construction workers with necessary safety equipment, including safety harnesses, if working on a roof or at a height.
• Make sure scaffolding is appropriately secured and assembled before beginning construction work.

Contact New York’s law firm for injured construction workers

Cases involving slip and falls often become complicated legal cases because there can be more than one at-fault party, including businesses other than the employer of the injured construction worker.

This is why injured construction workers in New York should contact the Law Offices of Pasternack Tilker Ziegler Walsh Stanton & Romano, LLP. We can listen to what happened, answer your questions, and explain your legal rights and options.

Get the law firm that gets results in New York. Contact us and schedule an appointment with a legal team you can count on when it matters most. We have 12 offices conveniently located in New York, including five offices in New York City.