Falls are one of the “Fatal Four,” which is the name that has been given by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to the four most common causes of fatal injuries affecting employees on construction sites. Falls can happen when workers are high off the ground performing their jobs or when workers trip on the same level or fall into a trench or hole in the ground on the construction site.
However they happen, falls are far too common among construction workers and the consequences can be tragic when a fall happens. According to the New York Times, for example, a construction worker just died recently on a Brooklyn construction site as a result of a fall from scaffolding.
When a worker is hurt or killed on-the-job, such as in situations like this one, the injured employee or his family should consult with a New York workers’ compensation law firm as soon as possible in order to find out what options are available for securing benefits. Medical care benefits and wage loss/disability benefits should be available for surviving workers, while death benefits can provide for lost income to dependents of the deceased, as well as payment of funeral expenses.
What Happened?
The worker who was killed recently on the construction site in Brooklyn was a 59-year-old man who was working on a $1.5 billion construction project. The project is located at a building that used to be the site of a Domino Sugar refinery. It is a prime spot on the Williamsburg Waterfront and it is being redeveloped into a high-rise development expected to hold around 2,300 residential units near the base of the Williamsburg Bridge. It will also hold office space for technology firms, and the development will include expanded park land along the East River.
The 59-year-old construction worker who was working on the project was installing the facade on the front of the building when the tragic incident occurred that led to his death. He was on scaffolding doing his work at approximately 8:00 AM when he began to fall.
The victim sustained head injuries due to the fall from the scaffolding and he was transported for care to Woodhull Medical Center. Unfortunately, his injuries were not survivable and he passed away at the medical center. The management company that is in charge of developing the worksite indicated it had stopped work at the location and was “overwhelmed with grief.”
This death due to a fall was just one of many that happen each year that cause construction workers’ lives to be cut short. If an injury or a death occurs because of a fall, the consequences related to health and the family’s financial stability could be devastating, especially if the fall has put a permanent end to one’s construction career. Contact RMFW to find out how workers’ comp can help provide financial protection after a fall on a construction site causes harm or takes a life.