A substantial number of construction accidents in New York City in recent years have resulted in far too many fatalities. In fact, according to Crain’s New York, there were a total of 25-construction industry deaths in 2015. The high death rate is being driven by a building boom, among other factors including construction companies that are not prioritizing the safety of their staff members.
Fatal construction accidents are devastating for everyone, but all-too-often, the construction worker’s family is left without the financial support they need because their deceased loved one is no longer contributing to their household income. Workers’ compensation should provide death benefits for dependents of construction workers who lost their lives on-the-job.
It is often necessary for family members of deceased construction workers to reach out to New York City construction accident lawyers to get the benefits they deserve after their loved one has passed on. If your family member has passed away in a construction accident, you should get legal help as soon as possible to make sure that you do everything required to get your benefits as quickly as possible.
Shedding Light on Construction Worker Fatalities
Crain’s New York completed an in-depth analysis of the construction accident fatalities that occurred in New York during 2015 when so many workers lost their lives. The goal was to better understand why and how construction accidents were happening.
The first and most important piece of information highlighted by Crain’s is that there were actually more construction worker fatalities counted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics when assessing the number of workers killed in New York City than were counted by the Department of Buildings. The Department of Buildings within New York counted just 11 construction worker fatalities in 2015 because the Department of Buildings only included fatalities in its tally if the fatal incident involved a violation of the construction code.
Even the data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration had a death toll lower than it should be, with OSHA reporting only 17 work-related construction deaths when there were actually 25 workers who died on the job, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Getting an accurate number of fatalities is vital so proper investigations can be conducted and so he public is made aware of what is going on within the construction industry. As Crain’s points out, the fact that the Bureau of Labor Statistics found so many more deaths than the Department of Buildings or OSHA means there are some fatalities the media did not report and likely some deaths not being investigated.
The analysis from Crain’s revealed that a total of 18 of the 25 workers who died in New York City construction accidents in 2015 were foreign born. A total of 13 of the workers who were killed came from either Central American or South America. Three of the workers who died were from Europe, and five were from Mexico. When workers are foreign born and their families aren’t in the United States, their deaths sometimes do not get as much attention — which means these workers may not get justice if an investigation into violations on their worksite is never conducted.
New York City construction accident lawyers can provide help in circumstances where families from New York or elsewhere want to take action and try to claim workers’ compensation benefits after a loved one has passed on due to a construction accident. Just give us a call today to find out how we can help.