A tragic accident at a Chelsea job site recently brought the New York construction-related death toll to nine for 2017. In the accident, a 34-year-old man died after getting hit in the head by a metal fragment.
The fatal blow happened after some metal fell off scaffolding on Ninth Avenue. The man was found unresponsive by emergency workers. Although they rushed him to Lenox Hill Hospital, doctors were unable to save him and he was later pronounced dead.
The building that the man was working on was owned by two firms, Vornado Realty Trust and Aurora Capital Associates. So far, the building has been cited for numerous violations by the Department of Buildings. One violation happened as recently as Sept. 16. According to the violation, the construction site where the man was working had not implemented vital safety equipment standards.
According to the president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, the recent death has served as a reminder that New York construction sites need to have better safety measures. He said that the construction industry is dangerous, and measures must be taken to ensure the safety of workers. As to the question of giving better safety training to workers, the president of the Real Estate Board of New York says that “the first concern is simple: does New York City have the adequate capacity to train up to 120,000 non-union construction workers?”
Clearly, a great deal of work must be done to improve the safety of construction sites in our city. In the meantime, workers who suffer serious injuries on the job can pursue financial benefits to pay for their injuries by filing a workers’ compensation claim.
Source: Real Estate Weekly, “Construction death toll continues to rise despite year of safety reviews,” Holly Dutton, Dec. 20, 2017