Arye, Lustig & Sassower Blog

NYC construction injuries: An average of two reported per day

On behalf of Carl Lustig of Arye, Lustig & Sassower, P.C. on Tuesday, March 19, 2019.

New York City construction workers continue to get hurt and killed on the job. And the city's new mandatory-training law may not be helping the statistics.

Construction injuries and deaths have increased in recent years, according to a City & State article. Despite the 2017 passage of Local Law 196, which mandated safety training for workers and supervisors, the frequency of accidents appears to be on the rise. Unfortunately, 744 injury events were reported during the 2017-2018 fiscal year, per the article's reference to a Department of Buildings (DOB) report. That's an average of more than two injuries per day and is more than three times higher than a reported 212 injuries from Mayor de Blasio's first year in office.

Why was 2018 worse than 2017 for construction worker safety?

On behalf of Carl Lustig of Arye, Lustig & Sassower, P.C. on Monday, March 18, 2019.

Construction is New York City's most lethal industry, according to recent reports. And things don't seem to be improving, even with a massive influx of money and brisk growth.

According to an article in The Architect's Newspaper, 671 workers were hurt in the city in 2017; that number jumped to 761 in 2018 -- and those figures represent only the injuries that were reported. The paper reported that the number of worker fatalities held steady over the two years, hovering at around 20 per year.

Two Brooklyn construction workers are victims of on-site shooting

On behalf of Carl Lustig of Arye, Lustig & Sassower, P.C. on Sunday, March 17, 2019.

Every day, New York City construction workers are subjected to a variety of dangers, many of which are preventable. Though falls from heights and falling objects injure and kill numerous workers every year, sometimes violence strikes on NYC construction sites.

In February, a tragic Coney Island shooting changed the lives of two construction workers as they were doing their jobs, according to an NBC New York story. The incident, in which both victims were struck by stray bullets, left a grandmother dead and another worker wounded in the wake of a nearby fight that culminated in gunfire, NBC New York said.

Collapsing scaffold injures hot dog vendor in Downtown Brooklyn

On behalf of Carl Lustig of Arye, Lustig & Sassower, P.C. on Saturday, March 2, 2019.

While we have blogging for years about failing construction scaffolds in New York City, the ongoing incidence of preventable scaffolding accidents continues to shock us. Many construction workers do their jobs in unsafe conditions, but innocent passers-by also find themselves seriously injured near construction sites, often because of collapsing scaffolds and other objects that never should have come down.

Construction worker crushed, loses legs in Long Island accident

On behalf of Carl Lustig of Arye, Lustig & Sassower, P.C. on Saturday, March 2, 2019.

Many New York construction workers are subjected to dangerous conditions that put their well-being (and sometimes their lives) at risk. A recent Daily News story described a horrific Long Island construction accident that left a worker with both legs severed below the knee.

When the accident occurred, the 39-year-old victim was working for Grace Industries, which was installing a gas main under a street in Roslyn Heights, according to the Daily News. A steel plate struck the worker, knocking him into a hole, and then landed on him, the story said.

OSHA cites company over Harlem crane mishap that hurt two workers

On behalf of Carl Lustig of Arye, Lustig & Sassower, P.C. on Thursday, February 21, 2019.

You may recall the 2018 mini-crane accident that seriously injured two workers on East 126th Street and that led to criminal charges against two of their supervisors. In a previous post, we shared that one of the workers suffered a brain injury and the other experienced a spinal injury because of what appeared to be profound negligence on the part of the contractor.

Two managers with the Harlem project's contractor, which had been hired to install the facade on an 11-story residential building, were charged with crimes because of their failure to keep workers safe. And now the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited that contractor for endangering its employees.

Construction worker assaulted on the job in Hell's Kitchen

On behalf of Mitchell Sassower of Arye, Lustig & Sassower, P.C. on Sunday, February 17, 2019.

New York City construction workers face a bevy of dangers on the job. Falls from heights, falling objects, collapsing scaffolds and equipment failure are common hazards that lead to many preventable injuries (and a number of deaths) each year.

Sadly, other unforeseen hazards can befall hard-working men and women on construction sites in the city. In the recent case of one worker, human aggression and hatred were blamed for a serious injury while he was simply doing his job on Manhattan's West Side, according to the New York Daily News.

Nine NYC construction workers hurt in carbon monoxide incident

On behalf of Carl Lustig of Arye, Lustig & Sassower, P.C. on Wednesday, February 13, 2019.

Each year, countless New York City construction workers experience preventable injuries on the job. Sadly, some of them die.

Among the most common causes of these injuries are falls from heights, trips and slips, falling objects and problems with machines, equipment and vehicles. But there are many other ways in which a job site can be unsafe for workers.

Forklift mishap: Construction worker crushed to death in Brooklyn

On behalf of Mitchell Sassower of Arye, Lustig & Sassower, P.C. on Friday, January 18, 2019.

Another New York City construction worker was killed by another silly, preventable accident. This time, it was a forklift mishap that sent debris falling onto the victim, according to the New York Post.

The Post reported that the worker was crushed by materials at a site on Myrtle Avenue in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn. Apparently, a forklift tipped over on the roof of the building and dropped the deadly load. The worker was taken to NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull and died soon after the incident, according to the story.

Man injured by falling construction debris ... in his own shower

On behalf of Mitchell Sassower of Arye, Lustig & Sassower, P.C. on Friday, January 18, 2019.

We blog regularly about construction workers getting hurt on the job because of dangerous work conditions. Sometimes innocent bystanders are injured by construction negligence, too.

In a bizarre recent case, an Upper East Side man was struck by falling construction debris in his own bathroom. On Wednesday, January 9, the man was injured while taking a shower in his apartment on East 63rd Street, according to a New York Post story.

Case Results

Since 1965, we’ve recovered over $1 BILLION on behalf of our clients. read more

$2.1 million settlement

for 33-year old electrician who fell from ladder while attempting to fit heavy cable into crown box when cable sprung back and struck him, causing him to suffer left shoulder injury with impingement.
$1.6 million settlement

for 38-year old electrician who slipped and fell on debris on stairway with resulting cervical herniated disc and aggravation of pre-existing arthritic changes.
$2.55 million settlement

for 42-year old electrician who fell into an uncovered, unprotected hole and suffered a severe low back injury with herniated disc(s) that required surgery at L4-5 and L5-S1 levels.
$1.75 million settlement

for 26-year old construction worker who fell through opening in roof and fractured his wrist, requiring surgery with open reduction and internal fixation, external fixation device, and eventual fusion.
$2.5 million settlement

for 38-year old female electrician (with history of prior neck injury) who tripped on uneven Masonite protective floor covering, and suffered neck injury with herniated discs requiring cervical fusion.
$1.2 million settlement

during trial for 40-year old sheet metal worker who was struck in the neck and shoulder by an air conditioning unit and suffered herniated cervical discs and cervical radiculopathy.