If you recently sustained in injury at a construction site, you are surely worried about not only your health, but also how you will be able to provide for your loved ones. FVF is here for you. After carefully investigating a case, we file a personal injury claim against the responsible party or individual. In your case, it may be a property owner or company owner. The safety of workers should be ensured at all times by maintaining a safe working environment. We can help you pursue fair compensation for your injury.
Professionals who install or maintain overhead powerlines, work on major construction projects, or dig underground for infrastructural purposes related to gas and utilities are more likely than the general public to be catastrophically injured. They may suffer loss of appendages or limbs, or even sustain fatal injury. The type of injury that an employee sustains in the workplace corresponds to the nature of the work he or she most often performs. Likewise, certain types of injury correspond to the responsibilities of organizations or companies that oversee workplace activities and the sites where those activities occur.
The four major causes of death in construction site injuries—classified by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration as the “fatal four”—are falls, electrocutions, struck-by, and caught-in/between. In 2013, they accounted for 58.7% of the fatal injuries in construction. 1
In many worker injury cases that occur at construction sites, liability falls to the general contractor and/or construction management. This is the person, company or group responsible for workers’ safety. And the injuries correspond in particular ways to safety requirements and standards that assist in the determination of liability. For example, when a worker falls from a cracked scaffolding plank, this may reflect the general contractor or construction management’s failure to require scaffold grade lumber. 2 If a worker is crushed by falling masonry that is blown over by wind, this may reflect a failure of the general contractor or construction management to require bracing of the wall. 3
In other workplace injury cases, the liability is not the general contractor’s, but instead falls to the premise owners, who may have failed to comply with certain safety standards. For example, if a roofer falls through a roof opening while making repairs, there may be a failure on the part of the premise owner to require roofers to use fall protection. 4 If a contractor installing a rack handles materials unsafely, causing a worker to be struck by the materials as they fall, the liability may be associated with the premise owner’s failure to require forklift operators to be trained properly and to handle loads safely. 5 If a construction worker in a petrochemical plant is exposed to fire and as a result suffers a burn, the liability may fall to the premise owner who failed to require contractors to wear flame resistant clothing. 6
In some workplace injury cases, the damage or personal injury are directly related to the tools or materials that the worker uses. In such instances, the liability may be attributed to a third party such as the lessor of construction equipment (scissor lifts, forklift trucks, etc.), the supplier of work clothing, the scaffold erector, or the architect. These third parties may be associated with the injury sustained by a worker in such a way that a portion of the responsibility is legally attributable to them.
In the case of a workplace injury at a construction site, the following documents should be requested from the general contractor or construction management:
Contract laborers are a particularly complicated class in term of personal injury and insurance coverage. These are workers who are not permanently employed by the organization or company for whom they were working when a catastrophic accident occurred. According to the guidelines of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), injuries sustained by contract laborers should be recorded by the “establishment that provides supervision to the injured worker,” 8 which may be the construction company rather than the contracting agency. However, workers’ compensation for the contract laborer would be the responsibility of the contracting agency, rather than the company or organization who retained the services of the laborers.
If you want to learn the steps you must take to protect yourself after sustaining serious injuries in a construction site accident, FVF can help. We can help you make the best decisions for your medical care and can work with you to prove the full extent of your construction accident injury. That is how you maximize your recovery.
Every construction side accident is different, and each case must be evaluated on its own. However, trying to determine what you should expect for your construction site accident injury settlement involves an analysis of three factors by your construction accident lawyer:
If you were hurt, a construction accident injury lawyer will not charge you anything to evaluate your case and help you start making smart decisions. Maximizing your recovery is not easy, and insurance companies are not your friend. Talk to a construction accident lawyer at FVF if you need help.
What if you need legal counsel after hours? Or over the weekend? Our Austin personal injury attorneys are available 24/7, so no matter what time of day you need our assistance, we will provide you with the timely services you need. Nothing is more important to us than ensuring that our clients’ needs are met.