New York Construction Accident & Safety News

Even though construction accidents lead to more deaths than any other profession, workers killed on the job was down in 2007, to “historic lows”. The AP reports on the statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

The number of worker deaths dropped to 5,488 last year — the fewest since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began keeping track in 1992. That’s down 6 percent from the 5,840 deaths reported in 2006.

Construction continued to have the most deaths of any private sector industry, with 1,178 in 2007.

The overall U.S. rate was 3.7 fatal injuries for every 100,000 workers, the lowest annual rate ever reported by the fatality census.

The construction industry has had several deadly crane accidents this year, including one in Houston this month that killed four workers and injured seven. Crane-related deaths have also occurred in New York, Miami and Las Vegas.

With all of the major construction and crane accidents happening in New York City in the recent months, the TGL Law Blog has some excellent news about the sites where one of those accidents occurred. It looks like all work has been halted no the site by the city of New York:

The site of a major construction accident this past March in Manhattan has been officially foreclosed on after the city revoked the site’s building permits. The project at 303 East 51st Street had a major crane collapse which killed seven people and forced the evacuation of many neighbors in the area. After review by city officials, it was discovered that the developer never had the proper building permits in the first place, and was rejected for a renewal on them.

Great news last week from Newsday.com regarding building and construction reform in New York City:

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is promoting his acting buildings commissioner to take the job permanently.

Bloomberg announced on his Friday radio show that he will appoint Robert LiMandri as commissioner. LiMandri was a deputy commissioner under Patricia Lancaster, who resigned under pressure in April during a spate of deadly construction accidents.

The mayor promoted LiMandri a day after the City Council changed the requirements for the job. The commissioner no longer needs to be licensed as an engineer or architect.

The mayor says LiMandri "is really the right guy for the right time."

Great news today courtesy of NY1.com:

Following a series of deadly accidents amid the city’s construction boom, the City Council is again taking up the issue of construction safety today. The council is scheduled to vote on legislation mandating that a site safety manager be present during concrete pouring operations, and that workers take safety courses. They’ll also take up a bill that will change the requirements for becoming the city’s Buildings Commissioner. Under the current law, the position must be held by a certified architect or engineer.

Yet another crane accident occurred last week, leading the questions to fly regarding why there is such an influx of crane accidents this year as compared to the past. Several people who have been closely following the outbreak weighed in on the issue:

“I contend that (the accidents are) due to the real excess of construction activity in the U.S. in the last three or four years,” said Bernard Ross of the engineering and scientific consulting firm Exponent in Menlo Park, Calif.

Ross, whose specialty is heavy equipment and crane failure, said, “There’s just a very large increase in the number of cranes that are on job sites.” And, with the spike in crane use, there’s a resulting lack of workers qualified to operate the machines, Ross said. That compounds the potential for crane problems. There is no evidence that the crane operator in Monday’s local accident was not qualified.

National research on accidents, based on data collected by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, shows that from 2000 to 2006 there’s been an average of 78 crane-related deaths a year in the United States.

However, those numbers downplay the extent of crane problems, according to Tom Barth, a Goose Creek crane inspector and operator who also investigates collapses.

OSHA only tracks failures that result in fatalities or multiple injuries. Close calls like the incident at the Hilton Head marina aren’t counted. Barth said there’s a need for stiffer regulation. In South Carolina and 34 other states, crane operators are not required to be certified. He said that too often workers are learning to operate cranes on the job.

The city council of Jersey City last week unanimously approved a safety manual that would apply to construction regulations throughout the city. The new law will also allow the Construction Code Official for the city to enforce the rules. The new safety manual includes:

• Any structure four stories or higher must have a standpipe that allows water to be pumped to upper floors.
• When a building reaches 150 feet, a temporary fire pump must be installed.
• Rules for preventing materials from becoming airborne in the event of high winds.
• A tower crane can be used on a construction site only after Meyer is shown a plan on placement.
• There are operating procedures under windy conditions.
• And the builders must have a report showing the soil underneath is stable enough to support the weight of a crane.

From SILive.com:
 

A Brooklyn construction company has been fined in the electrocution of a worker earlier this year. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued $15,000 in fines to CKR Construction in the death of 44-year-old John Rodriguez. He was electrocuted in February while working at a Consolidated Edison property in Queens. The agency says the construction company failed to train employees about electrical hazards or taking steps to prevent such accidents. OSHA didn’t issue any violations to Con Edison.

But Queens Assemblyman Michael Gianaris says the utility shares some blame for not properly supervising its contractors and monitoring work on its property. Con Edison says it takes worker safety seriously. CKR didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Great news from Newsday.com regarding new fines for those who violate the construction laws regarding crane operation. Many construction accidents have occurred recently in New York with cranes, and the new legislation is a big step forward in thwarting any future accidents from happening.

Criminal and civil penalties will increase for compromising David Paterson.

The law effective Nov. 1 makes altering licensing exams a felony. It also imposes fines of up to $5,000 for inspectors who falsify reports and permanently revokes their licenses.

The measure follows a spike in construction accidents in New York City, where crane accidents have killed at least nine people since March.

A developer in New York state with ties to Donald Trump is under scrutiny lately after several incidents at his building sites became a cause for concern. Several injuries have occurred at the various construction sites, including one fatality, and now work has been ordered to cease after the latest issue.

Mayor Dannel Malloy announced the new limits three days after a four-by-four piece of lumber fell from the 24th floor of the Trump Parc project during a storm Friday, smashing through the roof of a postal truck and narrowly missing its driver in what was at least the fourth accident at the site in several months. A week earlier, the city shut down work on the tower after a cable blew from an upper floor and shattered a window at a University of Connecticut building.
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"No concrete work, no HVAC, no plumbing, no drywall, nothing," Malloy said yesterday, describing the new constraints. He said officials are "upset and angered" by the latest accident and he dismissed the safety improvements Cappelli said he was taking on his own, including disassembling the construction crane and removing all concrete framing by Friday.

The blogger for Trolman, Glaser and Lichtman reported on a letter issued by nine U.S. senators to create reform in construction laws.  With frequent crane accidents in the last six months or so, reform couldn’t come a moment sooner.

With the outbreak of construction accident fatalities all across America, nine senators have lead the charge towards reform. The senators, which include Patty Murray of Washington, Harry Reid of Nevada, and Barack Obama of Illinois, sent a letter to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao asking her to make initiatives to improve worker safety on construction sites. Also included in the requests was improved crane regulations which haven’t been revised since 1971. The steps taken by the senators is in part due to the perceived lack of action by the current administration to make changes to the regulations on the books.

Hopefully any reform that is coming will help prevent more construction accidents from happening.