New York Construction Accident & Safety News

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.

One of the senior partners at Trolman, Glaser and Lichtman brings to light issues on Staten Island with the Department Of Buildings and safety problems that are arising from buildings that should be condemned but are allowed to stay open. Due to various issues with the law, some twenty percent of buildings on the city’s “Multi-Hazardous Re-Inspection Program” are allowed to remain open. From Jeff Lichtman:

Thanks to an audit by the City Comptroller William Thompson we now know that many serious building and property violations that were discovered in the past have been unresolved. Construction site deaths have been higher in the first 6 months of this year than all of last year. The citizens of New York are entitled to public safety, and in the even they are not provided such safety, the civil justice system is the means by which they can redress the wrongs.

Hopefully the city will do everything in it’s power to make sure that unsafe buildings are being attended to so that the sites are as safe as possible.

New York is cracking down in an effort to re-gain credibility and increase worker safety. All Headline News reports:

New York, NY (AHN) - Two bills aimed at improving construction safety in New York City were approved by the city council Thursday.

The first measure mandates the Buildings Department report the disciplinary action it takes against professional architects and engineers. The report may result in the builders losing their licenses.

The second bill made it compulsory for the department to place monthly updates of deaths and injuries that were construction-related on its Website.

The two bills must still be signed by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The second bill takes effect 90 days after signing, while the first bill would be effective after Bloomberg signs it.

The first part of the bill seems effective, the second far less so. Putting the injuries on a website certainly adds to transparency, but its not like this info isn’t already available via the New York Times or the New York Daily News. This is all part of a 12 point plan to improve construction safety in New York City.

Federal OSHA Laws are Broken and Need to Be Fixed:

Our federal laws for occupational safety should be amended for the legal rights and safety of workers. The New York Times points out:

“OSHA is supposed to be the primary vehicle for protecting America’s workers,” he said. “It should be possible to bring meaningful criminal charges under that federal law, and it should not be necessary to resort to state or local manslaughter charges.

“It’s not a substitute for a coordinated, effective federal program at the national level that really targets this type of misconduct.”

Joel Shufro, executive director of New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, a labor-backed advocacy group on worker safety, praised the indictment. “Such charges should serve as a warning to other contractors who place production in front of human life,” he said. “It is clear that construction in New York is proceeding in many cases without appropriate concerns with safety.”

When workers don’t have the necessary legal protections they need and deserve, it is indeed a tragedy. Hopefully Congress, the President, or OSHA can properly amend the situation so workers get their rights protected in court.

The New York Times points out:

The owner of a Brooklyn construction site where a day laborer died in March when earth and debris collapsed on him was charged with manslaughter on Wednesday. In announcing the indictment, at a time in which construction-related deaths in New York are running far ahead of last year’s pace, the authorities said that more construction-related prosecutions may be ahead.

The site owner, William Lattarulo, was warned by workers and by a consultant that a trench that had been dug on his East New York site was unstable, prosecutors said. “Essentially, his retort was, ‘Don’t worry about it,’ ” said Michael F. Vecchione, chief of the Brooklyn district attorney office’s rackets division.

The authorities said that the worker, Lauro Ortega, 30, suffocated when the tumbling dirt and debris rose to his chest, creating pressure so great that he could not breathe, even though his head remained uncovered.

The article continues:

Those accidents have directed much public scrutiny and apprehension skyward, toward towers of concrete, steel and glass and the cranes that help them reach their heights. But every day around the city, legions of workers, many of them day laborers, toil on jobs not as attention-grabbing as those done on skyscrapers, but often just as dangerous.

Surprisingly the New York Times reports:

In a 2003 investigation, The New York Times reported that from 1982 to 2002, 2,197 workers were killed on the job nationwide because employers “willfully” violated safety laws. In 93 percent of the 1,242 cases investigated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the agency declined to seek prosecution.

Only 68 criminal cases have been brought nationwide under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, an average of fewer than two per year, said David M. Uhlmann, a law professor at the University of Michigan and former chief of the Justice Department’s environmental crimes section.

IN the latest news regarding construction accidents in New York city Newsday reports:

NEW YORK - Federal and state investigators have issued violations against two companies in the scaffold accident that sent two window washers plummeting 47 floors from a Manhattan skyscraper.

One of the two men was killed. The survivor, Alcides Moreno, underwent 16 operations and remains in rehabilitation.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued citations accusing the company that employed the window washers and the company that installed the scaffold of violating federal workplace safety standards.

The state Labor Department also issued violations in the accident on Monday.

The New York City Buildings department really needs to get a control on these outlandish events and hold construction companies accountable. The continuation of this behavior will just increase the need for more construction accident lawsuits for the foreseable future.

Washington DC Cracks Down on Construction Accidents for Consumer and Worker Safety:

Other major cities like Washington DC, our nation’s beloved capital, are taking action to increase safety and accountability on construction sites.
The Washington Post reports:

TheDon Masoero, chief inspector for the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, said city officials began visiting construction sites yesterday to make sure that cranes have proper permits and that safety records at the sites are accurate and up to date.

Masoero said construction companies will be required to hire independent, third-party engineers to inspect the cranes. A DCRA spokesman, Michael Rupert, said the agency wants the inspections completed within five days.

After the collapses in New York, Rupert said, “there are going to be some nervous residents and nervous visitors in the District. So, as a precautionary measure, we want to go through and reaffirm that these cranes are safe.”

Luckily, as the Washington Post points out, the height limitations of the District make it less likely that a construction accident would happen on the scale that it occurred in New York.

Follow a March crane accident in New York, city officials are altering building construction rules and regulations. Ny Newsday points out:

NEW YORK - New York City officials will no longer require that buildings inspectors be present when cranes are moved at construction sites.

The Buildings Department on Wednesday amended an order it put out after a crane collapse in midtown Manhattan killed seven people on March 15.

The department said it will still conduct unannounced inspections of sites. Also, contractors will have to notify the city and hold safety meetings before raising, lowering or lengthening a crane.

This decision seems to make no sense or at least is counterintuitive. Why would you roll back regulations in order to increase worker safety? And if it will increase safety, why didn’t Newday explain why or how.

Investigations still surround the Deutsche building fire in New York, NY . New York Newsday points out:

Manhattan prosecutors continue to dig deep into the circumstances of last August’s fire at the Deutsche Bank building that killed two firefighters.

A grand jury probe by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau has amassed more than 3 million documents, including building and work records, which have to be reviewed as part of the criminal investigation.

Thats certainly a hurculean legal undertaking. Hopefully truth and justice will prevail.

Goldman Sachs construction site just got a little safer. New York Newsday reports:

NEW YORK - Goldman Sachs says it will not resume construction at its new lower Manhattan headquarters until new safety measures are in place.

State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver announced Sunday that Goldman has promised safety provisions beyond what the city building code requires.

The stepped-up safety efforts come after a piece of metal fell 18 stories off the building May 17. The chunk of steel landed on a field where Little League games were being played.

Luckily Goldman Sachs is taking a more proactive stance after an earlier safety blunder. Hopefully, other companies that have experienced building and construction accidents in New York City and beyond take heed.