Posts tagged "Construction accidents"

Just 90 miles south of Newburgh, a New York construction worker injured in a scaffolding fall has received $3.7 million in a settlement of his claims against a New Jersey company.

The Mineola, New York, man was injured while he was working on a home in New Jersey's Tewksbury Township.

A 29-year-old Brooklyn woman was killed on Aug. 30 while riding her bicycle. According to reports, the accident occurred because avoid debris from a nearby construction site was in the bike lane. When she swerved to avoid the construction debris, she fell from her bike, and a passing BMW ran over her neck and severed her jugular vein. She died on the scene.

Neighbors near the site of the accident are blaming the construction company, YBG Construction. The debris in the bike lane was apparently the remains of makeshift structures meant to fence off the construction zone, but the barricades had been blown over when Hurricane Irene hit the area. The hurricane took place over the weekend, but the debris from the barricades was still in the bike lane and street on Monday and Tuesday, presenting a serious hazard to bikers, pedestrians and vehicle traffic.

Even in a time when unemployment in the United States tops nine percent, and food stamp usage is at an all-time high, and prospects for a robust economic recovery are dim, there are jobs that are often difficult for employers to fill.

Last month, it was reported that software companies and natural-resource-extraction companies are having a hard time finding people with the required skills. And then there are those dangerous jobs that nobody -- or almost nobody -- seems to want.

Three men were hospitalized with injuries after being rescued from the site of a construction accident in a township located several hundred miles southwest of Newburgh, New York. The workers were buried under thousands of pounds of wood after the roof on the structure they were working on collapsed.

Building inspectors report that the men spent all day setting up trusses for the roof, which buckled and broke around 5 p.m., causing the roof to fall in on them. The men spent 35 minutes trapped under debris, after which rescue workers were able to free them and take them to safety using rescue baskets.

A safety rule that building owners in New York City have long complained about has been clarified by the city.

The rule required owners of large buildings to have on-site, full-time safety inspectors whenever renovation construction work and major façade work was being carried out. Building owners were apparently happy to learn that the Department of Buildings says those inspectors need not be hired by the building owners, but could instead be employees of the construction company doing the work.

Nearly 300 miles northwest of Newburgh, beneath the waters of Lake Ontario, a construction worker was killed in an underground tunnel earlier this week.

The construction accident involved an employee of Southland Contracting, a Texas company. The worker was in a tunnel 163 feet below ground, beneath Lake Ontario, when a train carrying drilling debris hit him.

The president of the borough of Manhattan recently wrote an op-ed urging New York City leaders to make the most of the opportunity the stalled economy has given them.

Scott Stringer argues on the Gotham Gazette Web site that the sputtering economy has slowed the construction business, giving leaders an opportunity to make changes to reduce construction accidents when the economy rebounds and the industry picks up again.

The good news about a decrease in construction accidents delivered by the city's Buildings Department this week was leavened by tragic news of a construction-related death in New York City.

A 26-year-old worker was killed in Queens when a concrete block wall collapsed and fell on him. He died at a hospital after being pulled out from under the rubble and crushed scaffolding.

Three other workers were injured in the Elmhurst construction accident.

One worker was killed and three others injured in September when a steel beam collapsed at a Yale University construction site.

A federal investigation of the fatal construction accident continues, according to a report by the Yale Daily News.