Accident lawyer David Perecman put out a press release this week, Attorneys in New York Baffled at how Construction Related Deaths Continue to Occur. The statement is in response to the news that a 42-year-old working on a luxury apartment building fell to his death after a scaffold suddenly gave way.

The press release starts, “New York construction accident lawyers were left scratching their heads as they heard the news of a construction worker who died after falling four stories in Brooklyn, NY.”

The statement goes on to say, “New York construction accident lawyers like David Perecman continue to fight for more safety regulations on construction sites … there is a lack of proper safety precautions being taken on the job site.

“Until we ensure all bases are covered, like the proper equipment is available and people are trained appropriately, accidents like this won’t stop.”

What do you think about his point of view? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

Employee Noel Collins was injured due to a fall while installing ceiling tile in a movie theater owned by West 13th Street Owners Corp. He sued, claiming he wasn’t provided with an appropriate safety device, in this case a scaffold.

Collins had constructed a makeshift scaffold consisting of one piece of plywood on top of an A-frame ladder with the other end of the plywood resting on a wall that was the same height as the ladder.

The company argued that Collins was the sole cause of his injuries because he didn’t use materials on hand to construct a proper scaffold.

But the court said expecting the employee to build his own scaffold from scratch “improperly shifted the responsibility for creating a proper safety device” from the employer to the employee.

Now a jury will decide on damages.

Cite: Collins v. West 13th Street Owners Corp., Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Dept., NY, 6/30/09.

Leonidas Gomez was performing demolition work on a building in New York City.

The building was already partially demolished, and he had to remove a window from the remaining structure.

The only way for him to do that was to stand on a fire escape.

While he was trying to remove the window, the fire escape detached from the building, and Gomez fell to the ground.

The worker sued for his injuries, claiming that the fire escape should be considered a scaffold under New York law.

The court agreed. It said the fact that a fire escape is usually a permanent structure and a scaffold is a temporary one didn’t matter in this case.

Since a scaffold couldn’t be erected on the partially demolished building, the fire escape acted as a scaffold and the law applied.

New York’s unique scaffold law requires building owners and general contractors to provide workers with proper scaffolds, hoists, harnesses and other appropriate PPE for use when working at elevations.

Cite: Gomez v. City of New York et al, New York Supreme Court, 6/11/09.

OSHA has fined LandCoast Insulation, Inc., $72,000 for alleged safety violations in a scaffolding collapse that left one worker dead and six injured.

The scaffold collapsed inside a plant in Mississippi.

OSHA issued one willful citation for $63,000 for substituting weaker horizontal scaffold components.

LandCoast also faces two serious citations for $9,000 for using damaged scaffold components and for failing to provide employees with effective training.

An OSHA official says the company’s use of weaker parts directly led to the structure’s collapse and the worker’s death.

The company has 15 days to decide whether to contest the fines.

You can read more about this case here.