Attorney ‘baffled’ at how construction deaths continue to occur
August 28, 2009 by Fred HosierPosted in: construction safety, contractor safety, Fatality, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, What do you think?
PDF Ever want to give your point of view to attorneys who represent workplace accident victims and always seem to blame the employer? Well, now’s your chance, especially after one New York injury attorney released a statement that expresses his bewilderment over continuing construction accidents.
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.
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August 31st, 2009 at 9:30 am
There are more than adequate regulations, equipment and usually training provided. In my 30+ years of CM I can catagorically state that in all the onsite accidents I have been around the root cause has been that the injured individual has NOT taken individual responsibility to follow basic rules and training they have recieved.
Until individuals start wearing & attaching saftey harnesses to proper anchors or stop standing or working under suspened crane loads.
There is no site I have been around in the last 15 years that any employer would require or even ask someone to do something that that individual thought was unsafe if they were told!
We as CM’s onthe sites have done as much as we can to make them safe- but the people have to make sure they ARE safe - as they say you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink !
August 31st, 2009 at 9:40 am
What is tragic about an accident like this is that the employers 98% of the time provide the proper equipment but the employee tends to cuts corners, tries to save time by quickly applying the safety features provided, or ignores them because he wants the freedom of not having the gear on or around him. It is like safety glasses, anyone who is safety concious will wear their safety glasses but still there are write up weekly on those who will not pay attention to the rule, and end up with some fragment in their eye. My company works at 100% safety gear on all jobsites, and we still have those occasional injuries. It annoys me when I hear there is an injury and it is because of the employees stupidity. The fault is directly on the employee, but the company suffers because there is yet another injury to report to he insurance company.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:07 am
I can count on one hand the number of job site accidents that I have experience with that were the direct result of employer negligence or adequate precautions. The vast majority, probably 90%, of the job site accidents I have seen have been the result of employees’ not accepting the seriousness of safety on the job site or the outright refusal of employees to follow the safety standards and practices set forth by their employer. This observation on my part has been corroborated by other job site safety professionals I have talked to. Of course a victims attorney is going to express bewilderment, he has a vested interest in employers taking the blame for employee behavior which is often outside of the employers control.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:13 am
Gee, I wonder if they ever consider that the workers don’t follow the rules that exist.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:18 am
The personality of a company is a direct reflection of management.
Whether or not there are healthy safety minded attitudes within the work force is dependant on not ONLY what is on paper in the company policy, but on the methods of compliance employed. There are many very well written yet disfunctional safety programs out there.
There must be a working system of consequences for non-compliance and rewards for compliance.
August 31st, 2009 at 11:24 am
Dear Mr. Perecman,
Before you stop scratching your head,get yourself a copy of OSHA 29 CFR 1926. After you read it, see if you can squeeze another regulation into it.
Remember…
- “Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.” — Plato..
You must be scratching the wrong place
August 31st, 2009 at 11:38 am
Unfortunately this is an example of part of the problem, it seems that everyone always wants to blame the employer for injuries, the claims are made that appropriate training has not been provided, the employer is not providing a safe work environment, the employer is not providing the proper equipment and on and on.
What about personal accountability, there will always be a few companies that do not provide what is needed but more often it is the employee’s themselves that do not follow the protocols and training that have been put in place to protect them. Fortunately the company I work for has never had a fatality or sever injury however when investigating the minor injuries that happen in almost every case the employee states that they were just trying to save time or they were in a hurry. How is it that the Employer is to blame when the employee’s make the decision (and it is a decision) to ignore the policy and training.
It is frustrating to continuously have to sit back and listen to Lawyers, Government agencies and for that matter Government Representatives, who do not have a clue because they have never had to live in the real world, they exist in their little fantasy land where the Employers are evil and the employee’s are defenseless sheep that need protecting. They continue to march us down the path of Socialism it will be very interesting to watch what happens once they finally succeed, since the only responsible party will be Government I will bet that the Government then changes its tune and starts to blame the workers for the inappropriate actions (sorry got a little fired up there but it is true).
August 31st, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Job Hazard Analysis and implementaion is both extremely time consuming and very costly. Then sufficeint time is needed to train each employee on the safety precautions (more time and money). Having worked on construction sights myself, I know that many constructon companys will only provide the minimum amount of protection and training required to keep from being fined in case of an inspection.
To do so, would put alot of small construction companies out of business, but then could indeed save more lives.
I’ve heard “construction work is just dangerous, thats the way it is.”
August 31st, 2009 at 8:58 pm
When workers who have received proper training start to take responsibility for their own safety.
Workers who speak up need to get required support from those in authority so there is protection from unfair backlash.
Separate the companies that are operating safely from those that operate unsafely. Authorities will be able to focus more of their attention on unsafe companies.
September 1st, 2009 at 11:25 am
The new line of education in our school systems is group think with no personal responsibility and no criticism allowed.. I am ME and I deserve the best. Mommy and Daddy want me to be in charge and not be abused with instructutions from those old retro-people who think they are boss.
I don’t have to take directions because I am special……
All the way down!
September 2nd, 2009 at 2:52 pm
” One should not cross the road with one’s eyes closed” On the other hand if you are four stories up on a scaffold, and you really cared about getting home that night, then you should make damn sure you put the thing together correctly, and your other PPE was in place. I have been in construction for nearly 30 years, and the few times I have been injured I can honestly say it was my fault.
September 5th, 2009 at 9:31 am
I too have been in construction for many years and have been involved at various levels of Safety administration. There is a tremendous cost to employers to provide required equipment, training, supervision, and of course domumentation. All too often all the good efforts of employers are shorted by the bad decisions of employees. Support of a safe work environment and culture is difficult and never ending, but important for all. We all want our employees to be safe in their work! It is rediculous in this day and age that an employer would ask employees to work in less than safe environments. I do not stand on the side of placing those that comply with regulation and safe practice under the “lime light” but rather the ability to remove quickly those that do not. I also think it is time for lawyers and insurance companies to give American industries a little breathing room before the whole country is strangled.
September 8th, 2009 at 9:23 am
I was able to spend some time with family over the weekend and had an interesting conversation with my brother-in-law, he was involved in an incident where an injury occured, the final ruling was that he was at fault for not following procedures, the company he worked for was still fined ?? although it was a minimal considering the severity of the injury involved.
He also told me about the training that they go through, he stated that the company provides plenty of training for safe driving, slips and falls and these general topics but they do not provide training for his specific job. I have to admit I like my brother-in-law but something just does not add up here, the work he does is very dangerous, the company is very well established for the last 100 years and there have not been any other recent serious injuries or deaths (there were two within one week), if the employee’s are not properly trained then how can this be or is it more of a we have not recieved the proper training, now that someone has a serious injury and it is time to deflect blame. I want to believe my Brother-in-law but my brain just is not able to accept that some key info has been left out of the discussion. Unfortunately I will never know the truth on this one as I wish to preserve family peace but I also do not buy into the fact that no training is provided especially since what I heard right after the incident from him indicated that he did not follow the proper procedure and was concerned about what may happen, shifting story and short memory. Still keeping my mind open to other possibilities when all the facts are in.
December 23rd, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Let OSHA fine the workers and a lot of this will disappear. In fact, I bet if you allowed OSHA to fine the workers, the companies conducting the work would work with OSHA a lot more.
December 23rd, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Why would OSHA fine an individual employee who does not have the resources his employer does? Today’s ” No Fault” education forbids blaming people responsible when there is an evil, blood sucking employer with insurance who has “resources” that belong to all and can so easily be harvested.
More employers must begin immediate and permanent dismissal of unsafe employees who refuse to obey, or pay attention, to the rules. Only consistent, impartial and rigorous enforcement of the well publicised and taught safety concepts will change this persistent hunting of companies to fine or better yet, sue,
I have been professionally working in the construction industry for over 40 years and have never seen any accident that the injured employee could not have prevented with the current equipment and laws if he had his wits about him.
OSHA is purely political in origin and purpose and promotes class warfare. The thinking that “This employer can afford to hire me ,so he can afford to pay me off” has got to be snuffed out. Until people working in our business grow up enough to grab their own butts and shape up enough to understand that their testosterone poisoning can kill them, the stupid laws, and lawyers, will continue to rule.
December 29th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Ron, you are a fortunate individual because I have worked for companies that didn’t provide, educate or require safety practices. It was definitely a “just get the job done” kind of a company. Luckily, I’m no longer with that kind of a company. As for the immediate and permanent dismissal of unsafe employees, I’m not against that provided there is a body of evidence to determine an unsafe employee versus an employee who just erred. Lastly, regarding OSHA I kind of disagree with you. OSHA has been effective in decreasing workplace injuries, The creation of OSHA had value just like the creation of worker unions. I believe the purpose of unions have been fulfilled and all the things they were created for have been addressed in our worker’s rights laws. Now they exist merely to drive up the cost of labor and promulgate itself. OSHA has become too big and overbearing and I wonder how anyone can be held to everything written in the manual when it has become so technical and lengthy. The biggest problem really is the judiciary system where laws are created from the bench and people can succesfully sue for virtually any cause.
August 18th, 2010 at 8:37 am
Lawyers “Always” want to blame the employer for accidents and injuries. However, statistics indicate otherwise. As much as 85% of the time investigations show that “Worker Non-Compliance” is the major contributing factor in accidents and injuries. While I was working as a field safety coordinator on a major construction project in Texas last year, two fatalities occurred due to falls. In both cases the employee was wearing their safety harness, but failed to tie-off as as they had been trained. Not being tied-off was grounds for immediate termination, yet every week someone was terminated for not being tied-off. It’s not rocket science folks. It’s why Behavioral Safety is being taught throughout industry; you have to change the mindset and attitude of people to achieve compliance.