New York Is an Injury Zone for Construction Workers

It is a well-known fact that construction site accidents are becoming commonplace in New York. The number of fatal construction accidents is on the rise, as reported in a New York Times article about a 12-ton heating and air-conditioning unit that fell from a crane 30 stories to the pavement below. Five months into 2015, 8 people had already been killed in construction site accidents. The previous year saw a total of 231 construction-related accidents, up 24% from the year before.

A recent criminal case playing out in the courts of NYC demonstrates that construction safety continues to be a huge problem in the city. After construction worker Carlos Moncayo died in 2015, crushed by a collapsing wall, two employees of the construction firm employing Carlos were actually charged with homicide in his death by allowing the unsafe working conditions that led to his death. One of the men on trial in fact blamed the other defendant for not letting him fire the foreman on the construction site whose actions he alleged were the cause of the man’s death.

That sad case and the overall increasing number of construction site accidents can be attributed to the fact that more construction is occurring. According to the president of the New York Building Congress, $36 billion was spent on construction in 2014, with 98,000 new building permits issued by New York City. The current construction boom has led to more injuries and accidents, with construction workers, in some cases, paying the ultimate price.