At around 8:30 am on February 26, 2021, a 52-year-old construction worker was tragically killed in a work site accident. The incident occurred at NYU Langone Ambulatory Care Center on East 41st Street, where the victim had been working on the 16th floor. He reported to work at the midtown Manhattan hospital at 6:30 am that day and took the hoist elevator that runs outside the hospital façade. Two hours later, he fell to the ground.
Police and paramedics responded to a 911 call soon afterwards. The victim was found with trauma throughout his body and pronounced dead at the scene.
The victim, whose name has not been released pending family notification, was a Long Island resident and had been part of the Sheet Metal Workers Local 28 union for 24 years. Eric Meslin, president and business manager of Local 28, told New York Daily News that the victim was well-liked, “had a big personality,” and was “a good guy to be around.”
Our thoughts and deepest sympathies go out to the victim’s loved ones.
More information is needed to understand what happened; however, these incidents have become far too common in the construction industry. According to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 5,333 workers died on the job in 2019 alone. Of these fatalities in the private industry, 20% were in construction, up 5% from 2018.
Falls are the leading cause of work-related deaths among construction laborers, and what’s more, too many of these tragic deaths are preventable. According to OSHA’s Top 10 Most Frequently Cited Standards, fall protection in the construction industry is the top-cited violation. It is the duty of the employer, general contractor, and others in charge of protecting the workers’ safety to provide fall protection systems. Failure to do so can and has resulted in lives being taken too early.
Injured construction workers and families who lost loved ones to fatal construction accidents may have legal recourse to file a lawsuit against parties responsible for the accident. New York offers various legal protections for construction workers, including Labor Law Sections 200, 240, 241 and Part 23 of the Division of Safety and Health Industrial Code.
The attorneys at Block O’Toole & Murphy have extensive experience working with construction accident victims whose lives have been upended as a result of a serious accident. To date, we recovered well over 100 construction accident results exceeding $1,000,000 each. We offer free legal consultations to anyone who has been injured in an accident and wants to discuss their legal options with an attorney.
Select results for clients include:
- $110,174,972 verdict for a passerby who was paralyzed after he was struck by a railroad tie that fell from the subway tracks above during construction maintenance
- $15,000,000 settlement for the family of a loving husband and father who was tragically killed in a construction accident at a New York hospital
- $12,000,000 settlement for a Local 147 member who was catastrophically injured after he fell 40 feet during a construction project
- $11,500,000 settlement for a union construction worker with severe injuries after a construction site accident
- $11,000,000 settlement in a Brooklyn construction accident case for a masonry foreman who suffered serious pelvic and spinal injuries after he fell three stories through a hole in the floor
Dial 212-736-5300 or fill out our Contact Form, and one of our attorneys will reach out to you shortly.