The New York lawyers at Block O’Toole & Murphy continue to follow the harrowing details of a fatal construction accident that took place this week at the Dream Hotel in midtown Manhattan. The investigation is ongoing but details are slowly beginning to emerge.
The unidentified worker, believed to be 40 years old, was laboring on a scaffold outside of the Dream Hotel. He was reportedly doing façade work for Alpha General Construction. He was working as high as seven stories above the ground. Many scaffolds have a flooring made up of planks, often made of wood. The planks in this instance were apparently not properly secured. Planks that are not properly secured can move and leave gaps in the flooring of the scaffolding; or, because they are not secured, sometimes a plank may be removed for one reason or another. Construction workers depend on scaffolds to keep them safe. When a worker is doing his job on a scaffold and they are exposed to gaps in the scaffolding it can obviously be very dangerous. This tragedy is clear proof of that.
In this case, the worker apparently slipped through the unsecured planks and plummeted to his death, violently crashing down from the scaffolding, landing between the first and second floors of the hotel. The tragic accident was witnessed by horrified co-workers, pedestrians and others that worked in the area. One witness from the group that owned the hotel said that there was a missing plank in the scaffold that should have been there. If true, this worker lot his life merely because he was not given a safe environment to do his job. Even if the scaffold was hopelessly flawed, this senseless death did not have to happen. Why? Fall protection devices like a harness are required under the law to be given to workers that are working at elevated levels. A working harness would have wholly prevented this man’s death despite the dangerous scaffold he was required to work on.
The investigation will continue. Thus far, we can report that The Department of Buildings has issued a ‘stop work’ order and cited the companies for safety failures that led to this man’s death.
Yesterday, this unidentified worker left his home in the morning and showed up for work hoping to earn an honest day’s pay and make it back home at the end of the day. Instead, he was killed because people did not care enough about worker safety. Senseless, tragic, horrible – – no words can describe this loss. Similarly, nobody can truly appreciate what it must be like for the loved ones of a fallen construction worker. Their loss must feel so hollow, empty and sad. Our thoughts and prayers remain with the victim and those that loved him.
Block O’Toole & Murphy is a law firm that takes pride in fighting on behalf of construction workers. Their results on behalf of injured construction workers evidence a commitment to fighting for the underdog. The committed and talented lawyers at the firm have amassed more than $750,000,000 in verdicts and settlements. To learn more about the firm, you can review the firm website at www.blockotoole.com. For a free consultation, you can call them at 212-736-5300.
Sources:
http://nypost.com/2014/04/02/worker-dies-after-fall-from-dream-hotel/