Despite several special labor laws in the United States, construction accidents cause many catastrophic injuries and deaths each year.
Indeed, working in the construction industry is a hazardous occupation. The tasks you must perform at a construction site are dangerous, often involving heavy machinery and equipment. And accidents occur. Frequently.
Unfortunately, no technological advancements or training has proved beneficial in putting a leash on accidents. Indeed, the hundreds (if not thousands) of safety rules and regulations cannot entirely remove the risk of accidental injury on the job site. And many of these accidents result in debilitating injuries, loss of limbs and other body parts, and even death.
Workers compensation laws provide cash and medical benefits to injured construction workers. But these benefits are limited.
Therefore, a third-party lawsuit against the general contractor, another subcontractor, or the property owner is often necessary to be made whole.
This article discusses your legal options for injuries in a construction site accident. And what to expect when seeking monetary relief.
Contact us if you have questions about your options: (804) 251-1620 or (757) 810-5614. We are top-rated Virginia construction accident lawyers with the knowledge, skill, experience, and reputation to help you win.
The U.S. Labor Department collects data on accidents, injuries, illnesses, and fatalities in the workplace. And this information regularly proves the construction industry is one of the most dangerous places for employees.
Several statistics show just how hazardous the construction industry can be:
Construction accidents come in many forms.
Some injuries result from negligence (human factors and mistakes), such as equipment operator errors.
But other construction site injuries result from a machine or material failure.
Here are some of the most common construction site accidents:
Caught-in or – between injuries happen when you are squeezed, crushed, caught, pinched, or pinned between two or more objects on the construction site. These types of accidents often cause severe damage to hands, fingers, arms, feet, and legs.
For example, our firm has represented construction workers pinned between forklifts and walls or caught under a pile of material that fell when struck by equipment.
Trenching and excavation are common on job sites.
Unfortunately, they are also dangerous.
A trench collapse can cause injuries such as a torn meniscus if your leg twists during the fall or traumatic brain injury.
In addition, a trench collapse may cause you to be trapped or buried for a period. Such an experience increases the risk of psychological conditions as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Many construction sites have multiple levels. You might be working on one level while coworkers or other subcontractors perform tasks at a higher elevation.
In this situation, you have an increased risk of being struck by tools or building materials that fall from the level above.
Indeed, we have represented several construction workers who suffered head injuries and post-concussion syndrome because a coworker or other subcontractor’s employee had thrown an object from a scaffold or roof without looking to see who was below.
Cranes are necessary on many job sites.
But any person in a crane’s swing radius is at risk. And hoist and crane accidents often result in catastrophic injury and property damages.
Common crane accident causes include boom or crane contact with energized power lines, boom collapse, dropped loads, operator error, rigging failures, and wind or ground shifts causing the crane to overturn.
Construction workers often perform their job at heights – on roofs, ladders, and scaffolds and in window openings. For example, one study found that about two million construction employees work on scaffold platforms frequently (and many more on ladders).
Uneven working surfaces, human error, faulty ladders and scaffolds, defective harnesses, and the misuse of or failure to use fall protection equipment result in many falls from ladders and scaffolds and injuries severe enough to require time off the job.
You can read about workers comp for falls from ladders and heights for more information.
Exposure to electric currents (overhead power lines, exposed wires, lightning if working outside during a thunderstorm, powered machinery) can result in electric shock and burn injuries.
Falls from roofs account for a significant percentage of construction injuries and deaths. But falling is not the only risk to roofers and persons around these sites.
For example, hot roofing tar, holes in the roof, and roof collapses can cause harm to everyone nearby.
Construction workers are at risk of falling in an unprotected elevator shaft when employers and job site owners do not take the proper precautions.
For example, a maintenance tech working on an escalator at a nearby Richmond mall died when he fell down the shaft.
Flammable gases (including compressed gases) and unfinished electrical systems can cause fires and explosions on the construction site.
A failure to recognize chemical hazards and toxic substances results in many chemical burns and respiratory problems on job sites each year.
Other toxic hazards include asbestos (which causes mesothelioma) and solvents.
Construction takes place in types of weather, putting construction workers at risk of overexposure to extreme temperatures.
Extreme temperatures can result in heatstroke, heat exhaustion, heat strokes, and frostbite.
More than 90,000 employees are hurt each year when operating powered industrial trucks and equipment such as forklifts.
Operator error resulting in turnovers and collisions with other forklifts, persons on the job site, and materials sticking out from shelves causes many injuries.
Learn more about forklift accident lawsuits and workers comp claims here.
Construction sites have noisy operations and can expose construction workers to high noise levels.
These loud noises may cause permanent hearing loss.
Heavy machinery and tools are needed to complete a construction project. But they are also hazardous and can cause serious injuries when they malfunction because of a product defect, are not maintained properly, or the operator makes a mistake.
Hand-held machinery, including chain saws, nail guns, and hammers, can also cause harm.
Moving a heavy object on the job site can cause a muscle strain or a back injury such as a herniated disc.
Unfortunately, many work-related back injuries require discectomies and spinal fusion.
Constant lifting, pushing, and pulling are typical on job sites. And can lead to arthritis in the form of degenerative disc disease or degenerative joint disease.
Some state systems pay benefits for these repetitive movement injuries, but others don’t, such as Virginia (though the General Assembly is considering adding coverage).
However, you may receive workers comp if a specific movement exacerbates, accelerates, or flares up your preexisting condition. You need only show that the work injury contributed “one iota” to the underlying condition.
Each year thousands of construction workers are hurt in road construction zones.
High volume traffic resulting in being struck by objects, trucks, or other equipment is a leading cause of work zone fatalities and injuries.
A slip or trip and fall on uneven or wet ground, tools, or debris can cause a torn ACL, foot and ankle injury, or broken bones.
Construction workers frequently travel to and from construction sites and perform their job near vehicles entering, leaving, and driving past the site.
These acts and the proximity to automobiles and tractor-trailers increase the risk of a work-related motor vehicle accident.
Welding exposes construction workers to excessive heat, burns, and toxic fumes.
In 1970 Congress enacted the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act “to assure, so far as possible, every working man and woman in the nation safe and healthful working conditions.” This law’s goal is to reduce workplace injuries and fatalities by creating an employer’s standard of care on the job site.
The OSH Act includes a General Duty Clause and specific standards and regulations. Employers must comply with all these rules to keep employees safe and prevent them from getting injured on the job.
An employer violates the General Duty Clause when:
An employer also violates the OSH Act if it fails to comply with any other occupational safety and health rule or regulation.
Further, the OSH Act requires every employer to:
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is a federal agency authorized to issue workplace health and safety regulations and enforce them through inspections and fines. But it has given control to state agencies in some jurisdictions.
Any state may submit a proposal for a state plan addressing workplace safety and health. The state plan must cover all private employees and state and local government workers and be as stringent as the federal OSH Act.
OSHA has approved state plans in most states, including Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Maryland.
Each year, OSHA releases a list of the most frequently cited workplace safety standards to inform employers about their safety precautions. The main objective behind such a list is to help the industry build a safer work environment for its construction workers.
Working at a construction site, you might have noticed serious safety violations putting yourself or co-workers inches or seconds away from serious injury or worse. Or you may have suffered harm already.
We recommend you review this list of safety violations to ensure occupational health and safety for you and your colleagues. Or to find the cause of your accident. You can use a violation of safety statutes and OSHA regulations to prove the other party’s negligence.
This rule protects employees working on surfaces with unprotected sides or edges more than six feet above a lower level. For example, your employer may have to use guardrail systems, safety net systems, personal fall arrest systems, and hole covers to prevent you from falling.
Further, the employer must require that you wear a hard hat if the job site exposes you to falling objects.
Last year OSHA found 5,271 violations of this rule.
Construction sites often expose employees and visitors to harmful dust, smoke, gases, and vapor. And these substances may cause occupational diseases such as cancer, heart disease, or lung conditions.
This safety standard directs employers to have a respiratory protection program. It governs the requirements for such a program, including procedures for fit testing, training, and respirator selection, cleaning, maintenance, and repair
The standard covers the requirements for ladders in the workplace to ensure proper and safe usage.
The provision discusses all the necessary measures for scaffold use, from maximum intended load to the suspension rope balance.
Chemical manufacturers must prepare labels and safety data sheets to provide information about the substances.
And your employer must develop a system to communicate these hazards to you.
Employers must develop specific practices and procedures to protect employees from the unexpected startup of machinery and equipment.
And you must follow these rules to prevent the employer from raising a willful misconduct defense to a workers comp claim.
Every employer is obligated to identify the crucial risk areas where the employees can fall from at the construction site. Upon observation, your supervisors must provide you with proper training to avoid fatal falls.
Flying objects and chemical gases may result in face and eye injuries. This rule directs employers to provide safety gear to prevent these injuries.
This rule covers the design, operation, and maintenance of powered industrial trucks such as forklifts, pallet jacks, and motorized hand trucks.
Your employer must safeguard any machine part that may cause injury. In addition, nearby hazards must be removed or eliminated when operating the machinery.
Any list of the most dangerous occupations in America will include some construction jobs.
Below is a list of the occupations with the highest number of injuries and workplace fatalities in the construction industry. The data comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Our construction accident law firm has helped many people in these occupations (union and non-union) and other construction trades.
Roofers must lift heavy items, climb, bend, kneel, and squat – often at significant heights and during extreme weather.
Roofers are the most at risk of suffering nonfatal falls (slip and fall accidents, trip and fall accidents, etc.), with 86.9 falls per 10,000 full-time roofers in 2016. This is the most common work accident for roofers.
In 2019, there were 4.8 reportable work injuries per 100 full-time roofers and 54 fatal work injuries per 100,000 full-time roofers. Only logging workers, fishing and hunting workers, and aircraft pilots and flight engineers had a higher workplace death rate.
lronworkers install structural steel and iron to form buildings, bridges, and roads.
This work is physically demanding and often involves climbing on structures, unloading iron and steel, and using heavy equipment to cut, bend, and weld steel and iron.
We have represented many ironworkers who suffered crush injuries when heavy materials fell and struck them.
Electrical power-line installers climb heights (electrical poles), use bucket trucks, and deal with high-voltage electricity to install and repair electrical power systems and telecommunications cables.
This work is demanding and often done in spurts. For example, an electrical lineman may be dispatched to an area dealing with natural emergencies and work 70-hour weeks or more.
Recently my firm won two cases for linemen injured when working on cell towers and utility poles.
Many construction sites use cranes to lift materials to higher levels or load and unload items.
Crane operators maneuver mechanical boom and cable or tower and cable equipment to lift and move materials and machines.
The most common causes of crane operator injuries include crane crashes, objects striking the crane, and other vehicles hitting the crane.
Construction laborers and helpers provide the physical labor to complete construction at building sites.
They load and unload building materials, put together scaffolding, work on ladders and scaffolds, dig trenches, and operate heavy machinery, including forklifts. And they do these things while trying to avoid cables, wires, hoses, holes, and uneven ground while going from spot to spot on the job site.
Highway maintenance workers patch broken and eroded pavement, repair guard rails, fix road signs, maintain roadside shrubbery and grass, and perform other tasks to maintain highways, municipal and rural roads, and rights of way – sometimes at night.
Highway workers are exposed to passing vehicles on active roadways, putting them at risk of suffering catastrophic injuries in an automobile collision.
Masons use bricks, concretes, and natural and artificial stones to build structures.
The work is demanding and requires heavy lifting, frequent hand use, and long periods of kneeling, standing, and awkward postures.
An electrician is a tradesperson specializing in electrical wiring, including installing, maintaining, and repairing electrical systems.
Electricians face many workplace hazards faced by other construction workers, plus the risk of electric shock and burns from contact with energized conductors, exposed wires, or stray voltage.
Electrocution accidents often result in long-term nerve damage that impacts your ability to return to work in the electrical field.
HVAC technicians install, repair, and maintain heating, ventilation, cooling, and refrigeration systems in homes, factories, hospitals, schools, and office buildings.
These workers frequently lift (for example – remove old equipment to install new units), bend, and reach. These acts increase the risk of bodily injury.
Now that you’re well aware of the injuries you can sustain, it’s time to take care of the crucial post-accident measures.
The post-accident steps will ensure that you get proper protection and adequate compensation for your injury and loss.
The supervisor or manager at construction sites is responsible for keeping the standard procedure, involving upholding precautions.
If you suffer a workplace injury, report it – no matter how minor or insignificant it seems. For example, I have represented employees who thought they suffered a temporary strain that turned out to be a rotator cuff tear.
Even if you suffer a severe construction site injury that prevents you from giving immediate notice, make sure you tell your employer within 30 days of the accident. Additionally, you should report the work injury in writing.
Any personal injury needs the earliest treatment to avoid any irreparable damage.
You should consult a licensed health care provider to get immediate medical treatment. First, however, you should ask your employer for a panel (list) of authorized physicians. Otherwise, you may be responsible for paying for health care.
There are exceptions to this general rule.
For example, you can receive instant medical care if there’s an emergency. But otherwise, you must stay within the referral chain unless the insurer denies your claim.
Further, it is best to keep all the medical bills, expense receipts, and additional expense reports with you in their original form.
Construction accident cases are complex because they often involve multiple claims against multiple defendants – sometimes in different jurisdictions.
Many construction accident cases involve an injured construction worker employed by a subcontractor seeking workers comp benefits from the direct employer and monetary damages from the general contractor, the site owner, or another subcontractor.
In most states (including Virginia), a workers comp claim is the only claim a construction worker can bring against their employer. Benefits provided under workers comp are the “exclusive remedy” for many employees hurt on the job.
Workers comp is a no-fault system.
You can recover benefits even if you caused the accident or your employer did nothing wrong. However, violating an enforced safety rule, intentionally trying to harm yourself, or showing up drunk or high are exceptions.
Generally, you need only prove that you suffered an injury by accident arising out of and in the course of the employment. And then satisfy specific procedural requirements (timely notice, filing a claim within the statute of limitations, etc.).
You can learn more about this topic in my article: How to Prove Legal and Medical Causation in Workers Comp.
If you work for a subcontractor that should carry workers comp insurance but does not, you may be eligible for workers compensation benefits through the general contractor. The law may treat the general contractor (or the subcontractor that hired your employer) as a statutory employer.
This legal doctrine is complicated, but a skilled construction accident attorney can help you figure out which route will put the most money in your hands.
If the insurer accepts your claim, or you win on the disputed issues after a workers comp hearing, you may receive benefits such as:
Workers compensation helps, but it is often inadequate. Especially if you suffered severe injuries causing permanent restrictions.
However, you may have a civil action against a party other than your employer under various theories of liability. This tort action is called a third-party lawsuit.
For example, another contractor may be vicariously liable for its employee’s actions if that employee caused your injuries. Or, a premises owner might be strictly liable for injuries resulting from some construction site accidents. In these situations, you may pursue workers comp and a third-party action.
But remember, the workers compensation insurer will have a lien against the proceeds from your third-party case. In my experience, however, you can negotiate a lien reduction if you settle the workers comp case while you resolve the third-party construction accident injury claim.
Your construction accident lawyer will investigate potential claims against the following parties:
Do not be surprised if these parties start to argue with each other after your injury.
Indeed, another thing that makes construction accident cases challenging is the defendants may blame one another (focusing on the direct employer so that workers comp is the sole remedy) or a coworker.
Fortunately, a thorough investigation where you obtain the OSHA report, take photographs and video of the accident scene, and interview the project manager, general superintendent, and fellow employees can help you defeat these efforts.
You may recover the following damages in a construction accident lawsuit:
Family members can also file a wrongful death action if the construction accident is fatal.
As you can see, civil actions permit you to recover more types of damages than workers comp claims. Indeed, this is why you should analyze all legal options.
Yes.
Non-employees can recover damages for injuries suffered in a construction accident.
For example, a pedestrian walking down the street may get hit by falling debris when going past the job site. Or a dump truck leaving the job site may strike you when you are walking.
You may bring legal action against the construction site owner and the responsible contractors in this situation.
The average construction injury settlement is $60,000.00 to $400,000.00 or more in workers comp. This amount is in addition to wage loss and medical benefits paid before the parties settle the claim.
$125,000 to $500,000 or more is the average construction accident settlement in tort claims I handle. The higher amount reflects an injured person’s ability to recover compensation for pain and suffering in third-party actions in civil cases.
Information from other sources supports my data:
Construction accident cases often involve many federal and state laws and multiple potential defendants. However, a skilled construction accident attorney can guide you through all the issues derailing the ultimate goal: fair compensation that makes you whole
A complete investigation and case preparation involve:
My injury law firm handles all construction accident injury cases on a contingency fee basis. This means you do not pay any upfront fees or out-of-pocket expenses while we work on your case. And we only get paid when we recover compensation for you.
My firm wants to help.
We are top-rated Virginia workers compensation lawyers and personal injury attorneys who have successfully resolved many construction accident claims through settlement and trial.
If you or a family member were hurt or killed in a construction site accident in Virginia, we are here for you. Call now for high-quality legal representation: (804) 251-1620 or (757) 810-5614. You can also fill out the contact form on this page.