When you’ve been injured working at a construction site, you face many choices. One choice you should make, and make right away, is to retain an experienced New York construction injury attorney. Your knowledgeable New York attorney will know the law and how to best make a plan of action for your case. In one recent instance, this meant using an industrial code requirement mandating “free-running wheels” on “hand-propelled vehicles” to support the injury action of a worker injured when an extremely heavy cart ran over his foot.
The plaintiff was a laborer at a construction project for a hospital in Manhattan. One of the contractors servicing the site had provided workers with “mini-containers” to use in hauling debris from the work site. The process involved the workers filling the containers with debris and rolling them to a hoist, where the hoist would transport the containers to street level and trucking employees would empty the contents into the trucking company’s vehicles and return the containers to the site.
One day, though, the plaintiff was having trouble with one of the wheels on one of the mini-containers. The wheel was moving only intermittently, sometimes turning but sometimes sticking. Eventually, the laborer gave the container a hard pull to try to fix the problem, but the container, along with the 500-800 pounds of debris in it, ran over the plaintiff’s foot. This accident caused substantial injuries to the man’s foot.
The laborer brought a construction injury lawsuit. The lawsuit asserted that the laborer’s injuries were a result of a violation of Section 241(6) of the Labor Law. That statute says that all “areas in which construction, excavation or demolition work is being performed shall be so constructed, shored, equipped, guarded, arranged, operated and conducted as to provide reasonable and adequate protection and safety to the persons employed” there. The laborer’s case made the argument that he was given an improperly maintained container, which meant that he wasn’t provided “reasonable and adequate protection and safety.”
One way to establish that you have a valid case under this statutory section is to show that a violation of the New York State Industrial Code occurred. In this laborer’s situation, he used a New York regulation that governed “hand-propelled vehicles.” That regulation required hand-propelled vehicles to have “free-running” wheels, and, according to the laborer’s lawsuit, the cart’s troublesome, sticking wheel did not meet this “free-running” requirement.
In a case like this, it is important to make sure that your action names all of the defendants who might be liable to you for your damages. This laborer sued both the trucking company and the hospital. The Appellate Division concluded that the laborer had a valid case against the hospital defendants. The laborer had provided testimony that, before the accident took place, he noticed that one of the wheels on his container was stuck and that, in the process of trying to address this problem, he pulled the container forcefully, and it rolled onto his foot. This testimony, which was not contested by the hospital defendants, was, by itself, enough to raise an issue as to whether the sticking wheel on the laborer’s cart failed to qualify as “free-running,” as required by the regulation.
There’s a lot that may go into a successful construction injury case. If you’ve been hurt in a construction accident, the experienced New York City construction injury attorneys at the law offices of Jacob Oresky are here to help. Our attorneys have been working tirelessly to represent construction workers injured throughout the New York metro area, including in Westchester County and on Long Island. Call us to find out more about how our professional skill and attention to personal service can help you as you pursue your recovery.
More Blog Posts:
New York Construction Worker Who Fell from Scaffold with Loose Wheel Wins Liability Claim, New York Accident Lawyer Blog, July 26, 2017
Three Week Construction Accident Trial Results In $2.75 Million Dollar Settlement, New York Accident Lawyer Blog, April 25, 2017
Photo credit: www.equipmentworld.com
Contact Our Construction Accident Law Firm in Bronx, NY
If you need legal assistance, contact the Bronx construction accident lawyers at Oresky & Associates, PLLC at your nearest location to schedule a free consultation. Contact us online or call our office. Our phones are answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
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Oresky & Associates, PLLC – Bronx Office
149 E 149th St
Bronx, NY 10451
(718) 993-9999
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Queens, NY 11368
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