Staten Island Road Work Construction Attorney

Has a Road Work Construction Accident Caused you Harm?

Some of the greatest overall rates of injury and death from on-the-job accidents affect workers in the construction industry. While construction projects of all kinds expose workers to more risk on average than those in other industries, anyone employed on a road construction project faces still more risk of accidental death or serious injury. This is primarily because road work projects can rarely be completed without the work being done almost on top of an existing roadway, which will frequently continue to handle heavy traffic loads.

The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that each year from 2008 to 2012 an average of 115 workers were killed while on the job at a road construction site. Vehicles were the largest source of accidental death, accounting for just over three-quarters of all fatalities. Not surprisingly, two-thirds of workers who were killed were on foot when the accident occurred. No class of worker is immune from accidental injury or death while employed at a road construction project: construction laborers made up the majority of victims, but drivers, heavy equipment operators, highway maintenance workers, and even supervisors have also been killed.

Nor can any class of employer guarantee that fatal accidents won’t take place: two-thirds of affected workers were employed by private contractors, while state and local government employees, followed by other service workers, round out the statistics. If an accident on a road construction project has left you or someone close to you seriously injured, talk to a Staten Island attorney with road work construction accident experience.

The Federal Highway Administration and other regulators have issued numerous regulations meant to prevent injury to road construction workers. A plan must be created, for instance, which follows uniform standards for temporary traffic control, and workers are to be kept safe at all times from vehicle traffic. Regrettably, lack of knowledge of these standards or deliberately taking safety shortcuts can lead to trouble.

This can prove tragic, because attention to safety is especially important at road work sites, where workers are at risk from all of the dangers at any construction site (falls, unsafe equipment, electrocution, falling objects) but are also at constant risk from passing motor vehicles and the abundance of heavy machinery usually in use (bulldozers, backhoes, steamrollers, graders). Many road construction accident injuries are the result of preventable negligence. A few of the most frequent causes are:

–   Missing or substandard signs and other warnings

–   Defective or improperly maintained equipment

–   Inadequate separation of work areas from other vehicle traffic

–   Failure of site personnel to adhere to safe standards of heavy equipment operation

Staten Island Road Work Construction Injury Lawyers you Can Count On

If you have been seriously injured in a road construction project accident, bring an experienced legal partner on board. Kuharski, Levitz, & Giovinazzo are here to help.

See Also: Job Site Accident that caused you Injury? Click here.