Construction Accident
A construction site worker is engaged in one of the most hazardous occupations known to man. Each year hundreds of thousands of people get injured or die in construction accidents. In fact, after 1920 it is estimated that nearly one million people have lost their lives due to accidents on construction sites. Though the law requires construction sites to be made safe for workers, many companies overlook this need to provide safety to their workers and these results in huge losses for the construction worker.
Once the accident has occurred, remember that there are many parties who can be held guilty for your condition. The owners of the property, the architects, contractors involved, engineers, designers, construction managers, manufacturers of the equipment (where injury is obtained from the use of specific equipment), and insurance companies are all liable to make good your loss due to the construction accident. Since there are a lot of different jobs you get to do around a construction site, there are various types of construction injuries as well. In some or other way, death and disability continue to linger at construction sites even today. There are a lot of things that could go wrong on a construction site like:
- Getting crushed under an object while being shifted.
- Malfunctioning of the cranes.
- Falling over cranes.
- Malfunctioning of other machineries of the company.
- Electrocution.
- Cave-ins.
- Other injuries like falls, burns, broken bones, head injury, scratches & cuts as well as deaths in some cases.
To counter these alarming rates of construction site injuries, the law provides you with necessary regulations, statutes, ordinances, and industry standards in this regard. Failure of the owners or negligence by third parties to abide with these statutory makes them liable to award you with proper claims in this regard.
When you are involved in a construction accident, you need to take certain steps there upon to get proper relief claims later on. These can be spelt out easily as:
- Getting medical care.
- Reporting to the employer.
- Completing a claim form and filing it as soon as possible.
Inform the employer or your construction site manager about any accident and keep note of such person that you happened to notify. Get all the detailed information about those who witnessed your accident since they could act as good proof in the court of law later on. If possible, getting photographs of your injury and the spot of such accident would be of great help. Once you have attended your injury and given it ample medical attention, you need to hire a professional lawyer in this regard who can help you with the nooks and niches of the case in hand.
It is true that worker’s compensation covers most injuries that happen at the construction site. You can file a suit against your owner without the fear of facing retaliation from their end. The extent of liability they owe to you depends upon the facts of the case and your lawyer can help you get the best judgment possible.