Of all the different industries individuals work in, construction repeatedly ranks near the top of workplace injuries lists.
Some types of injury incidents occur more often than others, leaving workers, vendors, and even innocent bystanders seriously harmed or even claiming their lives. Are you curious what are the most common types of construction accidents?
Keep reading, where we share what they are.
Injury Incidents That Occur on Building Sites
When it comes to accidents that cause injuries on a construction site, one need not look any further than the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) list of “Construction Focus Four.”
This list consists of what this federal agency has identified as the factors that most commonly cause people in this industry to suffer nonfatal and fatal injuries. On that list are the following types of accidents:
Electrocutions
Exposure of electrical wires to the elements, including varying temperatures, including extreme cold and heat, rain, ice, etc. can cause them to wear down quicker than they otherwise might. This, combined with their lack of grounding, can make them particularly dangerous.
Factors such as the use of heavy equipment or machinery, such as power tools, that may strike a power line, also increase the risk of an electrocution occurring.
Struck-by Injuries
These types of construction accidents often involve an object being dropped from a higher level on someone down below.
While a tool like a hammer or power drill may only hurt someone so much if dropped on them at a similar level, it dropping down on them from a few stories above, especially when you figure in gravity and how it increases the force with which something falls, can cause significant harm.
A rare but particularly dangerous type of stuck-by construction accident may occur when work is being performed on a multi-story office building or a bridge, for example. In many cases, cranes may be brought in to hoist building materials up high up to where construction crews are working. A crane’s operator can lose their load, causing it to crash down on others.
Another concerning type of this accident includes a trench worker having a dump truck approach and dump dirt, rock, or other weighted materials on top of them, burying them underneath.
Caught-in or Between Injuries
Accidents like these involve a worker’s body part, such as an arm, becoming trapped inside machinery.
Examples of machines on construction sites where a worker’s body part may get stuck inside include wood chippers or cement mixers — especially ones that don’t have safety guards on them or if they are poorly maintained and thus malfunction.
Another example of this type of construction accident involves a person becoming trapped between two vehicles or just one and an inanimate object, such as a wall.
In this case, a person may become so trapped between these items that they’re unable to free themselves from the vulnerable position they’re in. Many times, incidents like these lead to crushing and compression injuries, ultimately requiring amputations to save a victim’s life.
Falls
This is an extremely common danger individuals working on construction sites face. Falls from roofs, scaffolding, or ladders are most common. These injury incidents most commonly occur because workers aren’t provided with adequate fall protection equipment like harnesses.
Of course, the higher the height a person falls from, the more likely it is that they will suffer catastrophic injuries or lose their life.
Your Rights If a Construction Accident Hurt You or Claimed a Loved One’s Life
As an employee of a construction company, you may realize that you can tap into your employer’s West Virginia workers’ compensation coverage to pay for some of your accident-related bills, like medical costs. What happens if your employer doesn’t have coverage or you don’t qualify for benefits because you were working as an independent contractor on the building site, though?
Pursuing workers’ comp benefits isn’t the only option available to individuals who get hurt on construction sites.
Instead, you may be eligible to file a lawsuit against a manufacturer who produced an unsafe product, a construction company who unnecessarily exposed you to harm, and many other parties whose actions caused your preventable injuries or your loved one’s wrongful death.
The legal options available to you will vary depending on how your accident occurred, your employment status, and other factors.
This is why it’s critically important that you consult with an attorney who handles construction accident cases in Charleston, WV. They’ll be able to review the circumstances surrounding how your injuries occurred and advise you of the legal options available to you for recovering compensation for your losses.
Here at Forbes Law Offices, meeting with a member of our legal team for an initial consultation is free.
