As personal injury attorneys in New York City, our lawyers deal with a multitude of construction accident cases each and every year. We have seen it all-everything from scaffolding problems to elevator shaft failures to crane malfunctions.
Over the past several years, we have seen an influx in the number of construction cases brought to our office. However, this is not surprising. Walking around this city, there is construction just about everywhere. On every block at any time of day, you can find scaffolding lining the streets and construction workers hammering away. Right outside our midtown office, there is a giant construction site that has been worked on for years and is covered in scaffolding and many workers all of the time.
A disturbing increase in New York City construction worker injuries and deaths lately has resulted in the establishment of the Construction Fraud Task Force. This is an interagency effort to investigate and prevent unsafe practices in the construction world of New York. What really put this task force into formation was an accident where the death of a worker and subsequent filing of criminal charges against the managers and companies operating a construction site on Ninth Avenue in Manhattan.
As predicted by many, construction companies have reacted negatively to the formation of this task force, with representatives of the construction industry saying that the new task force will only make a hard job even more difficult, and that construction companies are being unfairly targeted for their practices while many other industires around the city do not have to suffer from this scrutiny.
The task force is a great idea because city statistics show that construction-related deaths increased in the first half of 2015. If current trends continue, the number of construction fatalities in 2015 could be double the number for 2014, a scary trend that shows there is a need for immediate change and increased regulation. There have been eight construction related deaths so far this year; there were eight construction deaths in all of 2014.
The group will meet monthly to investigate fraud, bribery, extortion, money laundering, bid rigging and safety violations across the construction industry all over the city. The construction companies that the task force will oversee have been operating at unprecedented levels in 2015. The number of building permits issued this year promises to be greater than any year in recent memory, demonstrating that construction is on the rise and that increase needs to be regulated.
A construction boom like the one were seeing across the city right now is historic and good news for the city, but there are human consequences that need to be considered. The mad rush that this city is notorious for can often result in hazardous lapses in safety protocol. Unfortunately, many of these dangers are only exposed after the lives of workers, neighbors and residents are jeopardized, so this is why the Construction Fraud Task Force has been formed. It will proactively investigate construction-related issues, problems and crimes that threaten the the industry, the workers and safety of the city.
We will see over the rest of the 2015 year and next year how well this task force has worked in preventing construction accidents and lowering the problematic death and injury rates that this industry has been victim of during the past several years.
If you or a loved one have been involved in a construction related injury in the New York area, please call our law office today to discuss your next steps in pursuing a case and obtaining a result that you deserve. Our attorneys have a combined century of experience dealing with construction related accidents and have garnered over $250 million in settlements and verdicts, proving their success rate and expertise. Call the Law Office of Richard M. Kenny today with your construction accident case.
