The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is a federal agency charged with promoting and enforcing safe conditions on the job at construction sites. Contractors and subcontractors must adhere to OSHA safety regulations to avoid preventable accidents. In 2015 alone, OSHA found that 937, or 21.4% of work related deaths in 2015 were in construction. Approximately two-thirds of these deaths resulted from what is commonly known as the “Fatal Four”: those struck by an object, electrocutions, and people caught in-between equipment and other objects. With the prevalence of construction injuries and fatalities, it’s important to understand what is in place to keep you protected.
OSHA’s rules are designed to prevent:
Injuries on the job must be qualified in order to be covered under workers compensation. Those that don’t qualify include:
An employee may be able to get compensation in cases of gross negligence and death even when the employer carries workers compensation. The majority of employers provide this insurance but some fail to cover their construction workers. Also, some workers choose not to subscribe to workers compensation. In any case, work-related injuries and illnesses may still be compensated for with help from a lawyer. When our workplace injury lawyers in Dallas and Fort Worth conduct a thorough investigation into the causes of a construction accident, we sometimes discover that the negligence of a third party — equipment manufacturer, subcontractor or delivery service — played a role.
To schedule a free consultation with our workplace lawyers, please contact Frenkel & Frenkel via phone at 1-800-834-0000 or email.
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