Just last week, the Department of Buildings released a report that showed a decline in construction accidents in New York City in 2010. A few days into 2011 and the city recorded its first construction accident fatality, this time in Queens.The accident occurred at a construction site when a concrete wall collapsed, killing a worker.
According to fire crews, the construction workers were working on a one-story single block wall. The wall was around 20 feet high and collapsed when the workers began pouring concrete. The workers were standing on the scaffolding and fell down. The victim was standing just under the concrete wall that collapsed and quickly suffered a cardiac arrest. At least four other workers were seriously injured.
For the family of the victim who died in the tragedy, this particular construction accident was unspeakably cruel. Not only did he lose one family member in the accident, but one of his brothers, who was also working at the construction site, was one of the injured. All the injured workers are reported to be in a serious condition but are stable.
Investigations into the accident are still going on, but a fact that won’t escape New York construction accident attorneys is that this particular construction site has been the scene of several construction safety violations in the past.The Department of Buildings has now issued a Stop Work Order on the site. This is not the first time that the site has received an order like this. In fact, there have been a total of six such orders issued for the site, since work on the project began in June 2009.
The project belongs to developer Tommy Huang and in the wake of this accident, New York Sen. Tony Avella has announced that he will be pursuing a ban on new building permits for Huang in New York City.