Arizona Construction Accident Lawyer Blog

A number of construction accidents in Arizona, especially those relating to falls, are entirely preventable. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) lists specific guidelines about how workers should use scaffolds on constructions sites and what steps workers and their employers should take to prevent accidents and injuries.

Recently, a news article reported that a construction worker fell 15 feet from a scaffold at a building site. In this case, the worker did not sustain life-threatening injuries. It is indeed fortunate considering the height from which he fell. Hopefully, his injuries were not major. However, in many cases where workers fall from scaffolds, the injuries can keep them out of work for an extended period of time. As Phoenix construction accident lawyers, we have represented clients who have sustained severe back injuries as a result of a construction site fall. These injuries may require extensive treatment and therapy, which can also turn out to be very costly.

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Phoenix construction fatal accident attorneys are extremely concerned about the increasing number of construction worker fatalities involving loose or unsafe scaffolding. Recently, another worker died in a construction accident after he fell from scaffolding while working inside an elevator shaft on the third floor of the building site. According to a news report, the 51-year-old worker went into cardiac arrest after the fall and died shortly afterward.

The causes of a construction accident could range from falls, explosions, electrocution or defective equipment. Sometimes, these tragic accidents occur because of the worker's error or because he or she is not following proper safety procedures. However, in many cases, these fatal construction site accidents occur because of negligent general contractors, sub-contractors, vendors, employees, or manufacturers of defective or malfunctioning products and equipment used in construction sites.

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According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 969 fatalities involving construction accidents in the country in 2008. There is no question that construction accidents cause numerous deaths and serious injuries in the United States. There are several reasons why construction accidents occur. There are also many ways by which workers can get injured while at a construction accident site. However, there are a few types of commonly occurring construction accidents. These are accidents that can be entirely prevented, but usually take place because of some type of negligence or failure to follow safety procedures.

These are some of the most common types of construction accidents:

• Falls are the most common types of accidents that occur at Arizona construction sites and are responsible for the most number of fatalities in the construction industry as a whole. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), one-third of all construction accident fatalities are caused by falls.


• Trench collapses can also be extremely hazardous to workers. A trench collapse can be caused by improper shoring, lack of supervision or large vehicles parked near the excavation.


• Electrocution accidents in Arizona can occur as a result of overhead or buried power lines at a construction site.

Continue reading "Tucson, Arizona Personal Injury Lawyer Discusses Common Types of Construction Accidents" »

The U.S. Occupational and Safety Health Administration (OSHA) has imposed a $539,000 penalty on a construction company following the investigation of a roofing worker who fell 40 feet to his death. According to a statement on the Department of Labor's Web site, the company was cited for 10 "per-instance" willful citations for failing to protect their workers from falls.

OSHA officials began their investigation in August 2009 and discovered that the construction company failed to provide any fall protection to employees working on a pitched roof 40 feet off the ground. Also, the company failed to train a newly hired college student with regard to the dangers of roofing work and the adopting necessary safety measures. Officials say falls are the leading cause of fatalities in the construction industry. Failure to provide employees with fall protection often causes serious injury or fatal constructions site accidents in Phoenix and throughout the state of Arizona.

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The Brain Injury Association of America estimates that nearly 1.5 million Americans sustain a brain injury every year. More than 50,000 die each year as a result of a traumatic brain injury. Nearly one million Americans survive a brain injury, but must endure serious life changes and other challenges as a result.

Construction accidents, especially falls or being struck by falling objects, can result in traumatic brain injuries. These are catastrophic injuries, which means that they will affect the victim for the rest of his or her life.

Brain injuries can affect the way a person thinks, feels and acts. The most common symptoms of a traumatic brain injury include severe headaches, confusion, loss of consciousness, spinal fluid leaking out of nose or ears and dilated pupils. If you are experiencing any of these symptoms immediately or shortly after a construction accident, you should seek medical attention as soon as possible.

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Falls are the leading cause of construction accident fatalities and injuries in the United States. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reports that each year, approximately 150 to 200 construction workers die and more than 100,000 are injured as a result of falls at construction sites. OSHA lists several safety standards that employers are required to follow to keep their workers safe in construction sites.

Here are the most common requirements to prevent fall injuries and fatalities at Arizona construction sites:

• Where protection is required, employers must select fall protection systems such as guardrails, appropriate for given situations.


• Always use proper construction and installation of safety systems.


• Make sure employees are supervised properly.


• Use safe work procedures.


• Train workers in proper, selection, use and maintenance of fall protection systems.

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Arizona construction accidents often result in serious, debilitating injuries. Like any injury accident, it is imperative that you get immediate medical attention if you have been involved in an Arizona construction accident. While getting prompt attention is important for your physical well-being, it is also important from the point of view of filing an injury claim. If you were injured on the job, you will be entitled to receive workers compensation benefits through your employer. Failing to get proper medical attention and treatment could jeopardize your claim on many levels.

Immediate investigation and preservation of evidence is also a critical part of proving a personal injury case involving construction accidents. Investigation in a construction accident usually involves careful examination of the scene soon after the incident. If there is a delay in this crucial part of an investigation, important evidence such as hazardous materials or defective machinery may get lost. An experienced Arizona construction accident lawyer can send a letter to your employer requesting that all evidence be preserved so it can be independently examined and documented. Prompt investigation and interviewing of witnesses who saw the accident is also critical to an injury case or claim.

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Construction accidents are very common but also very complex. In fact, most workers who suffer serious injury on a job site face any number of different sets of rules and guidelines that affect their abilities to move forward after their injury. There are OSHA regulations that govern the employer and there may be an OSHA investigation. There are guidelines that were set out by the employer for that job site, not to mention all the other employers who may have been out at the job site due to the various subcontractors. A workers’ compensation claim will be made, even though that can be contested by the workers’ compensation carrier. On top of all that, there is a potential personal injury claim that can be brought under certain circumstances.

This can be very overwhelming to the worker who is injured through no fault of their own. Thus, many injured workers and their families try to find the best construction accident personal injury lawyer in Arizona that they can find. However, they will not find a “top ten accident lawyer” list anywhere, in all likelihood. Instead, unfortunately, workers are left to fend for themselves.

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Many construction sites are filled with different subcontractors all going about their own job. When everybody follows the regulations of the job site, follows all safety measures, and stays in compliance with OSHA, worker safety if far more likely to occur. However, there are times when one subcontractor does not look out for the safety and well being of the other subs on the site. When this occurs, very often there can be falling objects on the job site which lead to very serious injury or even death of an innocent worker below.

When falling objects lead to serious injury or fatalities at a construction site, there may be a right to make claims above and beyond the workers’ compensation system.

However, there is a general prohibition against bringing a claim against ones own employer. This is known as the “exclusive remedy” provided by workers’ compensation, whereby an injured worker can make a workers’ compensation claim but cannot file a lawsuit against a fellow co worker or the construction company for which the injured worker was employed.

Continue reading "Construction Accident Lawyer in Arizona Discusses the Danger of Falling Objects On the Job Site" »

Construction sites are dangerous places for workers and very often serious injuries are suffered at the job site. Many times, improper use or maintenance of scaffolding directly contribute to serious injury or even the wrongful death of somebody who was on a job site.

Most construction workers in Arizona know that they have a right to make a workers’ compensation claim. However, many do not realize that in many cases where there have been injuries due to scaffolding issues in the State of Arizona, they may also have the right – in addition to their workers’ compensation claim – to make claims for personal injury in addition to those comp claims that can be very beneficial to them or to their loved ones.

Continue reading "Arizona Construction Accident Lawyer Discusses Scaffolding Accidents" »

Construction site injuries are very often caused by a lack of fall protection on the job site. In fact, it has been stated that the lack of proper fall protection is the No. 1 cause of serious injury and wrongful death on construction sites throughout the country. When somebody has suffered a very serious injury or has died as a result of a fall on a construction site, there are certain things that most people expect.

Many people expect that OSHA and the Arizona enforcement arm of OSHA will do an investigation. Also, people have come to expect that the injured worker or the surviving family members of the injured worker will be able to make a workers’ compensation claim.

What many people do not recognize is that in addition to the benefits available under workers’ comp, there may also be rights available under the personal injury system in Arizona. These rights do not take away from, but actually add to, those rights available when a comp claim is made.

Continue reading "Arizona Injury Lawyer Discusses the Lack of Fall Protection at Construction Sites" »

Trench collapses are one of the most common causes of construction site accidents in Arizona and elsewhere in the nation. According to a news report in the Shelby Star, a 30-year-old construction worker sustained fatal injuries after the dirt collapsed around him at a sewer line construction site. The man apparently fell into the hole. Workers rushed to dig him out of the collapsed trench. The worker was transported to an area hospital where he died shortly after the construction site accident.

Cave-ins are a deadly trenching hazard. There are also other dangers that lurk in trenches including asphyxiation due to lack of oxygen in a confined space, inhalation of toxic fumes, drowning, electrocution and explosions. In fact, the fatality rate for excavation work is 112 percent higher than the rate for general construction. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires that workers in trenches and excavations be protected and that safety and health programs address the variety of dangers they face on the job. Trench collapses may be caused by lack of protective systems, unsafe access or exits, and failure to properly inspect the trench.

Continue reading "Injury Law Addresses Construction Site Trench Collapse Wrongful Death" »

Arizona construction sites are required to comply with federal and state safety standards. These standards are there for a reason – to ensure the safety and well-being of workers. It is the employer's duty to make sure that the work site is safe and free of any hazards. If death or serious physical harm results from a hazard that an employer should have known existed at the site, the employer can be slapped with a violation and fine from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a federal agency that monitors and investigates all work-related accidents and injuries.

Recently, OSHA cited a bridge and tower painting company after a worker fell to his death while painting a bridge site. OSHA investigators found that the fatal construction site accident occurred because of a lack of fall protection, training deficiencies, machine guarding issues and scaffolding hazards. In such cases, companies have 15 business days from the receipt of the latest citations and proposed penalties to comply and participate in an informal conference with OSHA officials to contest or appeal the findings.

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Construction equipment can cause serious injuries or even death in Arizona construction sites. Numerous construction accidents in Phoenix and elsewhere in the country are caused as a result of malfunctioning equipment, negligence on the part of someone other than the victim who is operating the equipment, or lack of proper training on the part of the worker who is operating the equipment. Whatever the cause, the possibility of a fatal injury or a debilitating injury, which causes a lifelong disability, is very much present when a worker is injured by heavy construction equipment.

A recent news report in The Star-Ledger details a construction site accident where a worker's leg was crushed by a steamroller on a highway. Workers were reportedly paving lanes in that area of the highway when the worker's leg was crushed by the heavy equipment. The construction worker was transported to an area hospital where he was listed in critical but stable condition.

Continue reading "Arizona Personal Injury Lawyers Help Construction Workers Receive Full Compensation Through the Personal Injury System" »

A number of Phoenix construction accidents are entirely preventable. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires all employers, including construction companies, to institute state and federal mandated safety standard specifically in order to prevent tragic accidents that commonly occur at construction sites in Arizona and elsewhere in the nation. However, not all companies follow these safety standards. As a result, construction site accidents continue to cause injuries and claim hundreds of lives in the United States.

Whenever there is an industrial or construction accident, OSHA officials conduct an investigation to determine whether there was a violation of federal or state workplace safety standards. In fact, OSHA is currently investigating a construction site accident where a large section of concrete decking fell on top of a construction worker causing severe trauma to his head and neck. The man was working in a retirement community that was building a new apartment building.

Some of the aspects that OSHA investigators look into include where the injured worker was and what he was doing at the time of the accident, as well as what caused the particular incident to occur. Companies can be fined up to $7,000 per incident for a serious OSHA violation and up to $70,000 for willful or repeat violations. Each OSHA investigation could reportedly take between six weeks and six months.

Continue reading "Experienced Arizona Construction Injury Lawyers Help in Cases Where OSHA Investigates Fatal Construction Accidents" »

Falls are the leading cause of fatalities in the construction industry in Arizona and the rest of the country. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, an average of 362 deaths occurred as a result of falls each year from 1995 to 1999, a trend that is apparently increasing. A number of construction site falls occur because workers do not use proper harnesses as required by federal law.

Here is an example of a fatal fall at a construction site where a worker fell 125 feet and died after a tall construction lift toppled over and struck an apartment building. Investigators are looking into whether the 40-year-old construction worker was properly strapped into the bucket of the boom lift as he worked on a church roof, according to an Associated Press news report.

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) Web site, employees are required to ensure that when stopping a fall, "fall arrest systems" will be rigged so that the employee can neither free-fall more than 6 feet nor contact any lower level. The harnesses are required to bring a worker to a complete stop and limit maximum deceleration distance to three and a half feet. Also, the fall arresting system is required to have sufficient strength to withstand twice the potential impact energy of a worker free-falling a distance of 6 feet or the free-fall permitted by the system, whichever is less.

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Construction accidents in Phoenix, Arizona and around the country are down. However, that is because construction activity is down, according to an article in the Phoenix Business Journal. Employment in the construction industry fell in July in 34 states and Washington D.C. Since July 2008, construction fell to some extent in every state except Louisiana, North Dakota and Mississippi. Arizona is apparently the hardest hit state in the country with construction employment that has declined 28 percent from a year ago. Nevada, Connecticut and Kentucky were right behind Arizona.

According to a 10-year analysis recently conducted by the Associated General Contractors, national construction fatality rates went down 47 percent and recordable safety incidents dropped 38 percent since the "collaborative safety approach" was initiated in 1998. That federal construction safety program was successful because it created incentives for companies to find and rectify safety problems proactively before incidents occurred. It also slapped strong penalties on companies that were lax about safety problems until someone got hurt or killed.

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Phoenix construction accident lawyers have always advocated a proactive approach to preventing construction site accidents that cause devastating injuries to workers and immense hardship to their families. Construction accident injuries are usually severe and could result in long-term disabilities that may cause a worker to lose his job or even his livelihood. This in turn leads to financial problems for the worker and his family. When a person is injured in a construction accident, there are many victims because one person's injury affects his entire family on many levels.

A positive and proactive approach is to prevent such construction site accidents from happening in the first place. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is apparently working with local contractors and agencies to improve safety in construction zones. According to a news report, this approach creates incentives for companies to find and fix safety problems before incidents occur while maintaining strong penalties for companies that let safety problems lag until someone gets hurt.

The construction business has its inherent risks simply because workers deal with heights, heavy machinery and electrical equipment. The type of injuries that can occur at a construction site range from electrocution and falls, to being run over by vehicles or getting hit by falling objects.

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All construction companies in Phoenix, Arizona, and elsewhere in the country are required in comply with certain federal and safety standards that are designed to make construction sites safer for workers. When large companies, contractors or subcontractors do not comply with these mandatory safety standards, they can face significant penalties. But the more serious consequence of non-compliance is having an incident at a construction site that could result in serious personal injuries or death.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the agency that enforces safety laws at workplaces, has apparently increased the number of inspectors in some states to bolster construction site safety compliance, according to a news report.

OSHA has started a new program called the Severe Violators Inspection Program, which officials say, will focus more on large companies rather than small businesses that violate federal construction safety standards.

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It looks like there's a problem with LUST in Arizona. Not the kind of “lust” associated with politicians under fire from the media investigating affairs that may have impacted state budgets. This LUST is an industrial problem. Why? Here, LUST stands for “leaking underground storage tanks.”

A recent July 10 article in the Phoenix New Times online indicates that the US federal Environmental Protection Agency has released over $3 million to help the state manage these kinds of chemical leaks. That adds up to a lot of liability, not just for homeowners whose water supplies may be compromised, but also for all of those people who work near these installations or help to clean up the results.

A startling visual in this article illustrates just how many Arizona facilities include leaking underground storage tanks and what that may mean for the cash-strapped state. Reports indicate that the state’s budget may be unable to handle the costs of dealing with these decaying installations, even with the E.P.A. donation.

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News reports like this one from AZCentral.com, an online source for Arizona news, show that the National Weather Service issued an “excessive heat watch” for Saturday, July 11 and Sunday, July 12. Even night temperatures stayed high, in the mid-80s.

Public officials know that high temperatures like these are silent killers. Every summer, thousands die across the nation from exposure to high temperatures and inadequate relief. Many of these are elderly citizens, and many others are out in the heat and sun for too long. In addition, law enforcement officials are on watch during heat waves, as high temperatures tend to boost crime rates.

The issue of a heat advisory is all well and good for those shuttered away from the sun in air-conditioned homes and offices, but what about those who need to labor out in the AZ heat? Too often, the laborers who contend with Arizona temperatures lack adequate protection in the form of periodic respite, protective gear or other safety standards. A combination of dehydration, solar exposure and physical labor in heated environments can cause a variety of life-threatening conditions. Are employers paying attention? If not, they can be contributing to a large roster of companies and businesses suffering from illness rates due to heat or sun exposure.

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For those looking at the real situation on Arizona construction accident prevention and safety, National Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has a “Pocket Guide to Overall Warehouse Safety” that yields some helpful tips about how to prevent Arizona construction accident situations in any industrial facility, including the warehouse.

A statistic by the OSHA identifies over 7,000 warehouses across the country, which by its estimates employ over 145,000 workers. For the safety of Arizona warehouse environments and those across the country, the Arizona chapter has posted this OSHA resource including a “top 10” list of hazards and solutions that warehouse workers and other involved parties can pay attention to for improved safety in the workplace. The first and foremost safety condition identified is in the use of forklifts, where the guide offers over a dozen detailed points on training solutions that will bring down the rates of warehouse work accidents in Arizona.

Other categories of hazard relates to the way buildings are constructed, with hallways, exits and other features being part of a comprehensive safety strategy.

Other hazards include belts and other moving equipment that may present dangers to untrained workers, where specific Arizona warehouse accidents involved workers or their clothing being caught in moving parts that could not be easily shut off.

Continue reading "Arizona Trade Society Provides Warehouse Safety Guide Online" »

When workers in the state of Arizona sustain injuries in the course of heavy and demanding work, skilled Arizona construction accident attorneys have to spring to the rescue to find the relevant details with sometimes difficult research processes. Now, lawyers in the state of Arizona, as well as those scattered across the U.S., may be able to have a helping hand. According to new reports from sources like IBWire, there’s a project underway by legal site LegalView.com to consolidate information about construction accident cases, applicable case law and more.

The goal of the site as reported will be to get all of the necessary information in front of injured workers and their families to allow for quicker processing of claims from construction accident cases and to help those impacted get the resources they need to continue forward with a claim. The organization cites a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics number that estimates over 1,000 construction accident cases per year from 2007 data. Planners realize that all too often, families do not have access to the right information while pursuing the case that ends in lost wages, medical bills and more costs for a loved one negatively affected by an unfortunate construction accident or similar event.

Sometimes, these situations are nearly unavoidable, but often, they result from a lack of safeguards, hurrying to end projects, cutting corners to save money or any number of other eventualities that can promote dangerous work environments where workers can eventually bear the brunt of negligent or irresponsible policy. When the accident occurs, construction accident lawyers and their staff sift through all of the evidence to find the parties responsible for conditions leading up to construction accident. This is even more difficult when the worker status is made more complicated by outsourcing, temporary hiring or even under-the-table hiring, which is in itself a violation of federal tax code.

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