27 Oct Construction Worker Injuries Can be Reduced with Proper Training
Many construction site injuries are avoidable if companies dedicate more time to proper training. Alas, for various reasons, this doesn’t always happen, which increases the potential for civilly liable incidents. In this post, we’d like to focus on safety training, how it can help businesses comply with OSHA guidelines, and reduce the number of construction accident lawsuits in NYC.
Examples of Common Construction Accidents
- Electrocutions
- Crushings
- Collapsed Trenches
- Vehicular Accidents (including construction vehicles and forklifts)
- Falls
- Malfunctioning Equipment Accidents
- Any Accident Resulting from Lack of Safety Equipment
Improper training is often the culprit for many of these scenarios. When construction employees get hurt from their own equipment, we find that it’s almost always because of poor training.
Electrocutions, which happen far more often than you’d think, usually involve someone other than a licensed electrician. Don’t forget that employers have an obligation to safeguard their workplace from these issues, or they face potential lawsuits from accident victims.
What Does OSHA Say About Construction Training?
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is a federal organization that regulates and monitors American workplaces. One of things they do is provide training materials and guidance for managers and employees in the construction industry. Since it’s an economic sector with many physical, chemical, and biological work hazards, OSHA also makes recommendations on how to handle construction site training.
- Workers should receive training in a language and vocabulary familiar to them.
- Companies should conduct training on-site for both new and existing employees.
- Employees should receive training on their work tasks, workplace conditions, tools/equipment, and how to troubleshoot difficult situations.
- Employers must retain documented evidence of all training sessions.
Lack of Training Makes Employers Liable for Construction Accidents
Since OSHA’s training requirements and recommendations are pretty straightforward, employers should follow them, or they risk suffering a negligence lawsuit. One of the first things a court will look for in an accident case is evidence of recent training.
Employers and construction site owners can deflect certain problems by demonstrating that someone trained the affected employee within the last year. For example, during a falling accident, the employer would want to show evidence of scaffolding training or anything else related to working safely in higher locations. At any rate, construction accidents continue to happen quite often in New York, and some of it rests with insufficient training.
If you’ve experienced a construction accident and want to pursue damages for negligence, then you need competent legal sponsorship. That’s what we offer at Gruenberg Kelly Della. You can discover more about our services by calling anytime at 631-737-4110.