New York Law Blog

A trench collapse in Clifton Park, New York killed one worker late last month after he attempted to fix a portion of the trench from within it. The 20 year old construction worker was in the process of digging a ditch for a drainage pipe in a residential neighborhood when the accident occurred, and OSHA is investigating. Senior partner Jeffrey Lichtman discusses the issue of safety on the construction site:

Again, a fatality at a construction site that should have and could have been avoided if the safety regulations were followed. I agree with Edward Jerome, the area’s director of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, that there are specific regulations regarding "sloping and shoring a trench to prevent collapses." The rules are there, they must be followed. Furthermore, it demonstrates a failure to adhere to the mandates of the labor law of the state of New York.

With New York City being a hot spot for crane accidents this year, construction accident experts met recently in Manhattan to deliberate on national standards for crane safety. Seeing how so much is at stake for the construction community at large, senior partner Jeffrey Lichtman of Trolman, Glaser and Lichtman had this to say on the meetings:

Again we are reminded of the dangers involved in many of the City’s construction sites. Crane accidents, which are among the most deadly facing construction workers, are more often than not the result of negligence and non compliance with safety standards by those utilizing cranes around the city. Failure to make the work site safe leaves the construction companies and/or the City liable for damages, pain and suffering, and wrongful death.

Following the amount of deaths crossing over into the double digits this year alone, we certainly hope that elected officials in the City of New York take some initiative to improve the standards of safety for crane operation and construction sites.

 

-Two men who were helping dismantle a tower crane have been charged with four violations of city construction codes stemming from the death of a worker after her fell over 40 stories to his death. The men have been accused of illegally cutting the safety guardrail on a platform that the worker fell from.

“Despite months and months of public pleas for construction safety, our investigators found glaring violations at a high-rise work site where a construction worker fell to his death,” Rose Gill Hearn, the Department of Investigation commissioner, said.

Robert LiMandri, the buildings commissioner-designate, said that the removal of the safety railing played a critical role in causing the accident, noting, “It was a shortcut gone terribly wrong that compromised rigging operations and put the lives of fellow workers in jeopardy.”

-A proposed federal bill aims to tighten security on electronic health records as well as giving financial incentives for doctors who use the system.

The bill would require notification when personal health information is breached and extend federal privacy laws to organizations that conduct business with providers. It would also require providers to receive patient consent to use or disclose protected information, according to a committee news release.

An amendment to the bill would require health information exchanges and other entities to comply with security rules included in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996, in addition to the privacy rules included in the legislation, according to a summary of revisions to the bill.

-New findings show that over 90 percent of Long Island Rail Road workers have been allowed to collect disability as well as their pension plans after retirement. Federal officers have seized documents from the Long Island office of the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board and are now investigating the situation and law loopholes.