In late March, a construction accident in Raleigh led to the deaths of three workers, while sending one other employee to the hospital.
Workers reportedly had been dismantling a scaffold that was being used on a high-rise construction project. When a piece of it fell to the ground, the workers fell with it. According to the 911 caller who alerted responders to the accident, the men had been working on the scaffold and fell approximately 200 feet when the mast climber came apart. The equipment is used to take workers up and down the façade of a building so that they can work on different floors.
All of the people involved in the accident appeared to be wearing their safety harnesses. The man who survived was found on a crushed portable toilet and was still breathing with a pulse when another worker found him. Quick action likely saved his life.
The scaffolding that came apart had been affixed to the side of the new building. Investigators say that one of the tracks of the scaffolding had snapped several stories above, and fell into a heap on the ground. A spokesperson from the North Carolina Department of Labor said that the agency was performing a thorough investigation to determine why the accident occurred. Records from OSHA show that the company, Associated Scaffolding, had been subject to citations for serious safety violations in the state twice in the past decade.
For the families of workers who have died in workplace accident, there may be an opportunity to receive monetary benefits through an employer’s workers’ compensation insurance. If family members believe it was an employer’s negligence that caused the accident, they may also choose to file a wrongful death lawsuit.
After a serious accident at a construction site in North Carolina, be sure to speak with an experienced injury attorney at Lanier Law Group right away.