POSSIBLE NEW YORK LABOR LAW VIOLATIONS LEAD TO ACCIDENTAL FALL OF CONSTRUCTION WORKER AT WORLD TRADE CENTER

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Queens accident lawyer)

Monday, March 8, 2010, at around 1:35 in the afternoon, 29 year-old construction worker José Jerez accidentally lost his footing while working some 100 feet above ground level, on the fourth floor of One World Trade Center in Manhattan. He dropped fourteen feet onto a wooden floor.

There was a kerfuffle between Port Authority Police and first responders from the New York City Fire Department over access to the injured man, part of an ongoing turf war between the two agencies. Apparently, Port Authority personnel - acting territorially - restricted Fire Department access to the accident site.

Port Authority rescuers lifted Jerez out of the building in a wire basket and lowered him to the ground; a Fire Department ambulance then rushed him to New York City's Bellevue Hospital where he was treated for serious injury to his neck and back injuries.

Comment:  Construction workers are supposed to be protected from falls from heights by New York State's Labor Law, which has special legal protections from injury for those laboring on scaffolds, ladders, etc. The New York State Labor Law places an extra duty of care on building owners, and contractors doing construction, and using workers that are above ground level. I wait and see if we will hear how this accident happened and if any safety rules were ignored, or any safety devices failed to function correctly.