Austin Construction Accident Attorneys

Construction Fatalities & Injuries: Some Statistics

• Fatal injuries among construction trades workers increased 3 percent in 2014 from the previous year to 611 deaths. This was the highest death toll in the industry since 2009.
• In Texas, fatal construction injuries declined 9 percent from 116 incidents in 2013 to 105 in 2014.
• In 2014, 74,460 construction workers suffered non-fatal accidents nationwide that caused them to lose time at work.
• Among the injured, more than 20,000 were engaged in road construction.

OSHA is the federal agency charged with overseeing workplace safety and conducting investigations of job sites. However, OSHA has only around 2,000 inspectors to cover roughly 8 million worksites. Because of OSHA’s limited resources, many sites are never inspected and others rarely. By working with a construction accident lawyer to force negligent construction companies and property owners to compensate their injured victims, you can do your part to make construction work safer by demanding accountability while obtaining the financial means to get your life back on track after a serious construction accident.

Frequent Causes of Construction Accidents: The “Fatal Four”

OSHA’s analysis of data on construction accidents reveals that four categories of accidents are responsible for 58.1 percent of the fatalities. Preventing just these four types of accident would make an enormous difference in the numbers and save more than 500 lives.

They are:

• Falls
• Struck-by accidents, in which a worker is hit by a falling or moving object
• Electrocutions
• Caught-between accidents, in which the worker is crushed between or beneath moving equipment, machinery parts or objects

Most of these workplace accidents are preventable with proper training of workers in the safe use of machinery, providing safety guards and other protective devices, regular inspection and maintenance of equipment and electrical cords, and requiring harnesses and other safety gear, in addition to creating an environment of vigilance and concern among all workers on the site.

Common Construction Accident Injuries

Construction injuries can be serious and life-altering, causing financial and emotional hardship for the injured worker and their family.

Some examples of the severe injuries that often occur at construction sites include:

• Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI)
• Spinal cord damage with paralysis
• Serious fractures, including open fractures, comminuted fractures, and skull fractures
• Internal organ damage and internal bleeding
• Facial injuries and scarring
• Loss of limbs, fingers, and toes
• Burn injuries (from electrocution, explosions, or fires)

Steps to Take When You’ve Been Injured on a Construction Site

Following a job site accident, you will need to take certain steps to protect your rights:

• First and foremost, see a doctor immediately after being injured.
• Report the injury to your immediate supervisor and keep a copy of the report with signatures.
• Write down names and contact information of any possible witnesses to the incident.
• If possible, take photographs of the area where the accident took place and the equipment or condition that caused your injury.
• Do not admit fault or apologize.
• Call Briggle & Polan, PLLC to schedule an interview with a seasoned construction accident lawyer in Austin.
• Do not sign anything—releases, medical authorizations, waivers, or anything at all—unless specifically instructed to do so by your lawyer.

Should You File a Third-Party Claim?

When you meet with us at Briggle & Polan, PLLC, we will review your workers’ compensation claim forms and make sure everything has been completed properly to avoid errors that could result in a denial or delay of benefits. We will also examine the details of your accident with a view to identifying possible third-party defendants. You are entitled to workers’ compensation for any job-related injury, regardless of who was at fault. The trade-off is that you are not allowed to sue your employer, even if the accident was caused by company negligence. While workers’ comp benefits cover medical care, lost earnings, and rehabilitation, they do not compensate you for your pain, suffering, and diminished quality of life.

But in many cases, some other party can be found to have either caused or contributed to the accident. For example:

• A general contractor or sub-contractor
• The owner of the property
• A company hired to maintain or repair equipment used at a site
• The manufacturer of the defective product, such as a tool or piece of large construction equipment, when a malfunction caused the accident
• An architect or engineer overseeing the project
• A scaffolding provider that failed to install the scaffolding properly

By identifying possible third-party defendants, we can often increase the amount of your settlement or verdict so that it reflects all of your economic and non-economic or quality-of-life damages.

Recoverable Damages

In a legal action against third-party defendants, as with any other personal injury case, you are entitled to recover both economic and non-economic, or “general damages.”

Economic damages include those that can be demonstrated by producing bills, receipts, and payroll records:

• Medical treatment costs including hospitalization, doctors, prescriptions, medical devices, etc.
• Lost earnings and benefits, both current and future
• Rehabilitative treatment and therapy
• Cost of in-home care and services for tasks you can no longer perform

Non-economic damages affect your quality of life but are hard to quantify in dollars:

• Disability
• Disfigurement
• Loss of livelihood
• Loss of consortium
• Loss of enjoyment of life
• Past and future pain and suffering
• Mental anguish

In the case of a wrongful death in your family, we will appoint a personal representative through the probate court and pursue the damages you are entitled to under Texas’s Wrongful Death Statute.