Four contractors are now facing criminal charges after a collapse at a Bronx construction site killed a worker. Three of the individuals are facing homicide charges, an extremely rare result following a fatal workplace accident.

Construction is a dangerous industry. Every year, nearly one in five workplace deaths happen in the construction industry, and half of the deadliest individual jobs are in construction. State lawmakers, including those in New York, have attempted to rectify the situation by imposing more onerous safety standards on general contractors. In some circumstances, construction workers are even permitted to sue their employers after a workplace accident, while nearly every other employee in the country is limited to workers’ compensation.

Leandros A. Vrionedes, a New York construction accident attorney at the personal injury law firm Leandros A. Vrionedes, P.C., says there are several routes construction workers can use to sue owners or contractors for construction accidents, including common law negligence under New York Labor Law section 200, and negligence or absolute liability under Labor Law sections 240/241, commonly referred to as New York’s “Scaffold Law.” “The Scaffold Law requires owners and contractors to protect workers from gravity-related accidents such as falls and scaffolding or building collapses,” says Vrionedes. He explains that injured workers need not prove negligence on the part of the building owner or contractor for a scaffold law violation, although they must generally be able to cite a specific violation of a New York building safety rule in the Industrial Code. “Injured workers or their families can recover a wide range of damages in such a lawsuit,” he says, “including past and future medical expenses, loss of income or disability, pain and suffering, and more.”

Rarely, however, is an employer charged criminally when a worker is injured or killed. Construction companies and their management have been charged with fraud, bribery, kickbacks, and other unlawful schemes, but it’s nearly unheard of for a company to be charged with manslaughter after a worker is killed in a work-related accident. Prosecutors in The Bronx decided to cross that threshold after uncovering conduct that was so egregious as to merit criminal prosecution.

In 2019, a 46-year-old man was crushed to death on a Bronx construction site on 208th Street. Nearly a ton of cinder blocks and bricks were carried to the third floor of the four-story building under construction. The third floor was made of sheets of metal-on-metal joists, but the joists were not properly secured to the structure. The weight caused the makeshift floor to collapse, dropping nearly 1,000 pounds of construction material and several workers onto the workers below. One worker was killed and several more were injured.

Four years later, three contractors in charge of the site were charged with multiple crimes, including negligent homicide and manslaughter. A fourth man was charged with fraud for disregarding safety codes.

According to the Bronx District Attorney’s Office, the contractors flagrantly disregarded building safety codes and construction worker protection protocols. They even filed false documents to obtain a building permit. The defendants misrepresented one developer’s qualifications and utilized another of the defendant’s proper general contractor qualifications to act as superintendent, even though he never visited the site.

Bronx DA Darcel Clark said it's the first time in the history of the office that manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide charges have been filed in connection with a construction fatality. Criminal charges have been brought in a few other fatal construction accident cases over the years, but it’s extremely rare. Like the recent Bronx case, criminal charges are typically reserved for especially egregious cases involving fraud and deliberate disregard of safety rules and existing safety violations. Simple negligence or even rampant violation of OSHA rules will not result in criminal charges, although civil liability is a possibility.

According to attorney Vrionedes, the fact that criminal charges have been filed might even expose the defendants to punitive damages in a civil lawsuit. Unlike compensatory damages meant to compensate an accident victim for the harm done to them, punitive damages are intended to punish defendants and set an example to deter such conduct by the defendant or others in the future. “Punitive damages are reserved for cases where the liable party acted with a complete disregard for the victim’s safety,” says Vrionedes, “and the fact that criminal charges were filed makes it likely that level of egregious conduct happened here.”

The Bronx worker’s death has led to more than criminal charges and potential civil liability. A law dubbed “Carlos’ Law” was enacted to enhance fines and corporate liability after construction accidents.