A recent fatal construction accident serves as a tragic reminder that the New York Department of Buildings must continue amplifying its efforts to keep New York construction workers and civilians safe from the risks of building collapse.

Last March, the back wall of a three-story building under demolition in Lower Manhattan unexpectedly collapsed. Initial reports indicated that a second-story support beam of the SoHo building was overloaded, which led to the wall collapsing into the first floor.

The collapse trapped four workers. One worker was trapped directly under falling rubble, while three others were thrown off a scaffolding as the wall collapsed. Those three workers were eventually freed by firefighters, but the worker crushed under the rubble was killed.

According to the Department of Buildings (DOB), the construction site had already been the target of at least five recent safety violations. The DOB had even issued a partial stop work order in the past. However, the cited violations were remedied, corrections were made, and work continued. If the DOB signed off on continued construction following those violations, how did this fatal accident still occur?

The New York Department of Buildings is responsible for enforcing building and zoning codes, permitting construction activity, and ensuring general construction safety, among other roles. Much of the DOB’s activities--and the majority of its spending--go toward construction and building inspections. The agency boasts of issuing 140,000 work permits and conducting more than 324,000 site inspections each year. It’s the responsibility of the agency to ensure that construction zones are safe for workers and passers-by alike.

New York construction accident attorney Leandros A. Vrionedes explains that New York has many laws in place designed to protect construction workers and provide for legal liability and accountability when workers are injured on the job. “Besides general workers’ compensation laws, New York Labor Law contains a general negligence law found in section 200 and the all-important scaffold law contained in sections 240 and 241,” Vrionedes says. According to Vrionedes, the scaffold law can be used to hold contractors, owners and their agents absolutely liable for gravity-related accidents that happen because the owner or contractor did not provide adequate safety devices. He says the scaffold law applies to scaffold collapses as well as any injury caused by an elevation differential, including any type of fall from height or being struck by a falling or rolling object. The building collapse described above would likely be covered under the scaffold law, for instance.

The DOB has tried to ramp up safety efforts in recent years in light of an uptick in construction worker injuries and fatalities. In December 2022, the DOB launched a winter construction safety campaign, which included random visits to the more than 40,000 worksites city-wide. Altogether, the Department surveyed 7,841 sites, issuing 4,481 violations and 1,277 stop-work orders. Each violation can result in fines of up to $25,000.

Unfortunately, the agency can’t be everywhere, and it can’t identify every hazard. Construction is a dangerous industry. Nationwide, construction accounts for nearly one in five workplace fatalities. In New York City, construction worker fatality hit a three-year-high in 2022, with 11 workers killed in construction accidents. The majority of those deaths involved fatal falls.

Attorney Vrionedes explains that owners and contractors can be held liable when their negligence was responsible for a gravity-related accident that occurred under their control or supervision, but they can also be liable for any rule violation that leads to an accident, without the injured worker having to prove negligence on the part of the owner or contractor. “The New York Industrial Code contains very specific and extensive rules covering a wide range of construction activities,” says Vrionedes. According to Vrionedes, it’s critical to have an attorney who is familiar with these rules and can file a well-pleaded complaint. “Cases like these can be won or lost on summary judgment motions, and winning a summary judgment can be a key step to settling the case for an appropriate amount,” he says.

State officials have made efforts to correct safety hazards by imposing greater liability on corporate contractors. After a 22-year-old construction worker was killed in a trench collapse, Governor Hochul signed Carlos’ Law, which raised the penalties for an employee’s death or severe injury. Companies can be fined upwards of $500,000 if found culpable.

The DOB has made additional efforts as well, committing to increase the number of construction superintendents so that each one is responsible to oversee fewer sites. In July 2022, the Department cut the number of sites per superintendent in half, from ten sites to five, hopefully increasing each official’s capacity for oversight. They aim to have enough support staff to assign one superintendent per worksite by 2027.