A tragic accident at a Brooklyn work site proved fatal for a construction worker when he fell while building a protective sidewalk shed.

The man, later identified by officials as 27-year-old Raul Tenelema Puli of Queens, was installing an i-beam at a Rabsky Group development site when he slipped and fell 20 feet to the ground, followed by the i-beam. He was taken to New York Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

According to a spokesperson for the city Department of Buildings, the worker was employed by subcontractor Colgate Scaffolding, based in The Bronx. Rabsky is building a 35-story residential and retail tower at 625 Fulton St. in Downtown Brooklyn, the site where the accident occurred. The building will ultimately house 1,098 apartments.

The Department of Buildings issued a stop work order following the accident and is in the midst of an investigation. The worksite had previously been cited for several safety violations, including failure to designate and/or have a site safety manager or site safety coordinator present, failure to provide proper safety equipment, and lack of proper guardrails, among others. One of the citations occurred after a worker was struck in the head by steel rebar. Galaxy Developers, the project’s general contractor, and a subcontractor, CIP Services LLC, corrected each of the safety issues and paid fines totaling upwards of $20,000.

Although those violations were resolved, the DOB website reflects an as-yet unresolved citation for lack of a watch person at the now-closed site. The DOB’s investigation of the accident remains “ongoing,” and a spokesperson for the agency noted that “additional enforcement actions are pending the results of this investigation.” Federal investigators from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration have also taken an interest in the accident.

Leandros A. Vrionedes, a personal injury attorney who concentrates a large part of his practice on representing construction accident victims in NYC, is skeptical that a handful of fines totaling less than $20,000 is sufficient to deter safety violations on a massive project like this one, which was secured with $450 million in loans and financing. “Monetary penalties help,” he says, “and stop work orders can be a strong incentive for contractors to fix known issues as quickly as possible, but they are obviously insufficient, given the large number of construction worker deaths and injuries we continue to see in New York City year after year.”

Attorney Vrionedes points to New York’s scaffold law as a key provision for holding owners, developers and contractors liable to the workers and families of workers injured or killed on New York construction sites. “With the scaffold law,” Vrionedes explains, “contractors and owners are absolutely liable for gravity-related accidents such as falls that occur when proper worker protection was not provided.” Critics of the scaffold law point to the continuing steady stream of construction accidents as evidence the law is not effective, but for Vrionedes, the opposite is true. “The scaffold law and other sections of New York Labor Law are essential to helping accident victims and their families who are injured or killed because the owners and developers refused to provide a safe worksite as required by law.”

Safety in the construction industry is an ongoing concern both in New York City and nationwide. Mr. Puli was the second construction worker killed on the job in the same week, and the seventh in the City this year. According to a report from the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH), construction accounted for 22 percent of all worker deaths in New York City in 2020 and 24 percent of all worker deaths in New York State. Nationally, construction workers represent 21 percent of all workplace fatalities. Nationally, 4,764 people were killed on the job in 2020, and more than one in five were working in construction.

City and state officials are attempting to crack down on construction safety violations, although the impact is not yet clear. NYCOSH reported an increase in fines, with the average fine up 39 percent from $32,719 in 2019 to $44,779 in 2020. The most expensive single fine totaled $300,370 and was levied against Everest Scaffolding Inc.

For its part, the general contractor for the site has expressed sympathy following the incident. Galaxy Developers said in a statement, “We are deeply saddened at the tragic accident that happened at our work site and extend our sympathies to the family of the worker for Colgate Scaffolding who fell from a sidewalk shed as it was being installed.” The contractor went on, however, to cover its tracks: “We have complied with all required safety rules, and we expect all contractors and subcontractors on the site to do the same.”