New York City Machinery Accident Lawyers
More than $800 million in verdicts and settlements on your side
Using machinery in the course of construction work is a regular occurrence. Unfortunately, machinery accidents are also a regular occurrence. In some machinery accidents, faulty equipment is to blame. In other situations, negligent behavior is at fault. Personal injury law protects those who have sustained injury in accidents that are due to negligence, providing compensation for medical expenses, pain and suffering, and lost wages. The machinery accident attorneys at Lipsig, Shapey, Manus & Moverman P.C. in New York City have more than 80 combined years of experience representing accident victims, with a track record of successfully recovering just compensation for their injuries.
Mechanical equipment accidents in New York City
According to the New York City Department of Buildings, whose purpose is to promote safe and compliant construction work in the City, mechanical construction equipment accidents include all machinery or equipment driven by electrical or mechanical devices for cranes, hoists, earth work, and demolition equipment. The Department’s most recent construction-related accident report, which includes failure or misuse of machinery and equipment systems, states that, from January – November 2018, there were 19 mechanical construction equipment accidents. These accidents resulted in 21 injuries and one fatality.
OSHA machinery safety standards
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is a division of the United States Department of Labor. All employers in the United States are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees and OSHA’s role is to assure the health and safety of workers. OSHA sets and enforces safety standards, providing training, conducting outreach, providing education, establishing partnerships, and supporting continual improvement in the safety and health in the workplace .
Employers are responsible for safeguarding machines and OSHA establishes criteria for this purpose. OSHA defines safeguarding as “the protection of personnel from hazards by the use of guards, safeguarding devices awareness devices, safeguarding methods, or safe work procedures.”
Various types of safeguarding include the following:
- Guard – a physical barrier that prevents exposure to an identified hazard
- Safeguarding (protective) device — a device that detects or prevents inadvertent access to a hazard
- Awareness device – a barrier, sign, or signal that warns workers of an impending, approaching or existing hazard
- Safeguarding method – safeguarding that is implemented to protect individuals from hazards, which is done by the physical placement of the machine or machine production system – by the distance, holding, openings, or positioning — to ensure that the machine operator cannot reach the hazard
- Safe work procedures – precise written instructions developed by the user of the machinery which describe how a task is to be performed
- OSHA also establishes the criteria for machine safeguarding, which includes the following:
- Should prevent the employee from coming into contact with the hazard during machine operation
- Is secure, durable, and tamper-resistant
- Does not create additional safety hazards
- Avoids interference with the normal operation of the machinery
- Permits the safe lubrication and maintenance of the machine
New York’s labor laws protect workers against workplace injury
New York’s labor laws were developed to protect workers from sustaining workplace injury while performing a job. New York labor laws include the following provisions:
New York Labor Law Section 200 – both owners and contractors are required to maintain a safe workplace and adhere to safety precautions designed to protect workers
New York Labor Law Section 240 – commonly known as the “scaffold law”, this provision affords protection for workers if they are injured in a high fall or are struck by a falling object
New York Labor Law Section 241 – specifies that certain safety precautions must be implemented at the workplace, and that work sites must have specific safety equipment available to ensure the safety of the workers
Personal injury law provides protection
Personal injury law protects those individuals who have suffered an injury because another person or entity was negligent. Because negligence is at the heart of all personal injury claims, it must be proven that the other party was legally responsible for the harm that resulted. In many personal injury cases, the other party will try to put some of the responsibility for the accident on the victim or another party. It is also not unusual for an insurance company to contact the injured victim to discuss the details of the machinery accident and to offer some compensation. It is in your best interests to avoid speaking with the other party’s insurance company and to instead contact an experienced machinery accident attorney who will discuss your case, outline the available options, and discuss what compensation you may be entitled to under the law.
What are compensatory damages?
In a personal injury claim, compensatory damages refers to the monetary compensation that is awarded to the injured victim. This may include medical bills, lost income, lost earned sick time, and lost vacation time. These are all measurable losses and the value of these is clear. Some damages – such as the injured victim’s pain and suffering – are immeasurable losses and the value of these must be estimated.
What are the time limits for filing a personal injury claim in New York?
Individual states have statutes of limitations – the legal time limits for filing claims in the civil court system. In the state of New York, the statute of limitations for personal injury claims is three years from the time the accident took place. This is an important deadline. If you do not file your claim before the three year deadline, your case will be dismissed and you forgo the opportunity to recover any compensation for your medical expenses, pain and suffering, and lost wages.
Injured in a machinery accident? Let us get you the compensation you deserve
Injuries that result from machinery accidents can be quite serious. If you or a loved one has been injured in a machinery accident, contact the skilled NYC accident attorneys at Lipsig, Shapey, Manus & Moverman P.C. to recover the compensation you deserve for your injuries. Our dedicated team has more than 80 years of combined experience fighting for the rights of injured New York City construction workers and successfully securing maximum compensation for them. Our accident attorneys work on a contingency basis so pay us nothing until we successfully win your case. To schedule a confidential consultation to discuss your machinery accident, contact our office at 917-893-3514 or 917-268-6710 or contact us online.
