On Wednesday, June 10th, a tragic accident occurred in Austin, TX, when three men fell from a high rise construction project near the University of Texas. Safety advocates said that while the events were regrettable, the were not surprising considering the conditions in which many construction workers operate.
According to several studies, both by local nonprofit agencies as well as national researchers, abuses of workers on construction sites are widespread. An especially high number of immigrant workers were represented among those whom had suffered either seriously debilitating or fatal injuries due to unsafe working conditions.
According to an investigative report from the Associated Press, there are several alarming facts:
- Death rates among Mexican workers are rising even as the U.S. workplace continues to become safer. In the mid-1990s, Mexicans were about 30 percent more likely to die than native-born workers; now they are about 80 percent more likely.
- Deaths rate among Mexicans increased faster than their rate of population growth in the U.S. Between 1996 and 2002, as the number of Mexican workers grew by about 50 percent, while the number of deaths rose by about two-thirds.
- Mexicans are nearly twice as likely as the rest of the immigrant population to die at work.
The summer months typically see an increase in home and building construction. One-third of all construction site accidents that result in fatal injuries are due to falling from great heights and the majority of the accidents occur on job sites of home and building construction.
While many building sites include working at great heights, fatalities and construction accident injuries typically occur because of several common factors. Improper safety equipment or lack of safety equipment, poor working conditions, failures in oversight or management to properly identify safety hazards, or gross neglect of existing safety hazards are by far the most often cited in reports of construction accidents.
Despite improvements in safety in virtually every field, construction site accidents remain one of the most dangerous professional choices due to the aforementioned factors. Many times these injuries are seriously debilitating and sometimes fatal. Additionally, workman's compensation insurance may not provide enough to cover medical expenses, living expenses, and outstanding debt that might have accrued during the recovery time. To that end, it is paramount that workers who have been injured on the job seek compensation through the proper channels, such as contacting a construction accident lawyer when they have settled on legal recourse.
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