Our nation's roads, homes, governmental offices and even recreational facilities are among the many things that construction workers and companies provide our citizens. Construction is a $1 trillion industry that comes with complex health and safety challenges.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 4,340 fatal work injuries were recorded in the United States in 2009. A total of 816 of these human losses were construction workers. Construction remains one of the most dangerous industries. This fact is most apparent in the recent and tragic deaths of Brett McEnroe and Roy Powell.
On Tuesday, February 8, 2011, Powell and McEnroe, safety award winners and 30-years construction veterans, were part of a four-man crew at the Redeemer Presbyterian Church construction site at 150 West 83rd Street in New York City. The men, who were not wearing safety harnesses, were working when a beam rolled out of place, causing both of them to fall to their deaths.
The construction accident resulted in a shutdown of the site by the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB), which overseas millions of properties and enforces city building codes and laws. DOB records revealed that the West 83rd Street construction site was being investigated. Following the Powell/McEnroe accident, several workplace violations were issued. Among these violations were failures to install toe boards, guard rails and vertical netting - all precautions designed to reduce the risk of serious falls.
Issues with construction site safety are not new to New Yorkers. The Powell/McEnroe deaths came weeks after Hedilberto Sanchez was killed and three others were injured by a cinder block wall collapse at a Queens construction site. In 2009 and 2010, there were three and four construction fatalities in New York City, respectively, even though construction accidents declined 28 percent last year.
Two common denominators of these tragedies were safety violations and backlogged governmental investigations. Many place some of the responsibility regarding these accidents on the DOB. Allegations of corruption and bureaucratic inefficiency continue to plague the agency, which performed 335,000 inspections and issued more than 136,000 construction permits and must also police construction sites.
While many factors contribute to construction site accidents, these recent losses indicate a need for either effective restructuring of the DOB or interagency cooperation in the policing of construction sites. Regardless of how New York handles these most recent tragedies, something must happen to save workers from preventable harm in such a dangerous but essential industry.
