Construction Accidents that Can Be Avoided

Employers have an obligation to look out for the safety of those who work for them. When they’re negligent in this regard, people are oftentimes injured and sometimes killed. Workplace safety is a huge issue for construction companies. There are a lot of different jobs that need to be done on construction sites and it’s the employer’s obligation to ensure that workers have the training and equipment to perform those jobs as safely as possible.

Safety equipment—usually referred to as personal protective equipment (PPE) by safety specialists—is the most basic defense against injuries. Employers are, depending upon the situation, required to either provide or to at least enforce the usage of this equipment on their job sites. The two most common ways that workers protect themselves are with hardhats and steel toed boots. In many cases where a worker is injured on a construction site, they’re under the impression that their job isn’t so dangerous that this is required of them and they end up getting hurt. Foot injures can easily put a construction worker out of work for a very long time and head injuries, of course, can be fatal.

Construction crews also have to be offered adequate training for any job they undertake. Employers sometimes cut corners in this regard. A general laborer, for instance, may be tasked to use a forklift to clean up a job site without ever having received proper training in the operation of the equipment. It’s also common for employees at construction sites to be expected to ascend heights without proper equipment. Even if you’re only going up 10 feet, it’s still high enough of an ascent to be fatal if you’re not tied off properly, especially if there is dangerous equipment below.

Other common injuries include those workers suffer when they’re required to enter a confined space without training or when they’re required to clean up chemicals without being provided with adequate information about the chemicals in question. In any instance where you feel an employer is asking you to do something that’s out of the scope of your work, you should feel free to ask questions about it. If you’re hurt, you may have legal remedies but it’s better for everyone involved if you simply exercise some good sense about what you’re willing and unwilling to do for your employer. A paycheck does not make all requests reasonable, in short.

If you’ve been hurt on a construction site and it wasn’t because you were acting outside the scope of your duties, and most especially if it was because you were specifically asked to take an unreasonable risk, talking to an attorney may be a good idea. There is a chance you could file a lawsuit to recover damages for your pain and suffering, your medical expenses and your lost wages. Employment is an agreement between the employer and the employee and, no matter how much they may say so, and employer cannot ask you to take unreasonable risks.

Contact Houston Construction Site Accident Lawyer, Bat Tucker today at 713-771-5453 for a FREE CONSULTATION to discuss your options with him.