CONSTRUCTION SITE ACCIDENTS

San Francisco Injury Lawyers > Construction Site

Construction is a dangerous industry, with high rates of fatal and nonfatal injuries. Each year, several thousand construction workers are killed and hundreds of thousands are injured in work-related accidents. The construction worker may be injured or killed during the building of a singe family dwelling, a strip mall, a 50-story office building, or any other structure.

A construction worker ordinarily cannot sue his or her own employer for injuries, but is entitled to collect worker's compensation benefits. These benefits are payable to the injured worker even if the employer was not at fault. However, worker's compensation benefits usually are insufficient to compensate the injured employee (or the spouse and children of a worker killed in an on-the-job accident), as they are considerably less than the money ("damages") that could be recovered in a negligence action. The injured worker can sue his or her employer where the employer does not have workers' compensation insurance or where the employer deliberately injures the worker.

Although the injured worker is generally prohibited from suing his or her own employer, the worker can sue others who have caused the harm. For instance, if another subcontractor's employee hurts the worker, the injured worker can sue the other subcontractor. And if the worker is injured because of a defective product-be it a hammer, blowtorch, nail gun, etc.-the injured worker can sue the product's manufacturer, distributors, and retailer in a products liability case.

A general contractor ordinarily is not liable for injuries caused by the carelessness ("negligence") of its independent subcontractors, as the general contractor ordinarily lacks the right of control over the independent subcontractor's employees. However, in some cases the general contractor (or owner) can be held liable for injuries to a subcontractor's employees. For instance, a general contractor can be held responsible for the acts of an independent contractor and its employees where the general contractor retained control of the work or area involved; where the general contractor negligently hired, supervised, or retained an incompetent subcontractor; where the general contractor furnished the subcontractor with negligently designed or prepared plans or specifications; or where the general contractor provided the subcontractor with faulty equipment that injured the subcontractor's employee.

Persons who are not working on the construction site (such as ordinary people who are walking or driving by the construction site) are entitled to sue the owner and contractor and/or subcontractor for their carelessness ("negligence") that causes injury. For instance, if a pedestrian is walking on a public sidewalk adjacent to a construction site and is injured by flying debris coming from the construction site, he or she may be able to sue the owner and the contractor whose employee was responsible for the flying debris. Similarly, if a crane fails and falls to the ground, the injured persons may well be able to sue the owner/operator of the crane for negligence. If the machine or piece of equipment was defective, the manufacturer and distributor of the product can also be held monetarily responsible ("liable") for any and all expenses related to the accident under the laws of product liability.

San Francisco Injury Lawyers > Construction Site

our areas of focus :

New!

INFORMATION CENTERS

TYPES OF INJURIES

CONSTRUCTION SITE ACCIDENTS