Because of their sheer size, and the fact that cranes can work hundreds of feet above our streets, any one of these accidents can seriously injure or kill people walking or riding on city streets below. There are many elements that can cause a crane accident, either singularly or in combination, resulting in injury or death of construction workers and innocent bystanders.
Many Types and Reasons behind Serious Crane Accidents
The two most common kinds of crane accidents which cause the most injuries and fatalities, according to the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), are dropped loads and electrocution when the crane/boom comes in contact with a “hot” power line.
Other less frequent crane-related mishap scenarios involve:
- Accidents involving misuse of the crane’s “hook” or attached lifting device
- Overturned cranes
- Boom collapse
- Workers on the ground struck or crushed by the crane’s counterweight
- Rigging failures.
Any of the above accidents can be attributed to negligence involving one or more of the following:
- Unsafe construction jobsites for a multitude of reasons such as lax contractor safety programs or individual worker behavior
- Crane operator error
- Inadequate operator training
- Improper (or absent) supervision
- Safety rule/law violations
- Poor crane maintenance (often due to lack of inspections)
- Mechanical defects.
Determining Liability Directly Influences a Rather Unique Compensation Process
Where a crane (or its materials) falls, as well as who is injured, can determine how much compensation any given victim (or family survivors when the accident causes accidental deaths) can rightfully collect. That fact, coupled with the process of investigating crane accidents, often makes the compensation process intricate and protracted. City, state, and federal investigators must all weigh-in. And their official inquiries can take many months to complete.
In most instances, a personal injury law firm will investigate negligent accidents on behalf of their clients. But after a crane accident, anything uncovered by a private attorney’s investigation must be shared with all government investigative units, which then determine whether the information is included in their final reports, which ultimately disclose which negligent party or parties are liable for compensating injured plaintiffs (and/or their survivors).
Workers’ Compensation and Third-Party Claims
With large cranes working in confined spaces like a New York City construction site, it is not unusual for 10 or more workers to be seriously injured in a crane accident. Construction site general contractors and subcontractors are responsible for paying basic state-approved workers’ compensation to their injured employees for what amounts to immediate losses arising from a jobsite injury. This includes all medical bills, a large percentage (but not all) of their lost wages, some disability and, in the event of wrongful death, a comparatively small, one-time benefit. These monies are paid out of state-approved insurance coverage which subscribing employers must carry.
But when an employee is seriously injured, it is rare that the compensation they receive actually covers all their financial losses. So the only remedy in receiving total compensation involves the injured employee's suing any third party (subcontractor) which might have played a hand in the negligence-based accident.
Crane companies are, by and large, contractors whose services are retained by general contractors or the job-site property owner. So on the surface, it would seem that the injured worker would simply sue the “third party” crane contractor for compensation above and beyond workers’ comp.
But remember that government crane accident investigations take many months to determine who is liable. So workers must wait until the “negligent” party is fully known. And if a different third party is responsible (or if – for example – someone else may have had a hand in creating the conditions for the crane accident, or a bad part on the crane itself caused the mishap, which leads to a defective product lawsuit), the compensation process can be further complicated; and the awarding of damages could take more than “a few months.”
When Members of the General Public are Injured in a Crane Accident
Normally, these instances of injury claims would be straightforward, and, for the most part, they are. But again, the investigation process leaves injured victims and their surviving family members without a liable defendant to sue until the investigations are complete. Even then, if many have been injured or killed, or other contractors or workers may have played a hand in the disaster, an avalanche of claims (and lawsuits) against the defendants’ insurance companies – including those by direct employers to recover monies they’ve already paid out in workers’ comp claims – are all but inevitable.
When the ultimate liable culprit is finally known, the defendant’s insurance company will fight tooth and nail to avoid or lessen payment amounts to what will likely be quite a few six- and seven-figure claims or lawsuits.
The avenue to full and fair compensation for injuries from a crane accident is seldom simple for injured workers or bystanders who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
