Rochester Construction Worker Falls to Death

We all were reminded of the daily dangers faced by construction workers when a forty-four year old man fell to his death in Rochester on March 4th.  According to news accounts of the accident, the man was working on the roof of the Alexander Park Professional Center on Monroe Avenue near Alexander Streetwhen the accident occured.

While we don't have enough information presently to know how this accident occurred, many falls at construction sites are attributed to a failure on the part of the general contractor and building owner to provide the workers with safety equipment required by Section 240 of the New York State Labor Law, commonly known as the "scaffold law".   This is the same law you hear so much about in the news when insurance company executives making millions and millions of dollars per year complain about the "high cost" of doing business in New York State.  The truth of the matter is, that if contractors and building owners simply complied with the law and provided the required safety equipment to workers, the vast majority of injuries and deaths due to falls would not occur.  The "high cost" part of the equation refers to the money the insurance fat cats have to pay the families of construction workers killed on the job because their insureds refuse to obey the law.  But of course, they will never tell you that.  They will just try to blame the "system" and injury lawyers and oftentimes, the worker himself.

My condolences go out to the family of the man who just passed.  May they find peace and justice.