When construction accidents happen, they can maim and kill. The use of heavy equipment on construction sites makes it more likely for people to be badly hurt if they’re involved in an accident than if they were in an accident elsewhere.
Take, for example, this case involving a worker who was killed in Berkeley. The man, a foreman, was taking measurements on a staircase when a carpenter dropped a nail gun above him. That nail gun fell over three flights before hitting the man on his head. His hard hat was knocked off his head, and he fell nearly 10 feet onto a concrete floor.
Amazingly, the man survived the incident at first, ending up in a coma for six days. Sadly, he passed away on June 11 from those injuries. His wife has now filed a lawsuit against the construction firm. Her husband had at least one surgery before the neurologist told that family that he was brain dead. He was taken off life support six days later. The cause was listed as being from blunt force trauma to the neck and head.
The accident occurred because a worker working on joists hung a nail gun on a hook that was above the foreman’s head. When the worker moved to the next joist, the nail gun fell and hit the man working below.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) found that the death was a result of three employers who did not make sure that safeguards were in place. State laws require the use of canopies to protect workers against falling objects.
