Construction workers’ accidents: Crane drops load onto 3 workers

A spokesperson for the New York Fire Department says it was the commitment and training of firefighters that made a recent rescue operation successful. FDNY is frequently called when employee lives are on the line in construction workers’ accidents. This was also the case on a recent Tuesday afternoon when three members of a construction crew became trapped under thousands of pounds of rubble on a building site.

The incident occurred at the site of a residential renovation in the northwestern corner of the New York borough of Queens. Authorities say a crane dropped a massive load of construction material on the home. It crashed through the building’s roof and buried one worker under a ton of construction material in the basement.

Rescuers arrived to find one seriously injured worker who had managed to escape the building on his own. A second individual was trapped but removed quickly. However, the person who was in the basement required a coordinated rescue plan to provide life-preserving medication while rescue workers dug through the rubble to get the victim extricated.

Rescuers rushed the injured workers to a hospital from where it was reported that one remains in serious condition and another is critical. While victims of construction workers’ accidents spend time recuperating before they can return to work, the workers’ compensation insurance program of New York will cover their medical expenses. With the help of an experienced workers’ comp attorney, they can also claim benefits for wage replacement to pay a percentage of lost income.

Source: qns.com, “Firefighters rescue three trapped workers following a construction accident in Astoria“, Robert Pozarycki, June 21, 2017