The New York construction site experienced yet another fatal accident on April 14th. According to New York City Building Commissioner, Rick Chandler, the death was completely preventable. Around 11:00 a.m., 59-year- old Jose Cruz, the native Dominican Republic living in Sunset Park, fell 18 feet to his death at a construction site located at 1604 Broadway, near West 49th Street in Times Square, New York. He fell from an I-beam near the second floor as he was helping remove part of a steel deck from a slab. He was not wearing proper fall protection equipment, even though he was...

A December 23rd fatal construction accident on the Upper East Side of New York City marked the 31st worker to die on the job in the city in the past two years. The worker, whose name has not yet been released, was working on a nonunion work site. The worker was apparently wearing a harness but was not hooked to a cable when he fell. Only three weeks earlier, Wilfredo Enriquez fell to his death at the old Domino Sugar Factory in Brooklyn, marking death 30. Deaths 27 and 28 occurred on November 22nd, when a steel beam fell...

On April 6, 2015, an unsecured trench wall collapsed at 9-19 Ninth Avenue in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District neighborhood, killing 22-year-old Carlos Moncayo. Harco Construction was found guilty of felony manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment. This case established the first time that a company can be held criminally responsible for the death of a worker at its site. In July 2015, the judge ordered Harco to produce a public service announcement to promote job site safety. Harco’s defense attorney said the company would not comply with the sentence. The firm chose to let the accident go and...

Approximately 20% of work-related accident deaths involve construction workers. However, these workers only represent 4% of the employed workforce in the United States. Individuals who work at construction sites are at the greatest risk for getting injured or even dying while on the job. Unfortunately, the majority of these accidents are preventable. Using BIM to Prevent Construction Accidents As technology develops, the construction industry has started to rely more heavily on Building Information Modeling (BIM) to develop its projects. BIM is used to digitally monitor the design of construction projects, the plan, and the construction. BIM can also be...