Not long ago, the New York Times reported on a memorial service that took place inside of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Instead of honoring one life, this service honored the lives of 16 construction workers who died in the past year within New York City. Sixteen deaths are far too many, and events like this one both allow for the people who were lost to be honored and mourned and also serve the important role of drawing attention to the dangers of construction work.
The construction profession is an especially dangerous one, and the building boom in New York City has meant that there are more workers at risk and higher death rates than in recent years. An expansion in development should not mean an expansion in fatalities, and hopefully public events that bring scrutiny to the problem will force employers to act to provide better protections to workers.
If a construction employee is killed on-the-job, a New York workers’ compensation law firm can provide help to families in getting death benefits that at least help to cushion some of the financial devastation that can result from the loss of a breadwinner.
High Death Rates in NYC From Construction Incidents
According to the New York Times, the memorial service which took place for the fallen construction workers at St. Patrick’s Cathedral is an annual tradition. Each year in the month of April, on or around Workers’ Memorial Day, hundreds of workers within the construction industry come to St. Patrick’s Cathedral and are led up the steps by a procession of bagpipers to the memorial service. The tradition first began in 2000 at St. Francis of Assisi, where it remained until 2008 when a crane collapse took seven lives including the lives of six construction workers. The mass moved to St. Patrick’s and has been held there each year.
The move to St. Patrick’s in 2008 coincided with economic downturn which slowed development, and accidents that caused fatalities became less frequent in the years immediately following the move of the memorial mass. Stricter safety standards had also played a role in lowering the death rate.
Unfortunately, in recent years, the real estate boom has led to more construction workers being honored after losing their lives over the course of the prior working year. There were 88 million square feet of construction underway last year in New York City, which is more than double the amount of work which was done in either 2013 or 2014.
This has come at a cost. At this most recent mass where 16 workers were honored, the total number of deaths was the highest it had been since the previous construction boom. In 2007, 12 workers had been killed over the course of the year. In 2008, there were 19 deaths. The death rate then dropped until 2015 when 17 construction workers were killed.
During these times when so much development is going on, the memorial serves as an important reminder about the human cost of progress. Employers must do everything they can to ensure their efforts to expand development in NY do not cost more lives, and family members of workers who are killed need to ensure they are taking advantage of the laws that provide at least some financial protection. Rosenberg, Minc, Falkoff & Wolff is here and ready to help if tragedy strikes. Contact our office today to learn more about how we can help.
