New York City’s Buildings Department provides detailed monthly reports available at its website for interested residents and construction site accident lawyers concerned about the rate of serious injuries and deaths on the city’s many buildings projects. The information available includes statistics drawn from the construction-related accident reports filed each month with the city.
The numbers for March 2015 (the most recent month available) show that both the number of injuries and deaths on construction sites are higher through the first three months of 2015 than they were in the first three months of 2014 – a fact that should raise concerns throughout the city. By the end of March 2014, 46 total accidents caused 54 injuries and one death, when a worker suffered a fatal fall. By the end of March 2015, however, a total of 72 accidents had caused 72 injuries and three deaths: one fall, one due to “mechanical construction equipment,” and one “other.”
In 2014 and 2015, Manhattan led the city’s boroughs in construction accident injuries and deaths. By the end of March 2015, 53 construction site accidents occurred in Manhattan, injuring 53 people and claiming two lives. The Bronx and Queens were tied for second most dangerous borough with nine accidents apiece; Queens reported 10 total construction site injuries and the Bronx one death. No construction site accidents, injuries, or deaths were reported from Staten Island as of the end of March 2015.
Updated data for April, May, and June is expected soon, as the Buildings Department continues to track construction site accidents and injuries.