Plainview Patch recently reported on a serious accident at a Plainview Water District facility when a contractor fell about 20 feet from a ladder and had to be airlifted to Nassau University Medical Center for medical treatment.

The construction industry is among the most hazardous for workers, according to many industry and governmental studies. Chief among these hazards are falls from elevated work heights--falls from ladders, roofs, scaffolds, buildings, etc... The cost of these accidents is very high--productivity delays, insurance costs, high cost of medical treatment, lost time from work and most importantly, serious injury and death to workers.

New York has many protections in place to prevent these types of accident. Once such strong and vital law is New York's Labor Law Section 240 which provides that:

"All contractors and owners and their agents, except owners of one and two-family dwellings who contract for but do not direct or control the work, in the erection, demolition, repairing, altering, painting, cleaning or pointing of a building or structure shall furnish or erect, or cause to be furnished or erected for the performance of such labor, scaffolding, hoists, stays, ladders, slings, hangers, blocks, pulleys, braces, irons, ropes, and other devices which shall be so constructed, placed and operated as to give proper protection to a person so employed."

This statute recognizes that working at elevated heights presents very dangerous hazards for workers and that the primary responsibility for ensuring worker safety must be placed in the hands of those who control the work-site and the job--contractors, owners and agents.

Labor Law Section 240 requires contractors, owners and agents to ensure that workers are provided with certain safety equipment (for example ladders, scaffolding, etc....) to protect against height-related falls and resulting injuries.

The law contemplates that these safety devices will prevent falls and protect against devastating injuries. If the device fails to protect the worker from a height-related fall, the law will impose liability for the injury on the contractor and owner.

A very common accident is one where someone climbs a ladder to access a roof or an work on an elevated work area. These could be painters, roofers, electricians.... The ladder is a safety device which must provide protection to the worker. What happens if the ladder is unstable: the ground isn't suited to support the ladder--it's slippery, it's uneven, or the ladder doesn't have sufficient "legs" to provide a stable foundation; or a second person is required to hold the ladder to give support? If a workers falls because of the failure to ensure that the ladder provides the necessary safety and protection, the owner and contractor may have responsibility for the worker's protection.

There are various exceptions to the strict requirements of Labor Law Section 240--the most common one is the exemption for owners of 1 & 2 family homes. If you hire a roofer to redo the roof of your home and someone falls from the roof and is injured, there likely will be no liability on the homeowner's part. This is a recognition that most homeowners, unlike larger construction projects, don't have the resources and control over work to ensure that adequate safety devices are provided and used.

Workers who need to perform their jobs at elevated heights are exposed to some of the most hazardous work conditions with potential for serious injuries. In the construction arena, owners and contractors are mandated to provide safety devices for workers' protection. The failure to do so can result in serious and devastating injuries. New York offers important rights and remedies for injured workers in these areas to prevent such injuries and when they occur to provide for adequate compensation for devastating losses.