Following the Rules Can Help a Miami Construction Accident Case

Construction occurs so often and in so many places in the Miami area that we are completely used to the sight of cranes, high fences, scaffolding, and traffic lanes being blocked. Many people who have never worked on a construction site simply enjoy the benefits of the finished product, whether it’s a shopping mall, or a newly paved road, or a new condominium or sports stadium. They don’t often think about how truly dangerous the construction work is.

People who earn their living on Miami jobsites, however, can quote you chapter and verse as to the dangers that South Florida construction workers face every day on the job. Construction involves time spent multiple stories off of the ground. It involves handling sharp tools and heavy machinery. It involves crawling in enclosed spaces or standing on scaffolding. It involves being around welders and chemical sprayers. It is not the sort of job that has a “casual Friday.”

Since there are more than a few ways to get injured on a construction site, there are a great many rules and regulations that are legally required to be followed by the contractors and any sub-contractors that are working on any particular job site. But things happen. There could be cost over-runs. There could be time constraints. There could be all sorts of reasons why corners are cut on safety. And any one of these reasons could cause a serious and life changing accident for construction workers in Miami. And considering the way that the insurance system is set up, that could be a serious problem for an injured worker.

Construction workers have to deal with a system of insurers that go out of their way to either pay less than what is fair to an injured worker, or to attempt to pay nothing at all. With so many insurance policies on any given job site, injured workers are often faced with several different adjusters passing the buck and pointing the finger at someone else.

So aside from the obvious reasons of pain, suffering and the potential loss of being able to provide for your family, avoiding an accident is something that should be a top priority for any worker on the job site. Here are some basic safety considerations to follow.

• Safety Gear: Always wear the appropriate safety gear. That means hardhats, solid boots with steel toes, the right safety goggles, and good solid work gloves. Be smart about wearing it. You should be properly protected even in situations where you think you don’t need it.
• Follow the Rules: This is simple enough. Listen to your foreman. Follow any posted instructions. These rules are posted for a reason, and you don’t want to have to face an insurance representative who says, “And why weren’t you following the instructions that were clearly posted?”
• Never Trespass on a Construction Site: It doesn’t matter if you have worked construction your entire life. If you have no business being on a site or in certain areas of a site, DON’T GO THERE.
• Make Sure you Have the Training: If you have never run a backhoe before, don’t volunteer to run one, or allow your foreman to place you there. If you aren’t up to date on any sort of machinery, then that could be a problem if you get injured while using it.
• Lift Safely: Always utilize your legs when you are lifting heavy objects. Always. Don’t try to prove anything or show off. You are working on a construction site. You have nothing left to prove.
• Report Safety Hazards: This can be difficult. Nobody wants to be an informer. Nobody wants to get a co-worker in trouble. But would you like to be the person who saw something and did nothing, and the end result was a serious accident or worse? In a high-danger area like a construction site, there is no such thing as a minor safety violation.

In the event that you get injured in an accident on a South Florida construction site, there is nothing more crucial towards securing fair compensation than talking to an experienced construction accident attorney.

Klemick and Gampel have been representing injured Miami construction workers for thirty years. We have consistently delivered outstanding results for our clients, and are known throughout the state for cutting through the delays and tricks that insurance companies use to keep from paying fair compensation to construction accident injury victims. If you or a loved one has been injured in a Miami or South Florida construction accident, contact our offices for a free legal consultation today.