New Jersey Accident and Injury Law Blog : New Jersey Injury Lawyer & Attorney : The Grossman Law Firm : Serving Monmouth County, Bergen County

There has been a spike in the number of highway construction work zone accidents on New Jersey highways, and it's causing great concern to New Jersey car accident lawyers and the Department of Transportation.

According to this report, there were 5,247 construction work zone accidents in New Jersey last year. That was an increase of 8% over the figures in 2008. Bergen County seems to have been hit particularly hard by this spike. It had a total of 631 work zone crashes, and these accounted for three of the 11 fatal accidents across the state. In 2008, Bergen County had 430 such work zone accidents.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

The Department of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) earlier this week released a list of the top 10 most frequent workplace violations of 2009. OSHA presented the list at the annual Congress and expo of the National Safety council.   As a New Jersey construction accident lawyer, I was deeply concerned, but not too surprised, to see that the list contained several construction accident hazards.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

A tragic construction accident at a site on interstate 287 North in Edison has left a construction worker with critical injuries. According to NJ.com, the worker Nehal Master was measuring the road, when a steamroller ran over his legs. The accident occurred at 3:30am,  Master sustained multiple fractures in both legs, and was rushed to the hospital New Brunswick. As of yesterday,  he was still in a critical condition.

A construction site may be home to heavy machinery including forklifts, cranes, trucks and steamrollers. Accidents involving construction equipment are entirely preventable. Any time workers are sharing a construction site with this equipment, there is a danger of collisions and being run over.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

A 58-year-old construction worker from Passaic County was killed in an excavator accident in Monmouth County on Monday afternoon. Juan Rivera was run over by an excavator while he was working at a house in Holmdel.  The house was being renovated after it suffered extensive damage in a fire last year.  Rivera and another worker from Teaneck, Bergen County were involved in the installation of a septic system. The Teaneck worker was in charge of operating an 11 ton hydraulic excavator. According to police, it appears that the operator was backing up the excavator when Rivera walked right behind it. Both men were employed by a Franklin Lakes, Bergen County landscaping company.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

A New Jersey company has been fined for safety violations in the workplace that could have proved hazardous enough to cause a construction accident. Peach State Roofing, a roofing company in Sicklerville, Camden County was fined $50,000 for a dangerous fall hazard. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspectors located the hazard during one of their routine inspections of a work site in Sicklerville, where two employees of Peach State Roofing were working. These two employees, according to OSHA, were not provided adequate fall protection, although their work site was located about 13 feet off the ground. This was a repeat violation for the roofing company. 

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Eerily timely in the wake of the Utah Mine tragedy, Governor Jon Corzine recently signed a new law increasing fines for violating New Jersey mine safety laws. The old law carried penalties ranging from $25 to $500. Under the new legislation, the first offense will be $2,500, then up to $5,000 for a second offense and up to $10,000 for a third and subsequent offenses. Additionally, there will be a a fine of up to $25,000 for any violation resulting in serious bodily injury. New Jersey has roughly 200 working mines and 400 vacant mines. The new legislation, A-3937/S-2386, was sponsored in the Assembly by Assemblyman Fisher (D-Salem/Cumberland/Gloucester). It was sponsored in the Senate by Senator Sweeney (D-Salem/Cumberland/Gloucester).

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link