New York — A construction worker has suffered a fatal head injury in an Astoria, Queens building site. The man was injured at work while his crew was putting up a new apartment building. Witnesses report that the workman tripped into a hole in the floor and then he fell over one story to his death. Apparently the victim hit his head on a metal beam but it was unclear if this is what caused him to fall or was the result of the fall. Investigators demanded that all construction work stop at the site pending a full investigation into the man’s death. Safety and building code experts will now analyze the situation to determine if there were any safety violations or issues at the site. After that phase of the investigation it can be determined what may have led to or contributed to what may end up being a wrongful death case, according to a top accident lawyer. Worker safety advocates explain that some employers avoid dealing with known safety hazards in order to save money or get a job done faster. This can easily lead to a work accident and injury like this one according to safety officials. Meanwhile, observers note that only one earlier a construction crane accident injured several workers, also in Queens. In that construction site accident, the crane collapsed while workers were reportedly loading the machine with wood and equipment. The boom crashed down into scaffolding below and trapped hard hats who were working in the area. As many as seven workmen were injured and several were rushed to the emergency room of a local hospital for treatment. Read more about these construction accidents here.

Photo by Borofkin (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons