A young man who was at a Philadelphia construction site recently had to be rescued and taken to a nearby hospital after he fell 10 floors.
The man was traveling in an elevator at the time of the accident. Apparently, one of the elevator’s cables broke suddenly, sending the elevator, and the man in it, plummeting to the ground.
There were no additional details about the man’s condition or why the man was at the construction site.
Victims should not assume construction accidents come with the territory
Construction accidents like the one in this case are common, with official statistics confirming that construction workers deal with a disproportionate number of hazards when compared to workers in other professions.
However, the carelessness of another person or business frequently cause construction accidents.
For example, a contractor, subcontractor, or the owner or manager of the elevator could be responsible for the accident in this case, as any one of them could have violated a safety standard or made a mistake which contributed to this disaster.
Likewise, the elevator itself could have been designed, manufactured, or assembled in such a way that there was a risk this accident would happen. In this case, the responsible party may have to pay compensation to the victim.
After an accident, victims may have many avenues of recovery
A Pennsylvania resident who gets hurt at a construction site while he or she is working for his or her employer may be able to obtain workers’ compensation benefits.
However, these benefits do not pay for non-economic losses and do not always even cover all of a person’s actual costs and losses.
Fortunately, in addition to workers’ compensation, a victim may be able to file a third party claim alleging negligence so as to receive additional compensation from the business responsible for the accident, assuming that business is not also the victim’s employer.