Thursday, February 1, 2007, saw a construction accident that left three workers injured and more than 18 000 customers without power in the Florida Panhandle. During the afternoon, three workers were working on rolling metal scaffolding. The scaffolding rolled into a live 115,000-volt power transmission line. The line links a power plant and substations.

The three workers have not yet been identified, but it has been reported that all three were airlifted to the University of South Alabama and to a Pensacola hospital for emergency treatment. The condition of the workers is not known, but all customers who lost power as a result of the outage had power restored by 6:20pm the same day, say officials.

Construction accidents like the above do not always make the news, but they can be very serious. Sadly, many accidents prove to be preventable. According to a 2001 article written by David B. Rosenbaum, some construction sites have greatly smaller instances of accident and injury than others. Rosenbaum concludes that projects where safety was a priority had far fewer accidents than other sites. When safety was listed as a budget item, when managers took a personal look into accident and injury complaints, and when anonymous tipping about unsafe behaviour was encouraged, accident instances dropped dramatically. The construction sites that saw the least accidents had a few things in common:

*No more than 50 workers assigned to each safety professional
*Subcontractors were requested to submit safety plans for each site specifically
*Every employee received a minimum of four hours of safety planning each month
*There was a formal safety plan in place
*Everyone – employees, managers, and subcontractors – were involved in the safety process
*Risks were anticipated and minimized ahead of time

If you have been involved in a construction accident, you may need an attorney to advise you of your legal rights. Some of the personal injuries sustained in the workplace can result in years of disability or many months of rehabilitation. An attorney can act as an advocate, ensuring quality treatment, and can get answers about the accident so that it does not recur. If you would like to speak to an attorney about a construction accident or other workplace accident, call us for a free, no-obligation consultation. Call 1- 800-535-2962 (1 800 5 FLAXMAN) to discuss all your options.