California has many homes, commercial properties, and office buildings in many stages of development and renovation. Multistory construction projects go hand-in-hand with the presence of scaffolds. After all, workers need them to reach high levels. Scaffolding also makes minor repairs and window washing accessible at great heights, so there might be a demand for workers with scaffold experience. Not every scaffolding job goes smoothly, though. Working on a scaffold might come with worrisome injury risks.
Reasons for scaffolding disasters
Strange and unexpected incidents could lead to an injury, but workers might find instances where a vehicle crashes into a scaffold rare. There are more common reasons for scaffold accidents, and workers should be mindful of them.
Inspecting a scaffold before climbing onto one might be a vital step to take because poor construction and assembly may result in a collapse. Even a scaffold’s placement could factor into a disaster.
Although the scaffold might be properly assembled, workers could still fall. Slipping or stumbling could lead to someone falling to the ground and suffering broken bones or worse. And don’t think injuries happen at only high heights. Someone falling a few feet when climbing onto the scaffold could break an ankle.
Taking action after an injury
Again, the chances for injuries may be significant when working on or around a scaffold. A person on the ground might get hit with a falling object and have to miss work for weeks. So, alertness counts but doesn’t guarantee any outcomes.
Injured employees may seek workers’ compensation benefits to cover a portion of their financial losses. While avoiding injury and continuing to work is preferable, accidents happen.
Filing a personal injury lawsuit against a non-employer third party might be an option as well in some cases. This can be a possibility if, for example, the accident was due to negligence in manufacturing the scaffolding materials.
