America: Is there a safety problem in the construction industry?

Our structural collapse attorneys note that just this afternoon, a parking garage in Fort Lauderdale, FL collapsed with a resounding boom that shook the entire neighborhood. The Fort Lauderdale collapsed parking garage stood close to Southeast 6th Street and South Andrews Avenue. The parking garage was still under construction at the time of its collapse. One person received injuries from the parking garage collapse.

Just a few days ago, we reported on a collapsed home in Queens, NY that was undergoing new construction and renovation. And not long ago, a parking garage collapse in Sydney, Australia that endangered the mall to which it was connected made the news worldwide.

One of these collapses was attributed to poor bolting. The Queens home collapse resulted when workers cut a critical structural support member. Some recent building collapses that have made the news seem to have resulted from improper load calculation. Some of the building collapses have resulted in fatalities as well as serious injuries.

So our structural collapse attorneys wonder: is there a safety problem in the construction industry? Click here and read our article on the house collapse in Queens, NY and decide for yourself.

The importance of solid temporary bracing in preventing wall collapses

Structural collapse injury attorneys note that in both construction and demolition work, crews sometimes commence work without adequate preparation. And structural collapse and injury might be the result.

Before commencing work, it’s important to calculate anticipated loads and distributions, identify key structural supports, and plan for adequate temporary bracing of walls and other structural members while buildings are going up or being taken down. Cutting a key structural support without providing bracing can cause roofs and walls to cave in and collapse unexpectedly.

Solid temporary bracing is particularly important when working with masonry and brick walls. A recent injury accident in Westfield, MA reveals just what might happen.

In Westfield, MA this morning, a construction worker occupied in taking down an old building at 84 Elm Street was injured when a deteriorating brick wall suddenly came tumbling down. The construction worker had been operating a scissors lift to take down the wall. But workers might not have braced the wall adequately to ensure a controlled wall collapse.

Instead, bricks suddenly gave way and the wall collapsed with such force that it knocked the scissors lift away. The lift and the construction worker both fell and landed on a car. The worker received transport to a local hospital for his injuries. Better site preparation by the employer or crew head might have prevented this worker’s needless injuries.

The structural collapse injury attorneys at Denena & Points have dedicated their professional lives to helping workers injured in needless accidents when employers and supervisors have neglected their duty to ensure a safe work site. If you’ve been injured in a wall collapse or other accident at work, you might be eligible to win a full financial recovery for the value of your injuries and pain and suffering.

Contact our structural collapse injury attorneys for a free initial legal consultation. We could help you understand your legal options and eligibility for fair financial compensation.

Firefighters take issue with unnecessary deaths from building collapse

Our structural collapse injury lawyers point out that in the most recent 20-year span for which data exists, almost 1,500 firefighters died in the line of duty. Slightly more than 400 of these deaths resulted from structural collapses related to burning buildings.

At least 60% of these firefighter deaths from structural collapses happen because the firefighters become trapped in the burning building. The rest occur when a falling object in the structure strikes the firefighter.

Even when a building is no longer burning, firefighters and ire inspectors often must enter the buildings to test for their structural integrity before owners can reenter them to gather belongings. Weakened support timbers and charred structural connections might lead to dangerous structural collapses without warning. Even where victims survive being trapped by a collapse, the resulting injuries might cause permanent disability and/or disfigurement.

In Pennsylvania, Local 22 of the Philadelphia Firefighters Union has taken issue with the way safety precautions were handled at the site of a fire. Two firefighters died from a wall collapse in a Kensington warehouse fire in April. The Union has filed an unfair labor practice charge against Philadelphia claiming that a “collapse zone” was never established around the Kensington warehouse fire.

Our structural collapse injury lawyers note that a collapse zone is an area equivalent to one and one half times the height of the burning building’s walls. The Union maintains that the two firefighters’ deaths were unnecessary and could have been prevented had the proper collapse zones been established.

The City of Philadelphia has not responded to demands form the Union for evidence relating to the deadly wall collapse. The unfair labor practice charge will go before Pennsylvania’s Labor Relations Board. The City’s D.A. has said that he would open a grand jury hearing of the matter.

The failure to follow good safety procedures at the site of a large fire is a serious matter. As the Kensington warehouse fatalities demonstrate, failure to take proper precautions regarding the dangers of structural collapses from a burning building can result in needless deaths.

If you’ve been injured or lost a loved one to a dangerous structural collapse, contact our knowledgeable structural collapse injury lawyers at Denena & Points for a free initial legal consultation. Chad Points and Tony Denena are the go to guys for personal injury expertise relating to structural collapses.

If you have urgent questions about what you should do after a structural collapse accident injury, they have your answers. If you need to know whether your insurance would pay for your injuries and losses, how you could prove the validity of your claim, and what steps you need to take to make a successful financial recovery for your injury, Chad and Tony could ably advise you every step of the way.

Most lawyers have never handled a single structural collapse claim. Tony and Chad have successfully handled several such claims, some of them in high profile, multi-million dollar cases. So don’t hesitate. Contact our structural collapse injury lawyers today. Your initial case evaluation consultation is free and it could arm you with the knowledge you need to make informed choices about what to do following your structural collapse accident.

Who gets the blame when your Houston apartment balcony collapses?

When the deck or balcony collapses on an apartment building in Houston or anyplace else, the landlord almost always tries to put the blame on residents overcrowding the balcony or partying on the structure. Our Houston balcony collapse lawyers might point out that the ostensible purpose of such structures is to share the beauty of a fine day outdoors with friends.

The injured residents and guests, as well as inspectors, tend to look for other causes. Causes such as rot, trapped moisture, loose connection hardware, splintered wood, and inadequate bolting to the primary structure often lie behind sudden structural collapses.

For instance, investigators have attributed the sudden collapse of the 5th floor of the Centergy parking garage in midtown Atlanta last June to a misplaced bolt. Our Houston balcony collapse lawyers point out that the parking garage collapse damaged about 35 cars but fortunately resulted in no injuries. The bolt at a spandrel beam connected the floor to a column on the 5th floor of the parking garage. The bolt was found not to be defective, but merely used in the wrong way. At its connection location on the 5th floor, it did not provide adequate restraint of the spandrel.

But in a balcony collapse in Buffalo, NY early Sunday morning, the landlord who rented the house to students is blaming “partying like rock stars” for the sudden balcony failure. The balcony collapse on Bradley Street sent three people to the hospital with injuries. Investigations of the incident are not complete, so no official cause of the balcony collapse has yet been issued.

If the students’ rent house is typical of such structures around other campuses, neglected maintenance and rot could be behind the balcony collapse. Buffalo, NY is noted for extreme winter weather with lots of snowfall that could result in trapped moisture between the balcony’s ledger board and the main house. This would result in the balcony and its connections to the house loosening and pulling away over time, just waiting for an accident to happen.

If you’ve been the victim of a balcony collapse injury, don’t let the landlord put the blame on you. You need a solid accident investigation to pinpoint the actual causes of the structural collapse so that you could obtain the financial recovery you deserve after your needless injuries. Contact our experience Houston balcony collapse lawyers for a free and confidential consultation about your accident and injury.

We know how to investigate a balcony collapse. The Houston balcony collapse lawyers at Denena & Points stand among the few lawyers in the nation with actual, hands-on experience successfully handling balcony collapse claims for injured victims. So don’t let a negligent landlord shift the blame and the cost of your injuries to you. Get the aggressive legal help you need to prove your valid injury claim. Call or email us today for your free initial consultation. We address balcony collapse matters nationwide.

House collapse in Queens, NY caused by removal of crucial support beam

House collapse injury attorneys: On Friday, a house undergoing renovation construction collapsed in Queens on 231st Street near Merrick Boulevard. Three construction workers had to be rescued from the rubble of the two-story home by the New York City Fire Department after the home suddenly collapsed in on them. The three construction workers received rush transport to a local hospital and were listed in stable condition on Saturday.

NYC Department of Buildings (DOB) spokespeople blamed the dangerous house collapse in Queens on worker error. The DOB said that workers had removed a critical support beam in the rear wall. The sudden removal of support caused two side walls to cave in and collapse.

The house in Queens was undergoing renovation construction to remove an illegal basement apartment and to enlarge the rear of the home. The DOB said A and S Construction company did have the proper permits to do the work. Apparently, their workers were just not taking careful note of load distribution when they cut the critical support beam. The DOB has issued a stop work order on the project for now and says that it will fine A and S Construction company.

A complaint filed with the DOB on the day of the house collapse in Queens said the building was “shaking, vibrating or structural stability affected.” The home promptly collapsed to give credence to the complaint. Fortunately, the three construction workers affected by the house collapse in Queens escaped without severe or fatal injury.

The house collapse injury attorneys caution that contractors should always carefully consider their distribution loads and the supports they’ll require before beginning work. If an existing support must be removed, then secure temporary bracing and reinforcement should be installed to support the weight load distribution. As this house collapse in Queens reveals, removal of a critical support beam without providing alternative support can send workers to the hospital or even cause fatal injury.

OSHA has spent considerable effort studying the causes of structural collapses and how to prevent them and the injuries and fatalities that result from them. Read our house collapse injury attorneys’ article detailing OSHA’s “lessons learned” by clicking on this link.

Rhythmic vibration as a potential cause of U.S. structural collapses

The porch collapse injury attorneys at Denena & Points note that this past Sunday, a crowded porch on a popular student apartment complex near Cornell University collapsed suddenly during a weekend party. The sudden porch collapse occurred at 208 Williams Street in the Pam Johnston Apartments.

Apartment personnel have since begun warning the students to avoid “rhythmic vibration” on the porches if they don’t want them to collapse. In other words, groups of students from Cornell University should not dance on the porches during weekend parties. The coordinated harmonics and resonance vibrations engendered by the dancing could be even more damaging than jumping up and down on the structures according to apartment complex representatives.

Apartment representatives have said that the porch collapse resulted from overcrowding of the structure and that the porch had been structurally sound prior to its collapse. According to witnesses, around 50 people had been sandwiched shoulder to shoulder on the 12’x12′ porch just prior to its collapse. And the apartment complex representative insisted that fractures in the floor joists evidenced stress from overloading. (Source: The Cornell Daily Sun, 8/23/12)

The warnings by the apartment complex representative probably take advantage of the phenomenon of “resonance disaster” to try and shift liability for the Cornell University area accident elsewhere. Resonance disaster could cause violent swaying motions and catastrophic structural failures in improperly constructed objects that include buildings, bridges, and even airpalnes.

Our porch collapse injury attorneys emphasize that building designers often put a great deal of thought into mitigating potential damage from resonance disasters in order to avoid the costly liabilities that could result. They might, for instance:

• Install shock absorber amounts to absorb and dissipate resonant frequency energy. For example, the Taipei 101 bulding uses a 660 ton pendulum, a tuned mass damper, to dissipate resonance dangers.
• Some structures resonate on a frequency that won’t typically occur in order to avoid dangers.
• Buildings in earthquake-prone areas account for expected oscillating frequencies from ground motion .
• Motor design creates frequencies that won’t be otherwise encountered in the mechanical motions.
• Some structures may resonate at more than one frequency in order to mitigate the dangers.

The periodic oscillation of a structure in a resonance disaster transfers the energy of the vibration to the structure and stores it there until the additional energy exceeds the structure’s load limit and causes a structural collapse. Any structural collapse can cause dangerous and deadly injuries. Learn more about the dangers of rhythmic vibration in a structure in this articleby the experienced porch collase injury attorneys at Denena & Points.

Another reminder to inspect your backyard deck for safety issues

The recent collapse of a 20-year-old deck in South Attleboro in New England that sent an elderly woman to the hospital has residents of the area concerned. Inspectors in South Attleboro have been making the rounds to inspect other local decks for safety issues and advise homeowners on needed maintenance and repairs.

Building inspectors note that three common risks might turn your backyard deck into a dangerous collapse and liability issue waiting to happen:

• Weather that rots or dries the wood rapidly or corrodes connecting hardware.
• Building codes that in the past were less strict than those we use now.
• Pine needles, leaves, and other debris that gets behind the ledger board and retains moisture leading to rot and loosening of the deck connection to the home.

The deck collapse injury attorneys at Denena & Points remind you to inspect your backyard deck at least once per year to locate safety issues before they become hazardous. Look at the bolting of the deck to the home. First off, your deck should be connected by bolts and not by nails that can easily pull out. Look for any rot or separation of the deck and its connections from the home.

Check for cracked or splintering wood and for corroded hardware. Check the sturdiness of deck rails. Collapsing deck rails can lead to many injuries and fatalities even when the deck itself does not give way.

To learn more about the dangers of deck collapse and what you need to do in its aftermath, download our free book on balcony and deck collapse from this web page.

The importance of sturdy trusses to prevent Leesburg roof collapses

Two construction workers received injuries today when the roof of a church being constructed in Leesburg collapsed suddenly. The two workers rode the trusses down 30 or 40 feet to the ground when the structural supports gave way beneath them as they worked on the roof. One worker was pinned under the collapsed trusses and received an airlift to the hospital. The other injured worker did not become pinned under the debris. (Source: Caitlin Gibson, The Washington Post, 8/13/2012)

Our roof collapse injury lawyers note that this unfortunate roof collapse accident demonstrates the importance of properly calculating loads that the trusses must support, as well as of proper bracing, installation, and connection to other supporting timbers. In addition, building experts warn against loading the trusses and roof under construction with building materials and equipment during the construction. Loading stacks of building materials atop partially completed roofs for construction worker convenience is a common practice in the industry, but can drastically overload the supporting structures past their intended live and dead loads.

Truss placement in a building under construction also requires trained and skilled crewmembers that can build a sound and sturdy roof system. Trusses are essentially triangular elements. The triangle is a very strong building component. When loaded, a triangle will transfer the force of the load around the three sides of the triangle while allowing only limited movement or change of shape in the structural element.

Our roof collapse injury lawyers clarify that a pitch chord truss is the top of the truss typically seen in a sloped, or “pitched” roof. The bottom, or horizontal, chord supports the ceiling. “Webs” of additional support elements connect the bottom and top chords and provide for additional structural redundancy, load transfer, and stress distribution. And a parallel chord truss system might provide the underlying support for the floor of a building.

Cutting a single member of a truss will compromise the structural integrity of the support, but won’t usually lead to collapse by itself. Improper temporary and permanent bracing against walls and girders is a more common contributor to sudden structural collapses.

Our roof collapse injury lawyers emphasize that it is critical to construct and install roof trusses in accordance with the design documents. It is equally critical that designers and engineers accurately calculate weight loads, spans, and spacing of trusses.

The “dead” load on a truss is the weight of the structure itself. The “live” load can be anything from workers on the roof to heavy winter snowfalls. Other forces, like high winds and earthquakes, can reverse the forces usually applied to a truss. Good designers and engineers account for the performance of their truss structures under even these rare occurrences.

Installation errors, damage to a truss, or field modifications by builders to accommodate such things as extra roof openings for chimneys, skylights, and ducts can drastically affect the load that a truss support can carry. Repairs to these truss modifications must be addressed on an individual basis.

Thorough inspections of the truss system during the building process as well as afterward can help catch dangerous weaknesses in a truss support. But the pace of construction often hides and covers truss elements relatively quickly, so inspections won’t always be able to fully determine the soundness of the roof trusses.

In a sudden roof collapse like that of the church under construction in Leesburg, serious and fatal injuries can easily result from roof truss failure. Learn about your options for winning fair financial compensation after you’ve been injured in a roof collapse. Contact our experienced roof collapse injury lawyers toll free at 87-307-9500 or online for a free consultation.

Our skilled roof collapse injury lawyers know building codes and inspection requirements as well as how to spot weaknesses where poor building techniques or materials led to structural failure. Our knowledgeable investigation after a structural collapse injury could help you pinpoint the precise causes of the collapse as well as the proper parties to hold liable for your needless injuries. Contact us today; we’re here to help. And our roof collapse injury lawyers have a 14-year track record of helping clients succeed in their injury claims against builders, manufacturers, and other negligent parties.

OSHA lessons learned on construction & structural collapse accidents

Our construction and structural collapse attorneys laud the effort by OSHA to take a lessons learned approach to past accidents in order to prevent future ones. Structural collapse accidents and construction accidents can take a deadly toll on workers and others. Construction accidents involving cranes, fires, and sudden failures of scaffolding or building support members often claim multiple lives in tragic scenes of needless devastation.

Concerned with the number of fatal accidents, OSHA reviewed data on all construction structural collapses occurring between 1990 and 2008. The data involved 96 structural failures in a variety of high- and low-rise timber, concrete, and steel structures.

The OSHA report, Structural Collapses during Construction, Lessons Learned, 1990 – 2008, by Mohammad Ayub, P.E., S.E., concluded that:

• 80% of the structural collapse accidents could be attributed to construction errors, and
• 62% of the accidents were related to steel structures like scaffolds and platforms.

In breaking down these two primary groups of construction structural failure accidents, OSHA noted several more specific causative factors common to these accidents. Our construction and structural collapse attorneys list a few of these factors below:

• Placement of unplanned additional “dead load” over single and double tees led to collapse;
• Temporary connections of members were inadequate;
• Placement of construction materials over roof members led to collapses;
• Placement of brick loads on different tiers of scaffold framing overstressed the frames and caused the scaffolds to collapse;
• The scaffold platform structures configured and erected on site were not designed for the loads placed on them;
• Formwork support systems were under-proportioned for both the horizontal and the vertical loads;
• Concrete masonry wall designs were inadequate for the loads placed on them both during construction and upon completion; and
• Timber roof trusses were not adequately braced.

If you’ve been injured in or lost a loved one to a construction-related structural collapse accident, you know just how harmful and deadly such accidents can be. And obtaining adequate financial recompense to cope with your injuries following the accident can be a daunting task as well-financed corporate concerns seek to avoid liability.

Get an aggressive and knowledgeable legal team on your side to ensure that you have your opportunity to hold those responsible for your accident financially accountable for their negligence. Contact the experienced construction and structural collapse accident attorneys at Denena & Points for a free initial legal consultation.

Our construction and structural collapse attorneys are some of the very few attorneys in the nation to possess solid, hands on experience successfully obtaining full financial recoveries for the injured victims of structural collapses. Don’t entrust your one chance for a successful financial recovery to an inexperienced attorney. Contact Tony Denena and Chad Points today to learn how you could obtain the just compensation award that you deserve for your needless injuries.

Deadly CTV Tower collapse in New Zealand a lesson in caution

Our U.S. building collapse injury attorneys remark that New Zealand’s Royal Commission of Inquiry called in a noted expert on structural design and collapse to help it determine the cause of the tragic collapse of the Canterbury Television (CTV) Tower in New Zealand that claimed the lives of 115 people. The expert called by the Commission is Professor John Mander, a civil engineer originally from New Zealand who is now on staff at Texas A& M University in its renowned Engineering Department.

The U.S. building collapse injury attorneys at Denena & Points clarify that the fatal CTV Tower collapsed occurred in February 2011 in Christchurch, New Zealand following an earthquake with unusually strong vertical thrust acceleration forces. The forces exceeded the design capacities of the structure, which had been built in the late 1980s under less stringent building codes.

But the real cause of the collapse may have been prior damage from a series of strong earthquakes and aftershocks in the region that began in September 2010. A September earthquake had also exceeded the CTV Tower’s design specifications, but only minimal visible damage was noted at the time and no one died. The CTV Tower exhibited increasing motion or “liveliness’ that was remarked by its occupants, particularly after the Boxing Day 2010 quake.

Professor Mander said that the CTV Tower should have been “red stickered” or barred from further occupancy following the initial earthquake. He feels that the lack of fatalities from the earlier quake may have lulled inspectors and officials into a false sense of security regarding the building’s soundness.

Mander also indicated that the CTV Tower’s survival of the initial quake that exceeded its design specifications was a testament to the sound and efficacious construction of the building. But that damage to the Tower from September 2010’s earthquake left it ill-prepared to withstand another strong quake such as it faced in 2011.

Professor Mander also criticized the comprehensive report produced after the accident by the Department of Housing and Building. He called the report “too vague o be meaningful” and indicated that its facile and generic conclusions could have applied equally well to any building collapse. Our U.S. building collapse injury attorneys emphasize that Professor Mander has called on investigators to delve deeper into the causes of structural collapse.

Mander criticized the report for failing to account for the cumulative damage from the previous quakes and aftershocks. The report attributes the fatal structural failure of the CTV Tower to damager to one of its primary support columns. When that column failed, the report says, the other concrete support columns were overloaded by gravity, causing them to fail and the building to collapse, killing 115 people.

Mander notes that anyone’s casual observation of the building could have reached that same conclusion and that ultimately, such support column failure ultimately leads to any building collapses. Our U.S. building collapse injury attorneys point out that the critical issue to examine is actually what caused the failure of the first support column. Professor Mander indicates that the cumulative damage form the successive earthquakes and aftershocks in Christchurch stressed and damaged that column, as well as other buildings in the region, beyond their intended capacity.

Mander calls for inspectors and officials to take a harder and more proactive with regard to structures following serious earthquakes. He says that it would be better to assume the worst with regard to buildings’ structural integrity and red sticker them rather than allowing them to continue to operate risking innocent lives. The Royal Commission has until early November to continue the inquiries into the deadly CTV Tower collapse. More detailed information and more sharp criticism of officials’ complacency following the series of acute earthquakes is likely to result. Stay tuned.

Learn more about deadly building collapse dangers from structural support failure in this in-depth article by our U.S. building collapse injury attorneys.