Definitely. If a construction site accident injures you or a loved one, you should seek the expert advice of a construction accident lawyer in San Antonio. We can explain the legal remedies available to you and help you better understand the circumstances surrounding your accident.

Even if you or a loved one is still seeking medical care and recovering from a workplace injury, we can begin investigating your incident and gathering more information about what actually happened. We can also connect with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and other state authorities to obtain copies of the official reports that they prepare in connection with their investigations.

If your employer has workers’ compensation insurance, but a third party was negligent, it’s highly recommended you seek legal support. A personal injury claim has a much higher burden of proof compared to the workers’ comp claim filed by your employer, and securing evidence to support your claim is crucial. 

If your employer does not have workers’ compensation insurance and you wish to proceed with filing a lawsuit, an attorney can assist with preparing and filing a complaint in court. It is possible that after filing a complaint, the party responsible decides they want to settle outside of court. Your attorney can negotiate a fair settlement agreement that fully compensates you for your past and future expenses.

And most importantly, hiring an attorney will ensure you and your loved ones receive the compensation they deserve. Contact our experienced San Antonio personal injury lawyers to see if you have a claim.

To protect construction workers at construction sites, OSHA enforces specific guidelines, including installing proper railings on large equipment, visibly marking unsafe conditions, and implementing strict welding and electrical procedures. It is the employer’s responsibility to ensure the construction site complies with OSHA’s requirements.

Employers must also adequately train construction workers on how to use equipment and notify workers about unsafe conditions. Sadly, many employers are negligent and do not strictly adhere to these rules. This places construction workers at a greater risk of injury.

There are many causes of construction site accidents, from faulty equipment and crane or truck accidents to faulty or missing safety equipment.

OSHA reports that the four leading causes of construction site accidents are:

• Falls: Construction workers frequently use ladders and scaffolding to work in elevated construction areas. Falling from a ladder or an elevated area can cause severe injury or even be fatal.
• Struck by an object: Equipment and hazardous materials are common sights on a construction site — and they can be extremely dangerous. Falling debris can fatally injure construction workers, while motor vehicles such as cranes or transportation trucks can strike employees, contractors, and visitors.
• Electrocutions: In addition to construction equipment and hazardous materials, construction sites also frequently contain exposed wiring, outlets, and even circuit grids. Exposed electrical wiring that gets wet can gravely injure construction workers, while poorly maintained extension cords and power tools can electrocute construction workers, causing injury or death.
• Caught-in or caught-between: Trench or excavation collapses, and moving or rotating equipment that catches a worker can fatally injure construction workers.

OSHA also cites workplace safety violations as a primary cause of fatal and non-fatal workplace accidents. These include:

• Failure to implement fall protection
• Unsafe scaffolding
• Failure to communicate potential hazards
• Failure to control hazardous energy (lockout and/or tagout violations)
• Insufficient respiratory protection
• Unsafe ladders
• Powered industrial truck safety violations
• Inadequate fall protection training
• Dangerous machinery and insufficient machine guarding
• Deficient eye and face protection.

Construction workers are not the only ones injured at construction sites. A construction site accident can also seriously injure or kill bystanders.

Common bystander injuries related to construction site accidents include:

• A construction vehicle strikes a bystander
• Loud explosions or other noises rupture a bystander’s eardrums
• Slipping and falling on construction tools or other materials improperly stored or left unattended
• Inhaling dust, smoke, fumes, and other hazardous materials
• Being struck by failing pipes, tools, and other debris.

No matter when you are an employee at a construction site or a bystander, if a construction site accident injures you, you may be entitled to compensation for your injuries.

If you or a loved one is injured in a construction accident, you should immediately report the incident to you or your loved one’s supervisor. If your employer has workers’ compensation insurance, they should report the accident to the Texas Workers’ Compensation Commission. 

You should also receive medical care as soon as possible after your accident, even if you feel fine and regardless of whether your employer has workers’ comp. You may still be entitled to compensation, and a record of your medical bills, doctors’ appointments, and prescribed medication will ensure you recover the full cost. Your medical records can also help prove the extent of your pain and suffering — you can recover damages for this as part of a personal injury claim.

Personal injury compensation (or damages) falls into several categories. If you are hurt in a construction accident, our personal injury attorneys can recover compensation for:

• Medical bills and expenses
• Future medical bills and expenses
• Lost wages
• Future lost income
• Pain and suffering
• Loss of companionship
• Loss of consortium
• Mental anguish.

The best way to find out how much compensation you might receive is to contact our San Antonio construction accident lawyers. However, for a ballpark figure, you can use our Texas personal injury calculator.

In a majority of construction accident cases, there are two potential legal options available.

1. File a workers’ compensation claim. What is workers’ compensation? Workers’ compensation is a type of insurance that provides benefits to employees who experience work-related injuries or illnesses. Workers’ compensation insurance provides for medical costs, lost wages, and rehabilitation costs. Each state has a statute that regulates workers’ compensation; however, if you work for the government, the federal government has a workers’ compensation insurance program as well.

Texas passed its workers’ compensation statute in 1993. Unlike most states, Texas’s workers’ compensation statute does not mandate private employers to carry workers’ compensation insurance. However, all public employers must carry workers’ compensation insurance. For Texas’s worker’s compensation statute to cover your injury, the injury or illness must have been “sustained in the course and scope of employment.”

In other words, you must have been injured while working on the job. The workers’ compensation statute covers most physical injuries, such as broken bones and burns. Typically, workers’ comp will not cover injuries from an employee’s willful criminal acts, horseplay, or alcohol or drug use.

Under Texas’s workers’ compensation statute, these benefits are available:

• Income benefits (or wage-loss benefits): These benefits are equal to a certain percentage, outlined in the statute, of the average weekly wages that an employee loses because of temporary or permanent illness or injury. Workers’ compensation insurance programs calculate the wage-loss benefits based on an employee’s injury or illness and how much time they have missed work due to the injury or illness. The workers’ compensation statute caps the total amount of wage-loss benefits.
• Medical benefits: These benefits cover the necessary medical care required to treat an employee’s work-related injury or illness.
• Rehabilitation benefits: These benefits cover expenses connected with an employee finding alternative employment.
• Death benefits: These benefits are equal to 75 percent of an employee’s average weekly wage, which is paid to legal beneficiaries. Additionally, these benefits cover up to $10,000 in burial expenses.

If a construction accident injures you and your employer carries worker’s compensation insurance, there are specific steps you must follow to file a workers’ compensation claim. As a first step, you must seek medical treatment as soon as possible. You also must report your accident in writing to your employer within 30 days from the date you sustained your injury or discovered your injury. Once you complete these steps, you have one year from the date you suffered the injury or discovered your injury to file a completed Employee’s Claim for Compensation for a Work-Related Injury or Occupational Disease form with the TDOI.

The completed forms can be mailed to TDOI or filed online. Once you complete the form and submit it to the TDOI, the company’s insurance company will evaluate the claim and decide whether to pay or deny your claim. If the TDOI denies your claim, you do have a right to appeal the insurer’s decision.

The workers’ compensation process in Texas is highly complex, and you must take many specific steps when filing a claim. Therefore, it would be helpful to hire an attorney to assist with filing your workers’ compensation claim to ensure you receive the maximum benefits available to you.

2. File a third-party lawsuit. Suppose you suffer a workplace illness or injury, and your employer does not carry workers’ compensation insurance. In that case, an option is to file a personal injury claim against your employer and any other third parties who may have caused your injury. For example, if a defective power tool injured you, you can bring a personal injury suit against your employer, and the manufacturer, and even the supplier, of the power tool.

In construction workplace cases, a majority of personal injury claims claimants bring against employers and third parties are for negligence. While Texas is a “no-fault” state when it comes to workers’ compensation—that is, the employee can receive benefits without having to prove that her employer did something wrong—the same does not hold true in personal injury cases. To prevail in a personal injury lawsuit, you generally have to prove that your employer and other third parties were negligent. To prove negligence, a claimant must show that her (a) employer (or related third-party) owed her a duty of care, (b) employer breached their duty of care, and (c) the employer’s breach caused the claimant’s injuries.

Filing a lawsuit can be an overwhelming process. A licensed attorney can help you prepare your claims, filing paperwork in court, and negotiating potential settlements.

According to OSHA, transportation, material moving, construction, and extraction occupations are responsible for nearly half (47.4%) of all fatal occupational injuries.

In the most recent report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor, the construction industry caused the second-highest number of occupational deaths, with 951 construction fatalities occurring in 2021.

The Texas Department of Insurance’s Workers’ Compensation Division also publishes construction site accident data. Its 2021 report reveals that incidence rates increased compared to 2020, both at a total level and in construction specifically. The number of non-fatal injuries and illnesses totaled 13,700, up from 11,300 in 2019.