RC Safety

Construction site safety is of significant concern to the NYC Department of Buildings. Local Law 78 of 2017 requires construction sites to report incidents resulting in fatalities or injuries to the DOB. Statistics  show that 40 incidents resulting in fatality or injury occurred in September 2022. Worksite safety  has been a significant cause for concern for the DOB because NYC has the highest construction-related injuries and fatalities rate nationwide. The DOB’s second annual Construction Safety Report , published at the end of last year, shows that 712 construction-related incidents occurred in 2021, culminating in 505 injuries and nine deaths. Sources  show that while NYC construction incidents have declined for three consecutive years, the rate is still higher than the nationwide average, prompting the DOB to take matters more seriously and implement various measures to increase worksite safety. The DOB’s Chapter 33  outlines several safety measures worksites mu...

Several reasons can cause site shutdowns, including government mandates, severely inclement weather, and site incidents. These shutdowns protect workers’ safety from hazardous site environments and require them to go offsite until the project can be resumed. Site shutdowns aren’t a rarity. For instance, New York City’s Department of Buildings shut down over 300 construction sites in June 2021  in a zero-tolerance crackdown. The crackdown occurred because of the number of construction deaths earlier in the year. The DOB wished to prevent construction worker injuries and deaths and decided to shut down construction sites until the proper safety measures were implemented. A 2022 report from the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health  shows that more deaths on construction sites occur in New York City than anywhere else in the USA. While NYC construction deaths have been steadily declining for three consecutive years , these figures highlight an underlying problem t...