CONSTRUCTION INJURIES DOWN MORE THAN 26 PERCENT IN 2019 AS CITY ENFORCEMENT EFFORTS INCREASE

Year-to-date decline in injuries comes even as building boom continues

   Mayor Bill de Blasio, Deputy Mayor Laura Anglin, and New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) Commissioner Melanie E. La Rocca announced that injuries during the construction of buildings declined more than 26 percent in January through October 2019 compared to the same period last year. The injury decline comes even as the city’s construction boom shows no signs of abating: permits for major construction projects actually increased slightly over the same timeframe.

“The backbone of New York City’s construction industry are hard-working people in the building trades hoping to earn a good day’s pay and make it home safely,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “Taking care of those workers' safety is our top priority, so it's great to see that while scaffolding continues to go up across all five boroughs, construction injuries continue to decline. And thanks to continued proactive inspections and new training requirements, I’m hopeful construction-related injuries will become as rare as a vacant lot in Midtown.”

“Ensuring workers on construction sites are operating in a safe environment is a citywide commitment,” said Deputy Mayor Laura Anglin. “Since the DOB launched its new Construction Safety Compliance Unit, we’ve seen significant decreases in injuries while maintaining continued growth in construction across the city. We must continue to build off this year’s success so that all construction workers can get home safely to their families.”

“Injuries are down even as the city’s construction boom continues, which is welcome news for workers and their families -- and a sign that our focus on proactive enforcement and safety training requirements are having a real impact. Our commitment to workers is simple: everyone who leaves for the job site in the morning deserves to come home safely at night. We are going to keep up the pressure to drive these numbers down further and make safety the highest priority on every construction site,” said Buildings Commissioner Melanie E. La Rocca.

Injuries on construction sites decreased from 657 in the first ten months of 2018 to 483 through October of this year, a decline of 26.5 percent. DOB issued 16,322 permits for major construction projects from January through October 2018, versus 16,291 such projects permitted in the same period of time in 2019. (Major projects are new buildings, major alterations of existing buildings, and demolitions.)

The decrease in injuries comes after the launch of DOB’s Construction Safety Compliance (CSC) Unit, dedicated to conducting proactive, unannounced inspections of major construction sites citywide. The improvement also coincides with the implementation of Local Law 196 of 2017, which requires safety training for workers at New York City’s larger construction sites. CSC is in the process of inspecting roughly 6,000 sites to enforce the law and check whether construction workers have the required training.

In September 2018, DOB dissolved its longtime Buildings Enforcement Safety Team (BEST) and divided BEST’s responsibilities between two new units: the Construction Safety Enforcement Unit, which focuses on emergency response and other functions; and CSC, which focuses on proactive inspections of major construction sites, where workers are at the highest risk of injury. The latter unit also specializes in approving and inspecting site-safety plans and demolition applications.

CSC currently has 38 inspectors and 10 trainees and will have as many as 53 inspectors.

Since the unit’s inception in September 2018, CSC personnel have conducted 20,166 proactive inspections at 10,256 construction sites, issuing 2,523 stop-work orders and 11,484 OATH summonses, which carry penalties of nearly $15 million for safety lapses on job sites in the five boroughs.