Denver Accident Attorneys for Injured Construction Workers
Serving Injured Workers in Colorado
Injured while working in a construction zone?
Our construction injury lawyers specialize in representing workers suffering from work-related injuries that occur on the jobsite.
Construction sites are a common sight in Colorado, especially along the Front Range. Cranes and scaffolding have become a staple of the skyline in booming cities like Denver, Colorado Springs, Pueblo and Fort Collins. While this development is good for the local economy, it has a dark side: the sharp rise in construction site accidents, often leading to catastrophic injuries that require workers’ comp coverage to support affected workers and their families.
Unsurprisingly, construction workers are at the highest risk of getting hurt or killed on construction sites. In fact, the construction industry has one of the highest occupational injury and fatality rates of any industry. In 2019, about 1 in 5 worker deaths in private industry were in construction.
A thousand things can go wrong on a construction site, and adequate safety means more than just wearing a hard hat.
Our team has decades of experience representing injured construction workers in work injury claims across the state of Colorado. From Fort Collins to Denver to Colorado Springs to Pueblo, our workers’ compensation attorneys are prepared to look into your case and fight to secure the best possible outcome for you and your family.
We’ll always be there for you through the whole process. Every step of the way.
Denver Injury Attorney Mack Babcock
Founder of The Babcock Law Firm
Common Causes of Construction Accidents
Engineers, architects, contractors, managers and laborers are regularly exposed to dangerous equipment, machinery and risky situations on jobsites.
Construction site and work zone accidents commonly occur due to:
- Scaffold or ladder accidents (slip and fall)
- Defective machinery and heavy equipment
- Falling objects
- Road work zone accidents
- Failure to implant guardrails or safety nets
- Electrocutions
- Struck by object or caught in between injuries
- Structure or trench collapse
Car and truck accidents: a leading cause of construction site accidents
Construction sites and work zones can be incredibly dangerous, especially those that are roadside. When companies or individuals make mistakes in setting up road construction zones, both workers and motorists can be seriously injured. Depending on the situation, either government agencies or the construction company can be responsible for footing the bill.
Here are the most common examples of mistakes that can lead to motor vehicle accidents in a work zone:
Improper signage
In order to ensure that motorists are safe when traveling through roadside construction zones, there must be ample warning that a construction zone is approaching. Federal and state regulations require certain levels of signage that construction sites should use—for instance, where the signs should be placed and how many signs are needed.
If it can be proven that there was a failure to follow these laws which led to injuries, damage or death, then the fault may rest with the construction company or agency.
Sharp turns
Certain construction projects require motorists to change paths around or through the construction zone.
There are regulations in place to ensure that motorists make these turns at a safe speed and angle, yet construction accidents often happen when motorists are required to make dangerously sudden or sharp turns.
Unsafe pavement & road conditions
Uneven pavement is often an inevitable by-product of road construction and pavement improvements. However, failing to mark uneven pavement is potentially hazardous. Every state has its own construction regulations, but generally any ridge over a certain height must be properly marked so that motorists know to proceed with caution and reduce their speed.
There are also instances where road conditions can pose potential hazards to drivers even after construction has finished. If a recently “completed” road causes an accident, the road owner (generally the state) or construction company that worked on the road can be held responsible for the poor conditions caused by improper maintenance.
Construction Accident Liability and Workers’ Compensation
If you or a loved one were hurt on a construction site, it is crucial to seek help from a trustworthy and experienced Colorado workers’ compensation attorney immediately. The temporary and seasonal nature of employment, as well as the severity of injuries that are common in the construction industry, often complicates workers’ compensation claims.
What’s more, it’s often difficult to determine who is responsible for compensating the injured worker when multiple employers and contractors might be present in the same construction zone.
However, although determining which individual caused the accident is often extremely difficult in cases involving construction injuries, it is also completely irrelevant in a vast majority of cases. If a worker is injured on a jobsite, their employer is obligated to compensate them according to Colorado’s workers’ compensation laws—regardless of who is at fault. Exceptions to this rule are quite rare; however, independent contractors and certain other categories of workers may be exempt from Colorado workers’ compensation coverage. In the few cases where exceptions do apply, the worker might only lose a portion of their wage loss benefits.
Even though liability is generally not an issue in workers’ compensation cases, construction companies may still try to shirk their responsibility to provide fair compensation as required by the law. In such cases, injured workers often need an experienced and knowledgeable attorney who can hold construction companies accountable.
What Compensation is Available to Injured Construction Workers?
In most states, including Colorado, most employers are required to carry workers’ compensation insurance to provide monetary payments to employees who are injured in the course and scope of their job.
Typical workers’ compensation benefits for construction workers include:
- Medical expenses (including compensation for doctors’ appointments, therapy, medications, and surgeries)
- Travel expenses (for commuting to and from medical appointments)
- Wage loss benefits (also known as temporary disability benefits)
- Disfigurement benefits (such as scarring due to the injury or treatment)
- Permanent disability benefits (either partial or total)
- Vocational rehabilitation
- Death benefits
Third-Party Construction Accident Cases
While most construction workers are covered by workers’ compensation insurance that their company is legally obligated to provide—and therefore the injured worker is exempt from having to prove fault—sometimes challenging personal injury cases can arise from construction zone accidents that cause harm or damage to laborers, motorists and passersby.
For example, if a motorist or defective machinery is to blame for a construction worker’s injury or death, a third party such as the driver or manufacturer might be held liable for compensating the injured worker and their family.
Winning these types of lawsuits relies on the plaintiff being able to prove one of the following:
- Duty to keep the zone safe. For the most part, the duty to keep the construction zone safe lies with the construction company. But what actually constitutes a “safe” construction zone? There are 2 answers: First, all construction companies must follow federal and state regulations, and therefore failing to follow any of these requirements would be considered negligence. Second, if the conditions surrounding the construction zone are unfavorable, the company should take precautions that are above and beyond what is required of them.
- Breach of duty. Failing to uphold the duty to keep construction zones safe for both workers and motorists constitutes neglect. For instance, giving motorists enough warning (typically a quarter of a mile) about the construction ahead is one such legal obligation, and failing to do so is considered a breach of the duty of care and negligence. In this instance, a breach would hold the construction company liable.
- Breach leading to harm. For personal injury cases to be successful, the plaintiff must be able to provide evidence that the negligence of the defendant (i.e. the construction company, a manufacturer or a driver) led to their injury or harm. Common damages in construction zone car accidents include medical expenses, lost wages, property damage, loss of normal life, as well as emotional pain and suffering.
While establishing liability in personal injury cases is more complicated than in workers’ compensation claims, one of the benefits is that special damages may be available in these cases. For instance, injured construction workers may be able to seek compensation for pain and suffering and punitive damages which are not available in a workers’ compensation claim.
Talk to a Construction Accident Attorney Today for FREE
If you or a loved one were injured while working onsite in a construction area, then you should take the important step of consulting with a Colorado workers’ compensation lawyer as soon as possible to fully understand your rights. Attorney and firm founder R. Mack Babcock has extensive hands-on experience and a qualified track record for winning cases on behalf of construction workers throughout Colorado.
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Serving Injured Workers Throughout Colorado
From our office in Denver, we represent injured workers across the state—including in Colorado Springs, Littleton, Boulder, Aurora, Broomfield, Louisville, Lafayette, Lakewood, Golden, Thornton, Westminster, Longmont, Loveland, Fort Collins and many other Colorado cities.
