If you were hurt in a crane accident on a construction site, a NYC crane accident lawyer can help you hold the responsible parties accountable and recover for what the accident cost you. Crane accidents are among the most catastrophic events in construction, and when a collapse, a dropped load, or a boom failure injures a worker or a bystander, the law lets you recover.
These cases are unlike any other kind of site case. A crane involves a licensed operator, a rigging crew, a lift plan, a maintenance history, a manufacturer, and a permit, and every one of those is a place where the case can be won. Korman Lynch Lustig & Sassower handles crane accident cases and moves quickly to secure the proof, because the equipment gets repaired, moved, or scrapped while the injured person is still in the hospital. Below are straight answers to the questions injured people ask our crane accident attorneys most.
Call us at (212) 732-4992 24/7 to arrange to speak with a personal injury lawyer about your case, or contact us through our website today.
You likely have a case if a crane accident hurt you because of a mechanical failure, an operator's mistake, a rigging error, or an unsafe setup. Like other construction accident claims, workers do not have to prove their employer was at fault, and bystanders struck by a crane have their own claim. You also do not have to know what went wrong mechanically. That is what the investigation is for. Our crane accident lawyers review what happened at no cost.
Most crane accidents trace back to a failure that should have been prevented, and they fall into a few recurring patterns.
Cranes overturn when they are set on unstable ground, when outriggers are not fully deployed or are set on inadequate cribbing, when the load exceeds the chart for that radius, or when a tower crane is climbed, jumped, or tied into the building improperly. Setting a crane beside an open excavation adds another failure point, which is why these cases sometimes overlap with trench and excavation work.
Loads come down when slings, chokers, shackles, or hooks are the wrong size or worn out, when the load is not balanced, when a tag line is not used, or when material is carried over an area that was never cleared of people. A dropped load is also a falling object case, and both routes are worth pleading.
Wire rope that was not inspected, brakes and hoist mechanisms that were not serviced, hydraulic failures, and structural cracks in a boom or jib turn a routine lift into a catastrophe. These are the cases where the maintenance records and the manufacturer matter most.
A boom or cable that touches an energized line electrocutes the operator, the rigger, and anyone touching the load or the machine. Required clearances, spotters, and de-energizing the line are the protections that get skipped. These claims often run alongside electrical injury claims, and they hit electricians hardest, including Local 3 members working near a lift.
Erecting, climbing, and taking down a crane is the most dangerous phase of its life, and it is when parts, counterweights, and sections fall. Cranes also carry wind limits, and a machine that is not weathervaned or secured between shifts becomes a hazard to the whole block during a storm.
Blind lifts without a signal person, swinging a load over occupied space, exceeding the load chart, and rushing a schedule are decisions, not accidents. In New York City, crane operators and riggers work under license and permit requirements, and a violation of those requirements is powerful evidence.
The machine changes the proof. Our crane accident lawyers handle cases involving tower cranes climbing alongside a rising building, mobile and crawler cranes lifting from the street, boom trucks and knuckle booms making deliveries, derricks and material hoists moving loads up the face of a building, personnel and material hoists at the perimeter, and mini cranes working inside occupied buildings. Related material handling equipment produces its own cases, including forklifts and lulls moving the same loads at ground level, and scaffolds and hoists erected in the crane's swing path.
Often several parties are responsible, and rarely just your employer. The crane owner, the crane operator, the rigging company, the general contractor, the construction manager, the property owner, the maker of a defective crane or component, the maintenance and repair contractor, and the third party inspector can all share the blame. Where the work is for the City, the MTA, a school authority, or another public agency, that agency belongs in the case too, and the deadline shortens sharply.
Sorting out who did what is the central work of a crane case. Each of these companies carries its own insurance, and crane work is written with high limits precisely because the losses are severe. Finding every policy is what makes a lifetime of care affordable rather than theoretical.
You have a claim too, and it is not limited by workers' compensation in any way. In New York City, crane collapses and dropped loads have injured and killed people on the street, in parked and occupied vehicles, and inside neighboring buildings. Bystanders can sue the crane owner, the operator's employer, the contractor, and the site owner directly, and their cases often move faster than a worker's because there is no compensation claim running alongside. Damage to a home or business from a collapse can be part of the claim as well.
Often, yes. Workers' compensation can pay part of your medical bills and lost wages no matter who was at fault, but it does not cover pain and suffering and it usually blocks a claim against your employer. Because crane accidents involve so many outside parties, there is almost always a strong separate case, and it is where the meaningful recovery comes from.
At the end of the case the compensation carrier is repaid part of what it spent on your treatment and benefits. That amount can be negotiated down, and doing so keeps more of the recovery with you and your family. Our crane accident lawyers pursue both claims and handle the lien as part of the case.
A serious crane accident triggers an official response that shapes everything that follows.
An injured person who waits for the agency reports to come out is starting from behind. Preservation demands and an independent examination of the crane and its parts need to go out while the machine still exists in the condition it was in.
Crane cases are won on documents and physical evidence rather than on memory. The material that matters includes the lift plan and load chart for the lift, the crane's permit and the operator's and rigger's licensing, daily and periodic inspection reports, annual and third party inspection certificates, maintenance and repair invoices, wire rope and rigging inspection records, the manufacturer's manuals and any service bulletins or recalls, the machine's own data recorder and load moment indicator readings where the crane has them, wind readings for the time of the lift, site and neighboring building video, radio traffic and signal arrangements, and the contracts that show which company controlled the lift. Buildings Department complaints, violations, and stop work orders on the site fill in what was known beforehand.
This is also why these cases need people who can read that record. Engineers, rigging and crane operations professionals, and metallurgists are routinely part of proving why the machine came down.
Get medical care first, then move to protect the evidence, which can disappear fast.
In most cases you have three years from the date of the accident to file a lawsuit, and two years in a death case. If a public entity is involved, you may have as little as ninety days to serve a formal notice first. Filing for workers' compensation does not protect your rights against the crane owner, the operator, or anyone else. Because the crane, its parts, and its inspection records can be moved, repaired, or lost, the real clock on the evidence runs much sooner than the legal deadline.
Crane accidents tend to cause the most serious injuries in construction. The ones our crane accident attorneys see most include traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries and paralysis, crush injuries, amputations, multiple fractures, electrical burns, internal injuries, and fatalities. A dropped load or a collapse can be catastrophic for anyone in its path.
Injuries at this level are rarely about a single hospital bill. They are about attendant care, home modification, repeat surgery, and a career that ends at thirty five, and the case has to be built to carry all of it.
When a crane accident is caused by a failure that should have been prevented, the compensation is meant to cover what it took from you. No lawyer can promise a number, but a claim can pursue:
Because a crane accident often injures several people at once, the order in which claims are made can matter when coverage is shared. That is another reason not to sit on the case.
Nothing upfront. Our crane accident lawyers handle these cases on a contingency fee basis, which means you pay no attorney's fee unless there is a recovery for you. The first consultation is free and carries no obligation.
Korman Lynch Lustig & Sassower carries the case so you can focus on your recovery. Our crane accident lawyers:
Our crane accident lawyers prepare every case as if it will be tried, because that is what makes the responsible companies and their insurers take the claim seriously. A settlement on the right number is welcome. A settlement that shortchanges what the accident cost you is not one this firm accepts just because it comes early.
A crane accident case turns on evidence that can be moved or repaired within days, and on records that only come out when someone demands them. The sooner your case is built, the more of the proof survives. Contact Korman Lynch Lustig & Sassower for a free consultation about your NYC crane accident.
Call us at (212) 732-4992 24/7 to arrange to speak with a personal injury lawyer about your case, or contact us through our website today.
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