At least 98 construction workers in the city have been killed since October 2001, most of them in mishaps involving violations of safety regulations or building codes. Some of the death and injury causes are when the floor buckles under the weight of freshly poured concrete and caves in; garage wall collapsed; no guard rails on the floor to protect falling; 800 pound girder struck an adjoining structure; 60-foot fall from a scaffold, no protection equipment issued; collapsed foundation wall; third floor balcony collapsed; none of the workers were wearing safety gear; scaffolding collapse; not hooked to safety rigs.At the heart of the problem is a cadre of well-known scofflaw developers and shady architects who abuse the Building Department's flawed honor system, which allows them to self-certify their work for zoning and building code compliance. According to the Mayor's Management Report, 43 percent of all building plans in fiscal 2005 were self-certified. Of those, only 18 percent were audited. And of those audited, 16 percent had permits revoked.
Because the vast majority of mishaps occur on nonunion jobs involving immigrant laborers, numerous additional cases are believed to go unreported. When a union guy is injured, reports are filed but when they are illegal aliens, the boss tells them if it still hurts in the morning go to the hospital and tell them you tripped and fell.
