New York Building Collapse Lawyer Serving NYC and the Hudson Valley
Helping Victims Injured in Building Collapses
Buildings should not collapse on their own. It is an odd and obvious thing to say, but portions of buildings and sometimes entire structures collapse around New York much more frequently than many people realize. Designing and building a structure is a complicated affair, but we trust in our architects, engineers, developers, and construction workers to get the job done and to build structures that are safe for people to occupy. Even a slight mistake or rounding error can have catastrophic consequences. When buildings collapse, people get hurt.
If you or someone you care about has been injured in a building collapse on a construction site or any other location around New York, you have the right to recover compensation from the responsible parties. The building collapse injury attorneys at Dupée & Monroe, P.C. in Goshen fight for the rights of injured pedestrians, construction workers, office workers, and any other victims injured when a staircase, floor, elevator, ceiling, escalator, or entire building collapses.
What Causes a Building to Collapse?
Buildings collapse during construction or even after completion for a variety of reasons. When a building collapses unexpectedly, it is almost certainly the result of someone’s negligence somewhere along the line of design, construction, or maintenance. While any number of factors may have contributed to the collapse, some of the more common contributing factors to building collapse in New York include:
- Bad building design by engineers and/or architects
- Failure to maintain building infrastructure
- Use of low-quality, cheap, or ineffective building materials
- Failure to follow design or construction regulations
- Failure to take proper precautions during construction, remodeling, or demolition
- Too much weight inside a building structure, or failure to account for the ultimate weight of the contents of a building
- Errors by construction workers and contractors
- Defective roofing or failure to properly install roofing, decks, or floors
- Failure to undergo proper strength tests during construction
- Failure to properly protect against natural disasters, including floods, storms, fires, earthquakes, or hurricanes
Buildings collapse because of a lack of structural integrity. It is the responsibility of every person involved in the design, construction, or maintenance of a building to ensure that it is safe for human occupation. If you or someone you care about were hurt in a building collapse, you need a savvy and zealous personal injury lawyer on your side to conduct a full, thorough investigation of the circumstances surrounding the collapse to determine what happened, what caused the collapse, and who is at fault.
Who is Liable for a New York Building Collapse?
When a building collapses, someone is at fault. Depending on the reasons for the collapse, one or more different parties involved in the construction, design, operation, or maintenance of the building may be liable. Any parties whose negligence contributed to the collapse are potentially liable for the damage resulting from the incident.
At Dupée & Monroe, we represent accident victims for claims brought against responsible parties including:
- Engineers and architects. When a building collapses because of a fundamental design flaw, the engineers and architects are to blame.
- General contractors. General contractors are responsible for overseeing the entire construction of a building. If they fail in any given operation, important structural fixtures can collapse, causing severe injury.
- Property owners and managers. Property owners and operators are responsible for keeping their visitors and guests safe. If owners fail to provide reasonable safety precautions for guests, they could be liable for structural collapses.
- Subcontractors might be brought in to handle specific jobs, such as installing windows, ceilings, flooring, or other important construction tasks. They are responsible for following the design of the architects and the instructions of the general contractors. If they use shoddy materials or otherwise cut corners, a serious accident can occur.
- Demolition companies. Demolition companies have an extremely dangerous job: Take down a building without hurting anyone in the process. If they do not employ and adhere to strict safety measures, people can get hurt.
- Suppliers of materials and equipment. Sometimes a general contractor will do everything right but structural collapses can still occur. The contractor may have been using defective materials but have had no way of knowing. Suppliers of materials or equipment are liable for damage that results when the use of their materials leads to a serious incident.
Get Dedicated Help from Passionate New York Building Collapse Accident Attorneys
If you or someone you love has been injured by a structural collapse in Goshen, Orange County or anywhere in the Hudson Valley or New York City, contact Dupée & Monroe, P.C. to speak with knowledgeable New York construction accident lawyers who can help you.
