A 62-year-old man was hurt while doing renovation work at a commercial property. He was standing on top of a scaffold when it suddenly shifted beneath him. With nothing to stop the fall, he dropped about six feet down to the floor below. The scaffold should never have been used in that condition. It had no guardrails around or above the platform, leaving him without any protection from a fall. On top of that, one of the wheel brakes was missing, meaning the scaffold couldn’t be properly locked in place.
Without that brake, the scaffold was free to shift and move, which is exactly what caused him to fall. The injuries he suffered were severe. He sustained damage to his head, wrist, shoulder, hip, neck, and back. Two areas required fusion surgery: one to repair the damage in his neck, and a separate procedure to fix the damage in his lower back.
This case shows how missing safety equipment, like guardrails and wheel brakes, can lead to devastating injuries for workers just trying to do their jobs. We fought to hold the parties responsible accountable and to get him the compensation he needed for his long recovery.