A 22-year-old construction worker lost his life after an on-site accident involving a long cable and a pickup truck.
According to a report from the New York Post, Arthur Oldakowski was one of three construction workers on a job in Long Island’s Port Jefferson Station in August of 2019. They had reportedly placed a guide cable on the road along North Bicycle Path and planned to later lift the wire up into the air, above the street. They never got the chance.
As a pickup truck drove over the site, the guide cable caught on its undercarriage. The vehicle continued forward, pulling the wire tight. The three workers became entangled in the cable and were dragged forward by the moving truck, which then overturned.
Oldakowski, of Maspeth, was taken to the hospital but died from his injuries. One of his fellow construction workers, a 50-year-old, went to the hospital in critical condition but survived. Another, 23 years old, suffered just minor injuries.
One of the ‘fatal four’ causes of deadly accidents
The potential for danger is everywhere on a construction site, but certain types of deadly accidents tend to happen more often than others. According to statistics from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), being caught in or between equipment and objects is one of the “fatal four” causes of construction worker deaths.
Of the 971 construction deaths in fiscal year 2017, 50 were attributed to being caught in or between something. That’s about 5% of construction deaths that year. Falls, being struck by an object and electrocutions are the other “fatal four” causes.
This tragic Long Island accident, in which a young man died, is another sobering reminder of the risks construction workers face. When incidents do occur, victims and their loved ones may have legal options to pursue compensation, a possibility an experienced construction accidents attorney can help evaluate.
