<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1wJqQ9_1H3Q44rD00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1wJqQ9_1H3Q44rD00" width="1200" height="876" ><figcaption>Paramedics roll someone away on a stretcher during rescue operations at a Flatbush building that collapsed Wednesday. Photo by Lloyd Mitchell</figcaption></figure>As questions arise about how work by subcontractors and developers on an adjacent construction site may have led to the deadly building collapse in Flatbush Wednesday, attorneys and workers’ rights advocates say the situation demonstrates the importance of state laws designed to protect construction staff on the job.At least eight people are dead and 23 injured after a three-story brick apartment building at 1321 Flatbush Avenue suddenly collapsed around 4 p.m. Wednesday, according to city officials. Rescue and recovery efforts ended late Thursday.Two of those dead and a handful of those injured include construction workers who were working on the construction site at 2625 Bedford Avenue adjacent to the collapsed building. They were excavating the lot to build a foundation for a planned apartment complex of at least three stories. A one-story commercial building on the site was demolished earlier this year.Those workers will likely have the ability to seek recourse by filing a claim through New York State’s Scaffold Law, a statute oft protested by contractors and health insurance companies, which holds contractors and property owners fully responsible for a variety of scaffolding- and certain construction-related accidents like falls, demolition work, and structural collapse when proper precautions weren’t taken.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2PGIqa_1H3Q44rD00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2PGIqa_1H3Q44rD00" width="1024" height="683" ><figcaption>The building in 2021. Photo by Nicholas Strini for PropertyShark</figcaption></figure>That means injured workers don’t have to take time to prove an employer was negligent or at fault, allowing them to have a clear and direct path to obtaining compensation for those types of accidents. That’s critical in protecting those workers and discouraging the people employing them from taking their safety lightly, said Charlene Obernauer, executive director of construction worker advocacy group NYCOSH.“This tragedy is painting the picture for why we have protective laws like the Scaffold Law,” Obernauer said. “There is something really important to note about demolition and any kind of work like this. When you remove walls, when you remove floors, when you remove supports, there’s all kinds of things that can go wrong. Because of that we have to make sure that there’s proper protection for workers.”If the contractors and health insurance companies putting up a fight against the law in Albany got their way, however, the workers injured in this collapse may not have as clear a path to recovering compensation for their injuries, Obernauer said. She said situations like this demonstrate the importance of upholding the law and pushing back against those critics so that contractors aren’t further incentivized to cut corners.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3pB8y0_1H3Q44rD00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3pB8y0_1H3Q44rD00" width="900" height="600" ><figcaption>The building collapse on November 11, 2026. Photo by Lloyd Mitchell</figcaption></figure>“We just had a major mass casualty event,” Obernauer said. “We have to make sure that the workers who tragically lost their lives have the ability to get justice in this case.”Wednesday’s building collapse is the deadliest construction-related accident since 9/11, Obernauer said.A city-led investigation to determine the cause of the collapse is under way. It appears that the three-story building fell because it crumbled into the adjacent excavation pit workers were digging.A complaint filed with the DOB Wednesday after the collapse asks if a subcontractor involved in the excavation of the Bedford Avenue property may have not followed the correct sequence of SOE, or support of excavation, procedures outlined in the project’s engineering documents. The documents describe bracing and shoring of adjacent properties to prevent them from collapsing into a pit as it is being dug. It is unclear who the party filing the complaint is, but it is attached to a 311 complaint number.“I believe the collapse may have been preventable,” the complaint states. “My concern is that the subcontractor may have excavated too much of the area along the neighboring foundation at once. At the stepped footings, the excavation should have progressed in short sections, in the sequence shown on the approved SOE drawings, to limit how much of the adjacent foundation was exposed at any one time.”Department of Buildings records suggest the developers and subcontractors behind the Bedford Avenue construction job may have been cutting corners on the project for months.Demolition company and contractor N Tech Design of America was hit with a violation that carried a $10,000 fine after unlawfully working through a stop work order in April and another violation that carried a $2,500 fine in March because it started demolition at the Bedford Avenue property without installing proper overhead protections for the adjacent properties.Both violations appear to have been cleared before Wednesday’s collapse, but attorneys amNewYork spoke with said they demonstrated a “character” of negligence.Owners, developers, and subcontractors attached to the project and contacted for comment by amNewYork did not respond.In addition to Scaffold Law complaints, injured workers and the families of those who were killed are likely to have civil negligence claims and criminal complaints against the property owner, developer, contractor, subcontractors and possibly even the city and Department of Buildings – just like members of the public and residents of the collapsed Flatbush Avenue building, attorneys said.“It’s pretty clear that the prime targets are gonna be the owner of the construction project and the contractors and subcontractors performing the work. Buildings just don’t crumble over,” said Jonathan Grippo, a construction liability attorney at Benesch Law. “I think people are going to lawyer up pretty quick.”The city said Thursday it is investigating 100 other construction projects connected to any of the same parties.Editor’s note: A version of this story originally ran in amNY. Click here to see the original story.Email tips@brownstoner.com with further comments, questions or tips. Follow Brownstoner on X and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.</div></body>

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As questions arise about how work by subcontractors and developers on an adjacent construction site may have led to the deadly building collapse in Flatbush Wednesday, attorneys and workers’ rights advocates say the situation demonstrates the importance of state laws designed to protect construction staff on the job. At...

DOB Complaint Asks If Flatbush Collapse-Site Construction Followed Correct Process

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As questions arise about how work by subcontractors and developers on an adjacent construction site may have led to the deadly building collapse in Flatbus

DOB Complaint Asks If Flatbush Collapse-Site Construction Followed Correct Process

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