NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A1073
SPONSOR: Rosenthal L TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in
relation to the department of buildings keeping records regarding fatal
construction accidents
PURPOSE:
This bill requires the City of New York to keep a record of all deaths
that occur on construction sites, even if they do not involve violations
of the city's construction code.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section one amends section 28-103.21 of the administrative code of the
city of New York.
Section two amends section 28-103.14 of the administrative code of the
city of New York.
Section three sets forth the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
In 2015, the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) recorded 12
fatalities on construction sites. This number failed to account for
tragedies, such as a military veteran who fell down an elevator shaft, a
construction safety coordinator who was crushed by a crane, an ironwork-
er who fell from a ladder, or a truck driver who was caught in the
driveshaft of his concrete mixer. Under current rules, DOB only tallies
injuries and fatalities that involve violations of the city's
construction code or pose a threat to public safety. Deaths caused by
work-place-safety mistakes are not tallied unless they resulted from a
code violation or caused injury to a civilian.
This bill will require that all construction site-related injuries or
fatalities must be recorded and retained for official public record with
DOB, including those where no violation or threat to public safety
existed. Death or serious injury of construction workers should not
uncounted.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2021-22: A.3038 - Referred to Labor
2019-20: A.1309 - Referred to Labor
2017-18: A.1160 - Referred to Labor
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None to the State.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
1073
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 13, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. L. ROSENTHAL -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Labor
AN ACT to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in
relation to the department of buildings keeping records regarding
fatal construction accidents
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The opening paragraph of section 28-103.21 of the adminis-
2 trative code of the city of New York, as amended by section 1 of part A
3 of local law number 126 of the city of New York for the year 2021, is
4 amended to read as follows:
5 The commissioner shall, on a monthly basis, post on the department's
6 website, in a machine-readable format, a list of every incident, includ-
7 ing those where no threat to public safety existed, reported to the
8 department in accordance with section 28-103.21.1 of this article, that
9 occurred on every construction site where construction work subject to
10 permitting by the commissioner resulted in (i) a fatality to any indi-
11 vidual, including a member of the general public or a construction work-
12 er, or (ii) an injury to any individual, including a member of the
13 general public or a construction worker, that requires transport by
14 emergency medical services or requires immediate emergency care at a
15 hospital or offsite medical clinic, regardless of whether such incident
16 involved a violation of this code or any other law or rule. Such list
17 shall identify, at a minimum, the following information for each inci-
18 dent that the department is required to report on pursuant to this
19 section:
20 § 2. Section 28-103.14 of the administrative code of the city of New
21 York, as amended by section 1 of part A of local law number 126 of the
22 city of New York for the year 2021, is amended to read as follows:
23 §28-103.14 Department records. The department shall keep official
24 records of applications received, permits and certificates issued, fees
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00979-01-3
A. 1073 2
1 collected, reports of inspections, every incident, including those where
2 no violation or threat to public safety existed, that occurred on every
3 construction site within the city of New York that resulted in a fatali-
4 ty, and notices and orders issued. Such records shall be retained in the
5 official records for the period required for retention of public
6 records.
7 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
