Falls from Heights on Texas Construction Sites: Liability, OSHA, and Your Rights

The Most Deadly Hazard on Any Texas Job Site

Falls from heights are the single leading cause of death among construction workers in the United States, and Texas sees more than its share. The San Antonio construction accident lawyers at Carabin Shaw have represented workers who fell from rooftops, ladders, scaffolds, and open floor edges, and the injuries in these cases are almost always catastrophic.

A fall of even ten feet can fracture vertebrae, shatter limbs, and cause traumatic brain injuries that alter a person’s life permanently. Falls from greater heights — and construction workers routinely work at thirty, fifty, or a hundred feet — are frequently fatal. These accidents are almost always preventable. OSHA has clear, specific requirements for fall protection, and when those requirements are followed, workers survive. When they are ignored, workers die or are permanently disabled.

Video Transcript

I’m Jamie Shaw with Carabin Shaw. Hurt at work in Texas? Your path depends on one thing — does your employer carry workers’ comp? Texas is unusual. Employers aren’t required to. If they have it, you file a comp claim. If they don’t — what’s called a non-subscriber — you may be able to sue them directly, sometimes for more. And if someone other than your employer caused your injury, a defective machine or a contractor, you may have a separate third-party claim. Most injured workers never learn they had options. Find out yours. Call Carabin Shaw in San Antonio. 210-222-2288.

OSHA Fall Protection Requirements That Employers Routinely Ignore

OSHA requires fall protection for any worker at a height of six feet or more on a construction site. That protection must take one of three forms: guardrail systems, safety net systems, or personal fall arrest systems. When a worker falls because none of these protections were in place, the employer’s failure is documented by the absence of equipment that should have been there.

Guardrail Failures

Open edges on floors, roofs, and elevated platforms must be protected by guardrails that meet specific height and strength requirements. Contractors frequently skip guardrails on temporary work areas or remove them to speed up material movement, leaving workers exposed to unprotected edges.

Ladder Safety Violations

Ladders must be secured at the top and bottom, extend at least three feet above the landing surface, and be positioned at the correct angle. Workers are injured every day on job sites where ladders are propped against surfaces without being secured, used at improper angles, or placed on unstable ground.

Roof Work Without Harnesses

Roofing work requires personal fall arrest systems when workers are at or above six feet. On residential construction sites across Texas, it is common to see workers on pitched roofs without harnesses because the contractor decided the harness setup took too much time. That decision, when it results in a fall, is negligence.

Who Bears Responsibility When a Worker Falls

Texas construction projects involve multiple parties, and liability for a fall injury is rarely limited to one employer. The general contractor is responsible for overall site safety, including ensuring that all subcontractors comply with OSHA fall protection standards. When a subcontractor’s employee falls because the general contractor failed to enforce safety rules, the general contractor can be held liable.

Property owners who maintain control over how work is performed on their property can also face liability. Equipment manufacturers whose defective harnesses, ladders, or guardrail components failed can be held responsible under Texas product liability law.

Workers’ Compensation Is Not the End of the Road

Texas is the only state in the country that does not require most private employers to carry workers’ compensation insurance. Employers who opt out — called non-subscribers — lose the legal protections that workers’ compensation normally provides, and injured workers can sue them directly for negligence without the limitations that apply in workers’ comp cases.

Even when workers’ compensation is available, it does not cover everything. It does not compensate for pain and suffering, and it caps lost wage benefits at a fraction of actual earnings. When a third party contributed to the fall, a separate personal injury claim can recover the full measure of damages that workers’ compensation leaves on the table.

The Evidence That Wins Fall Cases

Fall cases turn on evidence, and evidence disappears quickly on construction sites. Photographs of the fall location before the site is cleaned up, witness statements taken before memories fade, OSHA inspection records, and the employer’s own safety logs are all critical. Carabin Shaw moves immediately to preserve this evidence when a client calls, sending investigators to the scene and issuing legal hold notices to prevent the destruction of records.

The firm works with OSHA compliance experts and accident reconstruction specialists who can establish exactly what fall protection was required, what was in place, and what the employer failed to provide. That expert testimony is often the difference between a case that settles for fair value and one that does not.

Call Carabin Shaw After a Construction Fall

If you fell on a Texas construction site and suffered serious injuries, you have the right to hold every responsible party accountable. The statute of limitations in Texas gives you two years from the date of the accident to file a personal injury claim, but the investigation needs to start now — before the evidence is gone.

Carabin Shaw takes construction fall cases on a contingency fee basis. There are no upfront costs, and no fees unless the firm recovers compensation for you. Call (800) 862-1260 any time, day or night, for a free consultation.