Boston Personal Injury Attorney Blog
September is a busy month for both personal injury and construction sites. Kids are back in school, road projects are racing to finish before winter, and workplaces are pushing to hit year-end targets. Unfortunately, that combination often translates into more serious injuries on job sites, in work zones, and on our roads. Below is our Massachusetts-focused roundup of what we’re seeing this month, plus practical guidance you can use today if you or a loved one has been hurt.
Why September matters for safety and claims
End-of-summer pressure can drive risky shortcuts: tighter schedules, stacked trades working shoulder-to-shoulder, and temporary scaffolding or shoring that isn’t inspected as often as it should be. Municipal paving and utility crews also create more lane shifts and detours, which increase the risk of rear-end and pedestrian crashes. Meanwhile, national enforcement campaigns that wrapped around Labor Day mean more police reports and arrest data coming out, which can be crucial evidence in drunk-driving and reckless-driving injury cases. Put simply, September is a moment to double-check safety on the front end and tighten your evidence plan on the back end if something goes wrong.
Construction and industrial incidents: what we’re watching
This month brought the kinds of construction hazards we see every fall: scaffold shifts and partial collapses, interior demo with falling materials, wall failures during remodels, and forklift or material-handling injuries in warehouses and light-industrial spaces. In our experience, those events tend to share common threads: incomplete pre-shift inspections, mis-sized or missing base plates and ties on scaffolds, hurried reconfiguration of staging, or lack of exclusion zones when walls or pallets are being moved. When multiple subs are on a fast schedule, communication gaps multiply. That’s where third-party liability often comes into play, beyond workers’ compensation; a general contractor, equipment lessor, or another subcontractor may be held responsible.
If you or a crew member is hurt on a site, assume evidence will be moved or disappear quickly. We recommend, as early as possible, that you or your counsel send preservation letters to the general contractor, property owner, and any equipment rental or scaffold companies. Ask that they retain incident reports, toolbox talk logs, daily job hazard analyses, subcontract agreements that show who controlled which work, and all relevant OSHA Form 300 logs. Photos of anchors, ties, base jacks, planks, guardrails, debris fields, and any failed hardware are especially valuable. Even if OSHA investigates, do not rely on a government file to capture everything you need for a civil case.
Pedestrians and school-zone risk
September also means more children and crossing guards on the streets. We observe a seasonal increase in crosswalk incidents, many of which involve left-turning drivers who fail to scan for pedestrians. In Massachusetts, drivers must yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk and exercise due care when approaching any person using a roadway or crossing. For families, the most crucial step after a serious crosswalk collision is to obtain video footage as quickly as possible. Ask nearby homeowners and businesses to preserve any camera footage they may have, and request city traffic camera footage if available. Witness names, vehicle plate numbers, and the precise location of skid marks or debris are crucial, as they help reconstruct speed and stopping distance.
Drunk and drug-impaired driving cases post-Labor Day
The national “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” campaign culminates around Labor Day each year. While that campaign is aimed at prevention, it also means many departments step up patrols and sobriety checkpoints in late August and early September—and they often publish enforcement statistics later in the month. If an impaired driver injures you, a criminal case against the motorist can help establish liability, but it isn’t the whole story. We are still investigating bar or restaurant service (dram shop liability), rideshare logs, employer vehicle use, and potential vehicle defect layers, including any failures in the steering or braking system.
Why product recalls matter in “ordinary” crashes
Work trucks and vans are involved in a significant number of severe injury cases, particularly in construction, delivery, and service trades. When there’s any hint of a steering, brake, or power-loss issue, we run the vehicle identification number (VIN) for open recalls and technical service bulletins. A recall can transform a simple two-vehicle collision into a product liability claim with additional defendants and increased insurance coverage. If you’re an injured victim, don’t rely on the at-fault driver to check their own VIN; your legal team should do it independently and move to preserve the vehicle for inspection before it’s repaired or scrapped.
OSHA enforcement priorities you’ll hear more about
Nationally, OSHA has kept a spotlight on fall protection, trenching and excavation, machine guarding, and struck-by hazards, exactly the categories that drive catastrophic injuries. In Massachusetts, roofing contractors, demo crews, and site-prep firms remain frequent inspection targets. If you’re a worker who’s been hurt, remember that an OSHA citation can help illustrate safety lapses, but it is not required to win your civil case, and a lack of a citation doesn’t doom a claim. What matters most is documenting what actually happened, who retained control over the work and safety program, and how the hazard should have been mitigated in accordance with industry standards.
What to do right now if you’ve been injured on a site or the road
We know the first hours after a serious injury are chaotic. Here’s a simple, Massachusetts-focused checklist you can act on:
- Seek medical care immediately and describe all symptoms, not just the most obvious ones. Concussion or internal injuries often surface after the adrenaline wears off.
- Photograph the scene from multiple angles. For construction incidents, capture scaffold bases, anchors, fall-protection tie-off points, debris patterns, equipment labels, and any warning signage (or lack thereof). For vehicle crashes, capture damage profiles, road markings, skid distances, and any temporary construction signage or lane shifts.
- Collect names and roles. On job sites, note the general contractor, site safety coordinator, and each subcontractor assigned to the task. On the road, capture witness statements, police report numbers, and, when safe, ask nearby businesses to preserve video footage.
- Preserve physical evidence. Keep damaged PPE, hard hats, harnesses, broken lanyards, and tools. For vehicles, do not repair or dispose of the car or truck until your attorney advises—it may hold event-data-recorder information and defect evidence.
- Notify your insurer(s), but be cautious about recorded statements before you speak with an attorney.
- Contact a Massachusetts injury lawyer to coordinate preservation letters, arrange site access, and schedule expert inspections.
How Massachusetts law frames your claim
- Statute of limitations: Most Massachusetts personal injury claims must be filed within three years of the injury, and wrongful-death claims generally within three years of the date of death (or discovery of the cause). Don’t wait, key evidence can vanish long before any deadline.
- Comparative negligence: Massachusetts follows a modified comparative negligence rule with a 51 percent bar. You can recover damages if you are not more at fault than the defendant; your percentage of fault reduces your recovery. This is critical in construction and pedestrian cases, where defense lawyers argue that you “should have seen” a hazard; thorough documentation counters that narrative.
- Workers’ compensation vs. third-party claims: If you’re injured at work, you typically receive workers’ compensation regardless of fault. But when a general contractor, property owner, manufacturer, or another subcontractor contributes to your injury, you may also bring a civil claim against those third parties. That’s where full compensation for pain and suffering, loss of function, and other damages is possible.
- Auto claims and PIP: Massachusetts is a no-fault state for auto insurance. Personal Injury Protection (PIP) typically covers up to $8,000 in medical bills and a portion of lost wages regardless of fault. To pursue pain-and-suffering damages against the at-fault driver, you generally need at least $2,000 in reasonable medical expenses or a qualifying serious injury. We analyze your coverage stack, including PIP, MedPay, bodily injury, and underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage, and pursue every available dollar.
Building a stronger case: what we do differently
At Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers, we don’t just collect records and send demand letters. We move quickly to lock down the facts:
- Rapid preservation: We send spoliation letters to owners, GCs, subs, and equipment vendors; for vehicle cases, we request that vehicles be secured for inspection and that event-data-recorder downloads be paused until experts are retained.
- On-site investigation: When warranted, we coordinate site visits with safety and engineering experts to document tie-off points, guardrail compliance, base-plate and anchor conditions, trench protection, machine guarding, and lockout/tagout procedures.
- Contract and control analysis: We obtain and analyze contract chains, safety manuals, and job hazard analyses to determine who had the authority—and duty—to prevent the hazard.
- Medical and life-care planning: We work with treating physicians and independent experts to map your recovery, future care, and functional limitations, which drives fair valuation.
- Insurance and coverage strategy: We examine every policy layer, CGL, excess/umbrella, employer liability, product liability, municipal coverage, rideshare endorsements, and UIM, to ensure we don’t leave money on the table.
Common questions we’re getting this month
“OSHA is investigating. Shouldn’t I wait for their results?”
No. OSHA’s process can take months, and its file may not address every civil liability issue. Start your own preservation and investigation immediately.
“The driver who hit me might have been drunk. Does a criminal case change my civil claim?”
A criminal OUI case can strengthen liability, but your compensation still depends on the civil case. We build both in parallel and pursue evidence of overservice or negligent entrustment where appropriate.
“I think a vehicle defect contributed to my crash. How do I prove it?”
Don’t release or repair the vehicle. We bring in forensic engineers, check recall and service campaigns, and compare your vehicle’s behavior to known defect patterns.
“My boss says workers’ comp is my only remedy.”
Workers’ comp is one remedy, but not the only one. If a third party, like a GC, property owner, or equipment maker, played a role, we can pursue a separate civil claim for full damages.
If you need help today
Whether your case involves a scaffold failure, a pedestrian crosswalk collision, a work-zone crash, or a suspected vehicle defect, we’re ready to act now. The sooner we move, the more likely it is that video, contracts, and physical evidence can be preserved. Preserved evidence is the backbone of a strong recovery.
Contact Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers at (617) 777-7777 or visit our website to schedule a free, confidential consultation. We serve clients throughout Massachusetts, and we’re here to make sure you’re not left to navigate this alone.