First aid kitApril 23rd was Construction Safety Day. Did you take a moment to review your safety policies and tool box talks about safety? If you didn’t, perhaps you should.

Melissa Brumback, my friend and author of the excellent Construction Law in North Carolina blog, recently reminded her readers that falls are the #1 source of construction-site fatalities, followed by falling objects, electrocution and being caught between two objects. Together these make up 57% of all construction worker deaths.

But, what are your safety obligations? Sure, you have OSHA obligations and perhaps some state law based safety obligations. But, chances are that you also have safety obligations contained in your construction contracts. These obligations may incorporate state and federal law, but they may also include obligations to comply with an upstream contractor’s safety plan. Do you know what that plan requires? Have you even seen the plan?

Construction Safety Day has passed, but your safety obligations have not. Now is a good time to review your safety plan and your contracts to learn the extent of your safety obligations.