Houston Crane Accident Lawyer

Legal Help After a Serious Crane Accident

Cranes are essential to Houston's construction and industrial economy, but a collapse, dropped load, equipment failure, or other crane incident can cause catastrophic injuries in seconds. Workers, contractors, site visitors, and others near crane operations may face significant medical treatment, lost income, and long-term effects after an accident.

At The Law Offices of Jed Silverman, our attorneys represent people injured in crane accidents and families pursuing wrongful death claims after fatal incidents. We investigate how the accident occurred, which companies controlled the equipment and worksite, and whether another party may be legally responsible.

Attorney Tom Rowatt, Of Counsel, is Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Our firm handles serious injury cases with a focus on careful investigation, direct attorney involvement, and preparation for litigation when necessary.

Who May Be Responsible for a Crane Accident?

Crane accidents can involve several companies, contractors, and equipment providers. Determining who owned, operated, maintained, assembled, or controlled the crane and job site is an important part of evaluating a potential claim.

Depending on the circumstances, potentially responsible parties may include:

• Crane operators and their employers: Operator decisions, training, supervision, and the relationship between the operator and other companies involved in the project may be relevant to determining responsibility.
• General contractors and construction companies: Responsibility may depend on which company controlled the work, site safety, crane operations, or the conditions that contributed to the accident.
• Crane manufacturers: A manufacturer may potentially be responsible when a defective component, design, or other product issue contributed to an equipment failure.
• Subcontractors, rigging companies, and maintenance providers: Companies involved in assembly, rigging, inspection, repair, or maintenance may also need to be investigated.

Construction projects often involve multiple businesses with different contractual and safety responsibilities. Our attorneys examine those relationships to determine whether a third-party claim may exist in addition to any workers' compensation or employer-based benefits.

Common Factors in Crane Accidents

Crane incidents can result from failures involving equipment, site conditions, lift planning, maintenance, rigging, communication, or operation.

Potential contributing factors include:

• Loads that exceed equipment limitations
• Improper or defective rigging
• Equipment or component failures
• Inadequate inspection or maintenance
• Unstable or unsuitable ground conditions
• Contact with overhead power lines
• Problems during crane assembly or disassembly
• Inadequate operator training or supervision
• Failures in communication between operators, riggers, signal persons, and site personnel

OSHA's Cranes and Derricks in Construction standards address areas such as operator training and certification, ground conditions, inspections, assembly and disassembly, power-line safety, and other aspects of crane operation.

Whether applicable safety requirements were followed may be relevant when investigating how an accident occurred and which individuals or companies had responsibility for the work.

Your Legal Options After a Houston Crane Accident

The legal options available after a crane accident depend in part on your relationship to the job site, your employer's workers' compensation status, and whether another company or individual contributed to the accident.

Texas private employers generally may choose whether to provide workers' compensation insurance. Employers that do not provide Texas workers' compensation coverage are known as non-subscribers. An employee injured while working for a non-subscribing employer may have different legal options depending on the circumstances.

Even when workers' compensation applies, a separate third-party claim may be available if someone other than the employer contributed to the accident. Potential defendants could include contractors, subcontractors, equipment owners, maintenance companies, manufacturers, or other businesses involved in crane operations.

For applicable Texas personal injury claims, proportionate responsibility can also affect recovery. A claimant generally cannot recover damages under Texas Chapter 33 if the claimant is found more than 50 percent responsible for the harm.

Personal injury lawsuits in Texas are also generally subject to a two-year statute of limitations, although exceptions and different deadlines can apply. Speaking with an attorney early can help clarify which deadlines apply and allow important evidence to be identified before it becomes more difficult to obtain.

How We Investigate Crane Accident Claims

Crane accident cases can involve technical evidence and multiple companies. We begin by identifying who owned the crane, who operated it, who controlled the worksite, and which companies were responsible for inspection, maintenance, rigging, supervision, and safety.

Depending on the case, relevant evidence may include:

• Incident and accident reports
• Crane inspection and maintenance records
• Equipment manuals and load information
• Lift plans and job-site safety procedures
• Photographs and video of the scene
• Witness statements
• Training and certification records
• Contracts between contractors and subcontractors
• OSHA findings or other investigative materials when available
• Medical records documenting the injuries and treatment

The purpose of the investigation is to determine how the accident occurred, identify potentially responsible parties, and document the financial and personal effects of the injury.

Damages in a personal injury claim may include medical expenses, lost income or earning capacity, and other losses recognized under Texas law, depending on the circumstances of the case.

Crane Accidents, Workers' Compensation & Third-Party Claims

A crane injury that happens at work does not necessarily involve only one legal system.

An injured worker may have workers' compensation benefits or another employer-based claim while also having a potential case against a third party that contributed to the accident.

For example, a worker employed by one subcontractor could be injured because of equipment owned or maintained by another company. A defective crane component could also raise questions about product liability in addition to workplace issues.

Our Houston work accident attorneys evaluate how the companies involved in a project relate to one another and which legal options may apply to the injured worker.

Families who lose a loved one in a crane incident may also have a potential wrongful death claim, depending on the circumstances.

Direct Attorney Involvement in Your Case

When you contact The Law Offices of Jed Silverman, you can speak directly with an attorney about what happened and the legal questions you are facing.

We evaluate each case based on the specific accident, the companies involved, the available evidence, and the effects of the injuries rather than assuming that every construction accident follows the same path.

Our attorneys can communicate with insurers and opposing parties, gather available records, investigate potential sources of liability, and prepare the case for negotiation or litigation when appropriate.

If you are a worker or supervisor facing a criminal investigation rather than seeking compensation for an injury, our firm also handles criminal matters arising from industrial and workplace incidents. Those matters are evaluated separately based on the circumstances and any potential conflicts.

Talk to a Crane Accident Lawyer in Houston Today

If you were injured in a crane accident or lost a family member on a Houston job site, don’t wait to understand your options. The two-year filing deadline applies even when the facts seem straightforward, and early investigation can help preserve evidence that can disappear quickly at a construction site.

Consultations for personal injury cases are free, and we handle these claims on a contingency fee basis. You pay no attorney fees unless we recover compensation on your behalf.