Construction Accidents

Houston never stops building. Cranes on the skyline downtown. Highway expansion projects stretching across the west side. High-rises going up in Midtown. Pipeline construction in the energy corridor. Residential developments pushing outward in every direction. This city's construction industry runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week — and it kills and maims workers at a rate that should outrage everyone.

I am Michelle Acosta, and I represent construction workers who have been seriously injured on the job. These cases are not simple workers' compensation claims. Most of the time, they involve third-party negligence — a general contractor who cut corners on safety, a property owner who ignored known hazards, an equipment manufacturer that sold defective machinery. I identify every responsible party and pursue full damages, not the limited benefits of a workers' comp claim.

I have won a $56 million verdict in Harris County. I prepare every construction accident case for trial because contractors and their insurance companies negotiate harder against these claims than almost any other category of personal injury. They know the damages are high, and they fight to avoid paying what they owe.

Houston's Construction Industry — Scale and Danger

Houston is one of the most active construction markets in the United States. The metro area consistently ranks in the top three for construction spending, building permits, and job growth in the sector. That activity spans every type of project:

• Downtown Houston — High-rise commercial and residential towers, including mixed-use developments that combine office, retail, and apartment space in structures exceeding 40 stories.
• Texas Medical Center — The largest medical complex in the world is in a perpetual state of expansion. Hospital construction, research facilities, and parking structures create one of the densest construction zones in the city.
• Energy Corridor — The I-10 west corridor between Beltway 8 and Highway 6 is home to major oil and gas companies with ongoing campus construction and renovation projects.
• Highway expansion — TxDOT projects including the I-45 North Houston Highway Improvement Project (NHHIP) and the I-10/I-69 interchange reconstruction employ thousands of workers in dangerous highway-adjacent conditions.
• Residential development — Subdivisions spreading into Katy, Cypress, Pearland, and League City keep residential construction crews working year-round in the Houston heat.
• Industrial and petrochemical — Refineries and chemical plants along the Houston Ship Channel undergo constant maintenance, turnaround, and expansion projects with specialized construction crews.

Every one of these project types carries distinct risks, and every one of them produces serious injuries when safety protocols are ignored.

OSHA Violations as Evidence of Negligence

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sets minimum safety standards for construction sites. When a contractor violates these standards, that violation is powerful evidence of negligence in a civil lawsuit. OSHA's "Fatal Four" — the four leading causes of death in construction — account for more than half of all construction fatalities nationwide:

Falls (29 CFR 1926.501). Fall protection is the most frequently cited OSHA violation in construction. The standard requires fall protection at heights of six feet or more on construction sites. This means guardrails, safety nets, or personal fall arrest systems. When a worker falls because the contractor failed to provide fall protection, that OSHA violation becomes evidence in your case.

Struck-by incidents. Workers struck by falling objects, swinging loads, vehicles, or rolling equipment. OSHA requires hard hats, barricades, flaggers, and proper rigging procedures. Violations of these standards cause preventable deaths every year in Houston.

Electrocutions. Contact with overhead power lines, exposed wiring, and improperly grounded equipment kills construction workers who were never warned about the hazard. OSHA 29 CFR 1926.405 and 1926.416 set standards for electrical safety that contractors routinely ignore.

Caught-in/between. Workers caught in trenches that collapse, between pieces of heavy equipment, or inside machinery that was not properly locked out. OSHA 29 CFR 1926.652 requires trench protective systems for excavations deeper than five feet. Contractors who skip shoring to save time and money put workers in graves.

Third-Party Claims — Who Is Responsible?

On a construction site, multiple companies work simultaneously. When you are injured, the question is not just "what happened" but "who was responsible for preventing it." Potential defendants in a construction accident case include:

• General contractor — The GC has overall responsibility for jobsite safety. Under OSHA's multi-employer citation policy, the GC can be cited for hazards created by subcontractors if the GC knew or should have known about the danger. In a civil case, the GC's failure to enforce safety standards is strong evidence of negligence.
• Property owner — The owner of the property where construction is occurring may be liable if they retained control over safety conditions, knew about hazards, or hired an unqualified contractor.
• Subcontractors — Other subcontractors on the site whose negligence contributed to your injury. If a framing crew left an unguarded floor opening and you fell through it, that framing contractor is liable — even if they are not your employer.
• Equipment manufacturers — Defective scaffolding, malfunctioning cranes, faulty power tools, and defective safety equipment. Product liability claims against manufacturers do not require proof of negligence — only that the product was defective and caused your injury.
• Architects and engineers — Design professionals whose plans created an unsafe condition or whose specifications were inadequate.

Texas Non-Subscriber Employers — Your Biggest Advantage

Here is something most construction workers do not know: approximately 25% of Texas employers opt out of the workers' compensation system. Texas is the only state that allows this. These employers are called "non-subscribers."

If your employer is a non-subscriber and you are injured on the job, you can sue your employer directly for negligence. Non-subscribers lose three critical defenses that would otherwise be available to them: contributory negligence (they cannot blame you), assumption of risk (they cannot argue you knew the job was dangerous), and the fellow-servant doctrine (they cannot blame a coworker). This dramatically tilts the playing field in your favor.

Workers' compensation, by contrast, limits your recovery to 70% of your average weekly wage (Temporary Income Benefits — TIBs) with a statutory maximum and does not compensate you for pain and suffering at all. For a serious construction injury, the difference between a workers' comp claim and a personal injury lawsuit can be hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars.

Even if your employer carries workers' comp, you can still file a third-party claim against any other entity whose negligence contributed to your injury — the GC, the property owner, a subcontractor, or an equipment manufacturer.

Construction Accident Injuries

Construction accidents produce some of the most severe injuries in personal injury law:

• Spinal cord injuries and paralysis — Falls from height are the leading cause of spinal cord injuries in construction. A fall from even 10 feet can cause permanent paralysis.
• Traumatic brain injuries — Struck-by incidents, falls, and explosions cause TBIs ranging from concussions to permanent cognitive impairment.
• Amputations — Unguarded machinery, power tools, and caught-in/between incidents cause traumatic amputations on construction sites every year.
• Severe burns — Electrical contact, gas explosions, chemical exposure, and welding accidents cause third-degree burns requiring extensive surgery and long-term treatment.
• Crush injuries — Trench collapses, equipment rollovers, and structural failures can crush limbs and torsos, causing internal organ damage and compartment syndrome.
• Fractures requiring surgical repair — Compound fractures, pelvic fractures, and spinal fractures that require hardware, fusion, or multiple reconstruction surgeries.

Common OSHA Safety Standard References

When I investigate a construction accident, I look at the specific OSHA standards that apply to the conditions that caused the injury:

• 29 CFR 1926.501-503 — Fall protection requirements, training, and fall protection systems
• 29 CFR 1926.451-454 — Scaffolding standards, including capacity, access, and fall protection on scaffolds
• 29 CFR 1926.652 — Excavation and trenching protective systems
• 29 CFR 1926.405, 1926.416 — Electrical safety, wiring, and equipment grounding
• 29 CFR 1926.550-556 — Crane and hoist safety, including operator qualifications and load limits
• 29 CFR 1926.1053 — Ladder safety standards
• 29 CFR 1910.147 — Lockout/tagout procedures for machinery maintenance

Each violation I identify becomes a piece of evidence that the contractor failed to meet the minimum safety standard the law required.

Why Michelle Acosta Law

I am a Gerry Spence Method trained trial lawyer. Super Lawyers Rising Star in 2025 and 2026. National Trial Lawyers Top 100 in Civil Litigation. Top 25 Motor Vehicle Trial Lawyers in Texas. Before opening my own firm, I served as General Counsel overseeing 1,800 employees across 15 states. I know how companies structure their defense, how they shift blame between subcontractors, and how they try to hide behind workers' comp to avoid full liability. I have sat on their side of the table. Now I fight for the other side.

I am bilingual — raised across Latin America and Asia, fluent in Spanish. A significant percentage of Houston's construction workforce is Hispanic, and many workers face language barriers when dealing with insurance companies and employers after an injury. I eliminate that barrier. You talk to me directly, in your language, about what happened and what you need.

If you were injured on a construction site in Houston, call me at (713) 933-3300 or request a free consultation. There is no fee unless we win your case.