Family sues NYC and contractors over construction worker’s fatal fall at Hudson Tunnel site
The widow and children of Jorge Sanchez Garcia have filed a wrongful-death suit in New York County Supreme Court against the city and multiple agencies linked to the Hudson Tunnel project, alleging unsafe conditions led to his fall.
A New York County Supreme Court lawsuit filed Monday accuses the city and several agencies overseeing the Hudson Tunnel project of negligence after Jorge Sanchez Garcia, a 52-year-old construction worker, fell at least 40 feet from a concrete wall at the Hudson Yards site last October, sustaining injuries that caused his death. The 20-page complaint, filed by his wife and four children, asserts that the worker was not protected by proper scaffolding, guardrails, safety lines, harnesses or other fall-arrest systems, and that unsafe conditions and practices contributed to the fatal accident.
Defendants named include New York City, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the Gateway Development Commission, Amtrak and the construction and management firms involved. The family seeks an undisclosed sum for wrongful death, negligence and labor-law violations. The city’s Law Department declined to comment, while the MTA deferred to the Gateway Development Commission, which, along with the Port Authority and Amtrak, did not immediately respond.
Why it matters
The case raises safety oversight issues for a major infrastructure project and could influence future construction regulations.
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