Remember how your kid-eyes used to gawk at job sites?
Well, probably most of us still feel like kids when we see a big pile of dirt, a huge hole in the ground or a big muddy piece of equipment. The allure of the jobsite is great. Construction sites excite a certain spark of imagination and intrigue inside us that is hard to resist. And don't even get me started when it comes to demo work. A building implosion is one of the hardest construction spectacles to resist.
As adults we know the dangers of the construction site. You have to wear a hard hat to enter. You have to wear eye protection if you are working on the site. You read posted signs and see the orange plastic fencing that practically screams "Danger Here!" The powerful messages stating possible injury and the consequences for breaking trespassing laws are too great for us adults to throw caution to the wind and give in to the temptations.
But temptations often win out with children. They will duck under caution tape, climb over fences and do anything they can to scramble on that muddy front-end loader or climb to the top of the dirt pile to play king-of-the-mountain or run to the bottom of the trench to pretend they are submarines.
They may not know that the machine could move, the dirt pile could give way, and the trench could cave in. They may never have been told that playing on a job site is dangerous and even can be deadly.
And if it's your jobsite that attracts kids who become injured, you could be liable — even if it's only a small-scale remodel, a simple deck site excavated for footings or a framed-up addition in someone's back yard.
Liability for trespassers' injuries on construction sites vary slightly from state to state. Your insurance agent and lawyer can tell you the specifics on how your state handles what is referred to as an attractive nuisance: a potentially dangerous property or object that is so interesting that it can be expected to attract children to investigate or play.
