Some Long Island builders and contractors are blaming the rising costs of new construction not only on the escalating costs of steel and concrete but on the soaring price of commercial insurance. They place blame on what they contend is a growing number of construction workers recruited and trained to stage fake construction accidents for big insurance payouts. These staged —and often unwitnessed — accidents are designed to exploit a 140-year-old law exclusive to New York that places the blame squarely on owners and contractors in the event of construction site falls. The law gives contractors and commercial property owners virtually no legal defense in the event of an accident, even in cases of worker negligence, so each fall can quickly blossom into expensive legal fees, medical bills and cash payouts to the alleged victim.  “It impacts whether you’re building a school, a hospital, a commercial building,” Michael Florio, chief executive of Long Island Builders Institute, a nonprofit trade association, said of the so-called Scaffold Law.

While many of the expenses are incurred byprivate construction firms and their clients, New York taxpayers also are paying an estimated $785 million annually in costs that trickle down frompubliclyfundedprojects,including school construction, bridge and rail projects, according to the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, an Albany think tank. For example, Willis of New York,which provides insurance and risk management services to the construction industry, said the Scaffold Law added $200 million-$400 million in additional insurance costs to one of its projects — the reconstruction of the structure now known as the Governor Mario M.CuomoBridge that was completed over the Hudson River in 2018.