“Eman really knows his stuff and we were very pleased with our end result.”
Myretta & Thomas Knorr
✦ Board-Certified Specialist in Workers’ Compensation Law — State Bar of California ✦
Construction is California’s most dangerous industry. When you’re injured, experience matters.
By Eman Yazdchi, Esq. · Certified Specialist in Workers' Compensation Law
Construction work in Mojave is not residential framing or commercial build-outs. It is industrial construction at some of the most hazardous facilities in California — and it happens in extreme desert heat that makes every task more dangerous. At the Mojave Air and Space Port, construction crews build and retrofit test stands for rocket engines, erect hangars for experimental aircraft, and install specialized infrastructure for companies like Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites. Along the BNSF Railway corridor, construction workers lay track, maintain rail bridges, and build switching infrastructure. At the Rio Tinto Borax mine in Boron and the Golden Queen Mining operation, construction crews build haul roads, install conveyor systems, and maintain processing facilities.
This industrial construction work combines the standard "Fatal Four" hazards — falls, struck-by incidents, electrocution, and caught-in/between accidents — with facility-specific dangers including toxic chemical exposure, proximity to active rocket testing, railroad operations in the work zone, and mine blasting. Add summer temperatures that exceed 115 degrees Fahrenheit and you have a construction environment where serious injury is not a question of if, but when.
Attorney Eman Yazdchi, board-certified in workers' compensation law, represents Mojave construction workers injured at aerospace facilities, railroad infrastructure projects, and mine sites. We pursue every available avenue — workers' comp benefits, serious-and-willful misconduct penalties under LC section 4553, and third-party liability claims against general contractors, property owners, and equipment manufacturers — to ensure full compensation for injuries that happen in one of the most demanding construction environments in the state.
OSHA's four most lethal construction hazard categories account for more than 58% of construction worker fatalities nationwide. In Mojave, each category is amplified by the industrial setting and extreme climate:
Construction at the Mojave Air and Space Port involves work at height on test stand structures, hangar rooflines, and spacecraft assembly platforms. Railroad infrastructure construction requires working on elevated rail bridges and signal towers. Mine site construction includes conveyor system installation at significant heights. Cal/OSHA Title 8 sections 1669 through 1672 require fall protection at any height above 7.5 feet — and violations at Mojave industrial sites can constitute serious and willful misconduct under LC section 4553, increasing your workers' comp benefits by 50%.
Industrial construction in Mojave uses heavy lift cranes, boom lifts, excavators, and haul trucks that dwarf the equipment on standard commercial projects. At the Space Port, crane operations to position rocket test stands create overhead hazards. At mine sites, haul trucks with 200-ton capacities share roads with construction crew vehicles. Struck-by injuries from these industrial-scale operations are frequently catastrophic rather than merely serious.
Aerospace test facilities require high-voltage electrical systems for propulsion testing. Railroad infrastructure construction involves work near electrified signaling systems and high-tension power lines that run along the BNSF corridor. Wind farm construction along Oak Creek Road and the ridgelines north of Mojave requires working with high-voltage generator connections at turbine nacelle heights. Electrocution risks on Mojave construction sites exceed those on standard projects by a significant margin.
Conveyor installation and maintenance at the Borax mine creates entanglement and pinch-point hazards. Railroad track construction involves equipment that can trap workers between rails, ties, and ballast machines. Trench work for utility installation across Mojave's desert floor requires shoring or sloping under Cal/OSHA requirements — but subcontractors on fast-track industrial projects frequently skip these protections.
In Mojave, extreme heat functions as a fifth Fatal Four hazard for construction workers. Cal/OSHA section 3395 requires water, shade, and rest breaks when temperatures exceed 80 degrees. When temperatures reach 115 degrees on the Space Port tarmac or the mine site — and they do, regularly, from June through September — heat stroke becomes a life-threatening emergency. Employers who fail to implement a heat illness prevention plan expose themselves to serious-and-willful misconduct liability.
Mojave construction sites involve multiple employers, contractors, and property owners. If someone other than your direct employer caused your injury — a general contractor who failed to coordinate safety between trades, a Space Port tenant who maintained an unsafe facility, a mine operator who did not control traffic patterns — you may have a third-party civil lawsuit for full damages including pain and suffering. We evaluate every Mojave construction injury for both workers' comp and third-party claims.
Injured at work in Mojave? Call (661) 273-1780
Tap to call →All Mojave construction injury cases are heard at the Bakersfield WCAB district office in Kern County. For cases involving serious-and-willful employer misconduct under LC section 4553, the 50% penalty increase is litigated at the same office. We handle all appearances.
Dial 911 for serious construction injuries. Kern County Fire Station in Mojave provides initial response. Employers must report injuries involving hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye to Cal/OSHA within 8 hours. AV Hospital in Lancaster is the nearest emergency facility — approximately 30 minutes south on the 14 Freeway.
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