Services
Document a loss
Support a claim
For carriers and employers
Service areas
Middle Tennessee
- Nashville
- Clarksville
- Murfreesboro
- Franklin
- Hendersonville
- Smyrna
- Spring Hill
- Gallatin
- Lebanon
- Columbia
- Brentwood
- Mount Juliet
- La Vergne
- Cookeville
East Tennessee
West Tennessee
Construction Accident and Job Site Documentation
Job sites change daily, and so does the evidence after an incident. Delator Claims Division documents site conditions, access, and equipment as found for general contractors, subcontractors, owners, carriers, and counsel on projects across Tennessee.
- Coverage
- 95 of 95 counties
- Dispatch
- 24 / 7 / 365
- Metro response
- Under 60 min avg.
- Statewide
- 4-hour guarantee
What this service covers
On a construction site the scene of an incident is temporary in a literal sense. The scaffold comes down when the masonry is finished. The trench is backfilled once the pipe is inspected. The floor opening is covered by the next deck pour. A fall, a struck-by incident or a collapse that happened on Tuesday may be physically impossible to revisit by the following week, because that stage of the building no longer exists.
Delator sends a licensed Tennessee private investigator to record the area while it still reflects the day of the incident. The investigator works with the site superintendent, follows site rules, and documents what is present: the work area, the way in and out, the equipment, and the weather. The report does not say which contractor controlled the area or whether any safety requirement was met.
Job site situations that call for a record
- A worker falls from a scaffold, ladder or deck edge and the trade is scheduled to move to the next elevation.
- A trench or excavation wall gives way and the contractor must backfill or re-shore to make the area safe.
- A member of the public or a neighboring property is struck by material from a site and the owner's carrier is notified.
- Several subcontractors were working in the same area and each describes the housekeeping and barricades differently.
- A crane, lift or material hoist incident damages the structure and the general contractor needs conditions recorded before demobilization.
Site conditions recorded as found
- Work area and elevation
- The level, bay or grid location where the incident occurred, with heights measured from the surface below and the stage of construction shown in wide views.
- Scaffolds, ladders and lifts
- Type, configuration, planking, ties, base plates, ladder angle and footing, and inspection tags as displayed, without the investigator climbing or loading them.
- Edges and openings
- Guardrails, cables, hole covers, netting and anchor points as found, including what was attached to them and any that were down or removed.
- Excavations
- Trench depth and width at accessible points, spoil pile position, shoring or trench box presence, water in the cut and soil surface condition, measured from the edge.
- Access routes and housekeeping
- Stair towers, ramps, walkways, hoses, cords, stored material and debris along the path a worker would take to and from the area.
- Weather and ground
- Conditions at the time of the visit, standing water, mud, ice or wind exposure, with a note of the conditions site staff report for the day of the incident.
From request to delivered record
- RequestCall dispatch or submit the request form with the location, loss type and urgency.
- DeployDispatch assigns the nearest available licensed field investigator through the statewide network.
- DocumentPhotographs, video, measurements and factual notes are captured once the scene is safe to work.
- PreserveFiles are timestamped, organized and kept in their original form with a record of who captured them.
- ReportThe package is delivered securely to the requesting party, typically the same day.
A site that rebuilds itself every day
Construction evidence does not fade so much as get built over. Trades follow one another on a schedule, and the schedule does not pause for long. Temporary works such as scaffolds, shoring, guardrail cable and formwork are designed to be removed. Even where an area is held after an incident, wind, rain and other crews working nearby change it. The useful window for recording the as-found condition is often a day or two, and sometimes only the rest of the shift.
The investigator documents from the ground up and from several positions, so that the relationship between the work area, the access route and the level below is clear to someone who never saw the site. Reference points are chosen from permanent structure, such as column lines and slab edges, because temporary items will be gone. Daily logs, toolbox talk sheets, lift plans and site camera footage stay with the contractors that hold them, and the report notes that they were mentioned.
Many employers, one location
A project brings an owner, a general contractor, several tiers of subcontractors, equipment rental companies and material suppliers onto the same ground. After an incident each of them, and each of their carriers, has questions about the same few square yards. Their contracts allocate responsibilities among them, and Delator does not read or interpret those contracts. A neutral record of the physical conditions gives every party the same factual base to work from.
Requests come from general contractors, subcontractors, project owners, wrap-up and general liability carriers, and attorneys on any side. The content does not change with the requester. Carriers, self-insured contractors and their counsel can add investigative work such as voluntary interviews with crew members. An injured worker or family member who requests documentation receives the same neutral record. Delator does not give opinions on safety regulations, means and methods, or structural adequacy, and is not an engineering firm.
On this assignment Delator field personnel record what is physically present: photographs, video, measurements and factual notes. They do not adjust, appraise or value the loss, do not determine coverage, cause or fault, and do not represent any party to the claim.
Delator Claims Division is not a law firm, an insurer or an engineering firm, and nothing on this page is legal advice.
Common questions about this service
Can you get on an active site?
Access is arranged through the party that controls the site, usually the general contractor's superintendent. The investigator signs in, follows site rules, wears the required protective equipment and stays with an escort where one is required. Without permission, documentation is limited to what can be seen from public areas outside the fence.
The scaffold has already been taken down. What can still be recorded?
The structure it stood against, tie-in marks or anchors left in the wall, the ground where it was based, and the dismantled components if they are still on site. The report makes clear that the scaffold was not standing when examined and separates observation from what site staff describe.
Do you determine which contractor was responsible?
No. Responsibility on a multi-employer site depends on contracts and facts that the parties, their carriers and the courts evaluate. Because Tennessee uses modified comparative fault, allocation among several parties can matter a great deal, which is one reason a shared factual record is useful. Delator supplies that record only.
Can you return as the project progresses?
Yes. Some clients request a second visit to record the same location after temporary works are removed or the next phase is built, so the two sets of photographs can be compared. Each visit is a separate assignment under the published flat-rate tiers.
Available statewide, including
Every Tennessee county is covered. See the deployment map for typical response tiers by county.
Request documentation anywhere in Tennessee
Dispatch is staffed around the clock. For time-sensitive scenes, calling is fastest; the request form works for routine and scheduled assignments.