$24 million Confidential Settlement for Construction Site Accident
N/AOUTCOME: A settlement early in the trial provided a secure future for our client and his family.
A worker at the site of a road construction project was paralyzed when the operator of an excavator accidentally pushed its joystick controls, causing the boom to move and knock over a piece of equipme ... nt onto the worker. The manufacturer of the equipment knew that operators could accidentally press against the joystick in the tight cab causing the boom to swing unexpectedly, but it took only minimal steps to design against the danger, relying instead on inaccurate warnings. A team led by Roy DeCaro, Marty Brigham, and Dan Bencivenga used international safety standards to prove that the excavator was unsafe. The team proved there were readily available alternative designs that would have prevented the tragedy. The manufacturer was located overseas, and painstaking research revealed that it had been cautioned about the weakness of its design by safety authorities in its home country.