Articles Posted in Wrongful Death

Last week, investigators identified the victim of a fatal construction accident in Clifton Park, New York. The accident victim was Brett Peck, 20, of Lennox, Massachusetts. Peck was installing a drainage pipe behind a home last Monday when the walls of a ditch collapsed, burying him alive.

Peck’s coworker, who had stepped from the work site for a moment, returned and discovered the drainage ditch accident. The Massachusetts construction worker was already dead by the time rescuers uncovered his head and shoulders. Unstable soil made it difficult for emergency crews to remove the victim’s body, but they were successful after several hours.

Federal safety regulations require construction workers to use a trench box to prevent a collapse. Representatives from the US Occupation Safety and Health Administration are investigating the construction accident to determine if these safety requirements were followed.

Worker killed when ditch collapses at NY job site, Associated Press, October 21, 2008
Worker killed in construction accident identified, CapitalNews9.com, October 21, 2008 Continue reading

In Waltham, Massachusetts at the campus of pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, a hydraulic lift fell and killed a construction worker. The construction site accident seriously injured another worker, who was taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Waltham police said the hydraulic lift accident occurred just after 11am on October 10, when the lift collapsed, plunging the men about 30 feet. Peter Marchese, 40, died at the scene of the job site accident. The other injured worker will not been identified until police notify the 30-year-old’s family.

According to a joint statement released by AstraZeneca and Bovis Lend Lease, a project management and construction company at the job site, the two men were working on the expansion of a research and design facility, which was scheduled for completion in 2009. The workers were employed by Lymo Construction Co. in Merrimack and had been installing metal plates on the side of the building when the construction accident occurred.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is leading an investigation with assistance from the Massachusetts State Police, the Waltham Police Department, and the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office.

1 killed, 1 hurt in accident at job site, Boston Globe, October 11, 2008
Nashua man killed in construction accident, The Union Leader, October 11, 2008 Continue reading

The Boston Globe reported yesterday that the family of the Jamaica Plain woman crushed in the 2006 Big Dig ceiling collapse will receive over $28 million. Milena Del Valle was killed while driving down Interstate 90 with her husband on July 10, 200. Concrete panels weighing 26 tons fell from the ceiling of the connector tunnel and crushed the 38-year-old mother to death.

Investigations of the construction site accident revealed that it was the result of several failures, which some authorizes are calling deliberate negligence. The National Transportation Safety Board criticized the epoxy vendor, the firm which designed the tunnel’s ceiling, the company which installed the bolts, and the construction company for not taking steps to prevent the ceiling collapse.

Within two months of their mother’s death, the family had filed wrongful death suits in against 18 defendants in Suffolk Superior Court. Yesterday’s agreement with the last and largest of those defendants will bring the lawsuit to a close.

In Walpole, Massachusetts, a construction worker died after being electrocuted. Romulo Santoes, 47, was doing overnight construction work on a Wal-Mart when he was electrocuted while trying to re-attach electrical wires. The wires had been severed by a construction crew doing demolition work.

Santos was taken to Norwood Hospital where he was pronounced dead. He is a native of Brazil, and police are working to notify his family in Brazil, according to The Boston Globe.

This construction accident is currently under investigation. Experts say that this death could have been prevented had the construction company taken the right precautions.

The Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health has released a statement saying that swift action is required to ensure the safety of other construction workers on the job. According to OccupationalHazards.com, 20 building trades’ workers died on the job in Massachusetts last year and nearly half of those were immigrant workers. Between 1999 and 2007, 15 Brazilian-born workers died while at work in Massachusetts, eight from construction accidents.

Electrical Worker Death Could Have Been Prevented, Experts Say, OccupationalHazards.com, September 11, 2008
Man electrocuted while renovating Walpole Wal-Mart, Boston Globe, September 9, 2008 Continue reading

On Friday morning around 9 am, four constructions workers died after a drainage trench they were working in collapsed. The four men were digging the trench when it collapsed on top of them. The construction accident occurred on state Highway 12 near the town of Verdal, Nebraska, which is 155 miles Northwest of Omaha.

Police have identified the four victims as 61-year-old Gary Forsh, 43-year-old Brad Kelly, 24-year-old Travis Lunn, and 35-year-old David Peterson.

According to the Bureau of Labor, more than five thousand construction workers were killed in construction accidents in 2006, while many other workers suffered serious injuries. This type of work environment is particularly hazardous because of threats from a number of different sources: defective tools, fires, explosives, crane collapses, and other dangers.

Neb. sheriff: 4 dead in construction accident, Associated Press, September 13, 2008
Four Killed In Construction Accident, WOWT.com, September 12, 2008 Continue reading

A construction worker who had been pinned in a trench at a construction project last week was pronounced dead. Steven Dale Slee, 28, died from injuries to his trunk and the medical examiner’s office has pronounced the incident an accident.

Slee was taken to the hospital after 7,000 pounds of compacted dirt fell on him. After a slab of compacted fill broke, the dirt fell from the side of the trench. A second construction worker escaped from the trench with non-life threatening injuries.

The construction accident is under investigation with the state Department of Labor and Industries.

Construction worker dies from burial injuries, Seattle PI, September 6, 2008 Continue reading

Do the parents of a murdered high school student have the right to file a wrongful death suit against their son’s part time employer when their son was killed during a shift? That’s the question that the Supreme Judicial Court is slated to examine on September 3.

In Saab, et al. v. CVS Pharmacy, the court will decide if a lower court judge made the proper decision that the exclusivity provision of the Workers’ Compensation Act prevents the Superior Court from accepting subject matter jurisdiction.

Christian Ribeiro Giambrone, a senior at Boston Latin Academy, was working part time at a CVS Pharmacy in Boston’s Longwood medical area. In February, 2004, Giambrone and the store manager confronted a thief outside the store. Giambrone bled to death after being stabbed in the neck. His killer was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

CVS paid the victim’s funeral bills, and in February, 2007, the family filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Suffolk Superior Court. CVS moved to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming that the workers’ compensation exclusivity clause mandates that all claims be brought before the Board of Industrial Accidents.

Court to weigh right of parents to sue employer, MassLawyersWeekly.com, August 25, 2008 Continue reading