Steel beams fatally strike worker in head; family gets $2.85M
May 25, 2011 by Fred HosierPosted in: Fatality, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, Lawsuits, Safety training
PDF What happens when the widow of an employee killed at work is allowed to sue the employer over and above workers’ comp benefits? Once a judge allows a lawsuit to go forward, an expensive settlement, such as this one, is often the result.
Certified Steel of Hamilton, NJ, will pay Marcia Austin, the widow of Wayne Austin, $1.8 million in connection with the death of her husband at work.
Austin, a 47-year-old father of four, was killed when a co-worker operating a 20-ton crane accidentally crashed a bundle of steel into another one, causing 13,000 tons of metal to strike Austin in the head.
The lawsuit accused Certified Steel of operating a hazardous workplace devoid of safety measures and run by untrained employees.
The suit alleged the company’s owner, Sydney Sussman, was aware that there were often collisions similar to the one that killed Austin, but he did nothing to protect his employees.
Records showed damning evidence against the company. Before Austin’s death, Certified Steel asked the crane’s manufacturer how to prevent pieces of equipment from colliding. But the company didn’t implement the suggested solutions which included employee training.
In a deposition in the case, Sussman said, “the whole place is a hazard. [OSHA] knows that. I know that.”
To sue beyond workers’ comp in New Jersey, a company’s actions must amount to intentional wrongdoing.
In an opinion that would have sent the case to trial had a settlement not been worked out, a New Jersey judge wrote, “the working environment that [Austin] found himself in was inherently dangerous. It was substantially certain that an accident resulting in personal injury or death would occur.”
A year before Austin was killed, another Certified Steel employee died from injuries after several large pieces of steel fell on him.
A crane supplier, Morris Material Handling, will also pay Marcia Austin $1.05 million as part of the settlement.
The terms of the settlement were uncovered in court documents obtained by The Trenton Times.
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Tags: Certified Steel, crane, hazardous workplace, lawsuit
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May 31st, 2011 at 12:36 pm
OMG and some say that there is too much Government. Such as OSHA regulating the workplace Geeez these accident should never have happened
June 1st, 2011 at 5:11 pm
One thing I don’t understand is why employees working in an environment they know isn’t safe wouldn’t rise up and demand safer working conditions. If it’s the risk of losing my job (of which there are plenty of anti-retaliation laws to protect me) versus continuing to risk my life in a known unsafe work environment, I don’t have a hard time making the choice. Maybe I’m selfish that way, but I choose my own personal physical well-being.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not arguing that the employer is not at fault here and that it’s the employee’s fault for not speaking out; the employer deserves the consequences of their negligence. I just find it terrible that anyone, employee or employer, would wait for a death to fix these kinds of well-known safety problems (especially when the solutions had been provided by the crane’s manufacturer!). It’s never as simple as the story reads, but I often find myself wondering why employees in these situations don’t want better working conditions for themselves.
To Alecfinn:
I don’t think this has anything to do with too much or too little Government. Unfortunately, there are employers/people out there that, no matter the consequences, will always take the cheap, easy, risky route. In those cases, all of the Government regulation in the world is unlikely to help. The fact is, there are plenty (some would argue an overabundance) of regulations designed to prevent just these types of situations, but someone will ALWAYS be there to break the rules.