A 31-year-old truck driver was driving a front discharge concrete mixing truck when the front right tire blew out. The vehicle veered off the road and hit a shallow embankment. Upon impact, the drum of the concrete mixer broke into the cabin of the vehicle and crushed the driver. Emergency personnel found the driver dead.

Gary Derian, P.E. was retained to investigate the crash and determine if the failed tire was negligently retreaded and installed by the local service station.

This matter settled for $3,000,000.

A 57-year-old diabetic journeyman pipefitter, was hired to work on the overhaul of an industrial furnace. On the day of his injury, the victim worked approximately 10 hours, spending the better part of the day standing on and off the throat of the furnace in order to replace burners in the refiner. The inside temperature in the throat that day was raised to approximately 2000 degrees. When he went home after work and removed his work boots, he discovered that the soles of his feet had been seriously burned. Industrial Hygienist, Ron Schaible, was retained to determine if the manufacturer created a dangerous condition that contributed to the plaintiff’s injuries.

Three teens injured in a drunken-driving accident settled their auto-negligence and dram shop claims for a combined $2.3 million.

A butcher was seriously injured at work. The victim was standing between filling and canning machines, loading stacks of lids, when his supervisor asked him to hand over a tool; when the butcher reached over and between the two machines his jacket got caught on the rotating power take-off shaft, resulting in multiple fractures to his right arm.

Robson Forensic expert, Bart Eckhardt, P.E., opined that the machine manufacturer failed to provide an interlock for the power take-off shaft guard and that the manufacturer failed to ensure the power take-off shaft guard was with the machine when the equipment was resold to the plaintiff’s employer. The absence of a shaft guard exposed the plaintiff to an unreasonable hazard and was a cause of his injury.

The case settled for $510,000 in mediation.

Brooks Rugemer - Commercial Trucking Specialist

A federal jury awarded nearly $3.5 million to the widow of a 26-year-old man who was killed instantly when the tractor-trailer he was repairing lurched forward because the driver allegedly pressed the ignition button while it was still in gear.