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WIDOW AWARDED $6 MILLION IN ACCIDENT SUIT
Canton Repository
Tuesday, May 16, 2006CANTON ... A safety guard that attorneys say could have saved a Waynesburg man had it been installed on his dump truck sells for $6.66.
Because Robert Ronske’s truck did not have one, it will cost the dump-bed manufacturer $6 million.
A Stark County jury on Monday awarded Ronske’s widow, Sandra, $5.99 million for his wrongful death claim and another $7,700 for funeral expenses. The jury of six men and two women deliberated for 2½ hours before ruling that the Heil Co. manufactured a defective product because it hadn’t included safety devices with its dump-bed kits.
An attorney for the Heil Co. declined to comment after the verdict, which followed a weeklong trial in Stark County Common Pleas Court.
The Ronskes have settled separately with America’s Body Co., which installed the hydraulic dump bed, for $289,000, probate records show.
Monday’s jury award exceeds the roughly $5.8 million that attorneys for the Ronskes had been seeking.
Attorney Brian Zimmerman said the jury’s decision “sends the message that life is much more valuable than profit.”
Robert Ronske, a Timken employee for 32 years, was crushed to death in September 2002 when the elevated dump bed of his truck silently lowered on him and pinned him against the frame, according to the lawsuit. Ronske had been leaning in to do maintenance when his body triggered a control valve on the outside of the truck’s cab. It took about four seconds for the bed to close, the records said.
The Heil Co. knew of the product’s risks, didn’t sufficiently warn distributors or consumers such as Robert Ronske, and didn’t alert them to a safety device that would protect them, Zimmerman told jurors during his closing statements last week.
Zimmerman said the safety device has been available since the 1940s. Robert Ronske, 53, had owned his 1978 Ford truck since 1994.
In his closing arguments, Heil Co. attorney Lawrence A. Sutter said safety devices should not be considered alternatives to safety procedures.
He said Robert Ronske failed to follow safety protocol to block the equipment while doing any maintenance work on the truck.
“These lever locks they wanted us to have are not a substitute for blocking,” Sutter said.
Sutter also told jurors that they should not penalize companies who are leaders of their industry for improving their products.“Every time something new comes out, it doesn’t make the one before it defective,” Sutter said.
But if a product is defective, Zimmerman said, “No matter how much training or warning you have ... it’s going to get someone sometime.”Zimmerman asked the jurors to change how a company does business.
“You can make the companies put safety first,” he said.
Sandra Ronske tearfully hugged her daughters after the verdict was announced Monday. They said they were happy the case was over.
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