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COMPANIES TO PAY $2 MILLION TO SHOCKED MEN
Canton Repository
Saturday, January 24, 2004CANTON ... Two companies sued by workers shocked at a highway construction project will pay more than $2 million in damages.
A settlement reached this month calls for general contractor C.J. Mahan Construction Co. to pay $1.58 million and the men's employer, Mohawk Re-Bar Services, to pay $475,000, said attorney Brian Zimmerman, who represents workers Jeffrey Tingler and Curt E. Naus.
The pair were seriously injured when they were accidentally shocked by nearly 70,000 volts of electricity while on the job.
Tingler and Naus were subcontractors working on a new bridge between Interstate 77 and Route 62 on Oct. 19, 2001, when a crane hoisting a steel bundle touched a power line. The men were standing on the ground trying to attach the crane's hook to a bar bundle.
The money will be divided between Naus, 26, of Zoar and the family of 38-year-old Tingler, who died in November 2002. Tingler's lawyer attributed the death to his injuries.
Both men had suffered serious burns and amputations to their fingers and toes.
A spokesman for Mohawk Re-Bar in Strongsville declined to comment on the settlement. A call seeking comment from C.J. Mahan Construction was not returned Friday.
"I hope this type of settlement will send a message to corporations that the safety of its workers is far more important than the speed of completing a certain project," Zimmerman said.
Co-counsel Allen Schulman Jr. added, "Under the Bush administration ... enforcement of safety laws to protect working men and women is nonexistent, and this is one reason why our civil justice system is so vital to protect people from harm."
In the civil lawsuit filed Nov. 16, 2001, in Stark County Common Pleas Court, the attorneys argued that the site was unsafe and improperly protected from high-voltage power lines.
"We believe both corporations knew they were violating the law at the time of this tragic incident, and had they been following the law as it relates to cranes being operated near energized power lines, this tragedy never would have occurred," Zimmerman said.
He said the law requires a person, known as a spotter, to be on-site to guide the crane away from the power lines. But the site at that time did not have a spotter. The men complained to supervisors about the potential danger but were ignored, Zimmerman said.
The companies have corrected the violation, he said.
A spokesman for C.J. Mahan Construction said previously that the company never has sacrificed safety to speed up the job.
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