A Gwinnett, Georgia jury has awarded a family $4.25 million in the death of a worker killed by a street sweeper.
Gabrielle Smith was awarded the hefty sum after winning her lawsuit against the street sweeper manufacturer.
Four years ago, her father was crushed to death by the machine while driving it at work in Gwinnett County, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
However, attorneys who have represented the company claim the price will be far less because the jury also found her father was partially at fault in the fatal accident.
“We believed this to be a good outcome for the defense as (Smith) asked for $25 million and sought punitive damages and the jury awarded the deceased 49% guilt, resulting in a net verdict of $2,167,500 and no punitive damages ‘ said Attorney Brannon Arnold.
Court documents show the ruling came Monday after Smith’s legal counsel argued that the designer “failed to ensure that the heavy-duty mechanical sweeper was in safe operating condition and free from defects.”
The trial lasted five days, and the jury spent more than a day deliberating.
Orlando Hall, 47, was working as a subcontractor for ER Snell and was driving one of the construction company’s M6 Avalanche street sweepers on the morning of September 7, 2017, when it began smoking in Duluth.
Hall pulled into a QuikTrip lot to see what the problem with the gear was. Lawyers say he was trying to dislodge debris and was pinched between the truck’s hydraulic arm and hopper after his leg accidentally activated the controls on the side of the street sweeper.
Smith’s attorneys were able to convince the jury that the controls were “negligently placed in close proximity to a pinch hazard” and that they should have been guarded to prevent such accidents.
“Our evidence showed that the defendants negligently introduced defective equipment into the flow of commerce, which ultimately led to Mr. Hall’s tragic and gruesome death,” said Kendall Dunson, one of the family’s attorneys.
Smith filed her lawsuit in Gwinnett State Court in July 2018, alleging that Schwarze Industries, an Alabama-based manufacturing company that developed the M6 Avalanche street sweeper, used defective equipment that was unsafe for operators like Hall. She also claimed that the unattended controls and toggle switches on the equipment’s exterior were susceptible to “unintentional activations” that would endanger operators.
Black was represented by attorneys for Weinberg, Wheeler, Hudgins, Gunn and Dial. According to a statement from the Atlanta attorney’s office, the victim “leaved the engine running, climbed onto the side of the street sweeper, and (and) wedged himself into a cramped compartment not designed for access behind a lockable door” before being crushed to death became .
Smith’s legal team on a fatal work-related accident in Mesa, Arizona that occurred three years after Hall’s death. Jason Oswald, a mechanic, was crushed by the M6 Avalanche in the same way. After Oswald’s death, Schwarze and their parent company, the Alamo Group, redesigned the street sweeper by adding guards to the exterior control box.
“As a result of this litigation, no one else using an M6 Avalanche street sweeper will suffer the same horrific fate that Orlando Hall and Jason Oswald are suffering,” the attorneys said in their release.
Hall’s employer, ER Snell, was also named as a defendant, but attorneys said the company was not part of this week’s verdict.
