SETTLEMENT : Forklift accident
Construction Worker Suffers Brain Injuries in Forklift Accident
The plaintiff, Carlos Lomeli, was a construction worker employed by Martinez & Turek who sustained brain injuries on the job. He hired Richard Koskoff to handle his catastrophic injury lawsuit.
The plaintiff and his co-workers were working on a large structure which was to be used by NASA in space. The work involved sandblasting the metallic structure. This was done by using a 13-foot-tall tank that held the sand. Although the manufacturers of the tank had created a system to load the tank with sand, the plaintiff’s employers chose to use a funnel that was not properly fitted to the tank opening.
Because the employees misjudged how much sand they needed, the funnel filled with sand before it could be removed from the tank. Both workers struggled to keep it stable. The plaintiff was unable to hold the 1,000 lb. funnel, and dropped it. The funnel fell eight feet down severing the exposed hydraulic lines of the forklift causing the lift to drop four feet, pinning Carlos’s head to the side of the tank.
The plaintiff suffered frontal lobe damage, which affected his ability to control anger, judgement, and behaviour, as well as a seizure disorder. He had $280,000 in past medical costs, with an estimated lifetime cost of care at $2 million. He also lost earnings, both past and future.
The case settled before going to trial for $5,055,000.