Dive Brief:
- The $1-million-plus state civil trial against contractors and equipment companies that were involved with the $266 million Baylor University football stadium in Waco, TX, at the time of a 2014 worker's death began this week.
- In January 2014, 55-year-old Jose Dario Suarez drowned when a barge-supported boom lift — which he was tied off to — collapsed into the Brazos River while he and another person, who survived, were working on a pedestrian bridge.
- The case has raised larger questions of whether or not Suarez, who was wearing a safety harness, should have been 100% tied off while working over water, according to the Engineering News-Record.
Dive Insight:
Attorneys for the Suarez family maintain that his death was caused by negligence on the job site and are suing eight companies in total. Baylor University was also named in the original suit but is no longer a defendant, according to ENR.
The tie-off issue is quickly emerging as the standout issue of the trial, as it could have industry-wide implications. The contractors’ attorneys have argued that 100% tie-off was necessary in the Suarez case because of the risk of falling onto the barge or other hard surfaces. However, the Suarez family said contractors on the job were "consciously disregarding safety" in order to make up lost time that had put the project four months behind schedule.
Lawyers for Suarez’s direct employer, Derr & Isbell Construction, said that Suarez's death is covered by workers’ compensation and that a workers’ comp claim is the family’s only remedy. In Texas, as well as in many other states, employees cannot seek compensation beyond what workers’ compensation provides unless they can prove some level of negligence or employer fault.