The Oregonian reported that the $7.9 million lawsuit against several parties including the man’s former employer was filed on behalf of the family of Layne Battenfield following his May 1 death.
Bettenfield was working for Oregon Mainline Paving doing contract work for the Oregon Department of Transportation when the accident happened. He was at the jobsite near Cottage Grove, Oregon, when a dump truck being backed up to a trailer crushed him.
The family is suing Battenfield’s former employer, Wildish Building Material, dump truck driver Joseph Johnston and Johnston’s employer, Materials Transport Services. The lawsuit claims that Johnston didn’t check for other workers, yield the right-of-way, use his horn or audible alarm and was driving too fast.
The accident was investigated by the Oregon State Police and the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division, and no citations were issued. But the Battenfield family’s attorney said the investigation wasn’t thorough.
“The investigation by Oregon OSHA was very minimalist,” attorney Tom D’Amore said, “In their defense, they assumed this was Oregon State Police’s jurisdiction.”
But Oregon OSHA spokesman Aaron Corvin didn’t agree with D’Amore’s assessment.
“It’s always true that we wouldn’t unnecessarily duplicate the work of another jurisdiction,” Corvin said. “In this case, we took a very close look at the issues involved.”
