Truck drivers family sues Atlas Foundry over explosion death - Truckers' Trucking Forum

Cybergal · **^ Top** #1 02.20.2008

Truck drivers family sues Atlas Foundry over explosion death
2/20/08
TheNewsTribune.com, WA

Quote:

The family of a delivery truck driver fatally burned in a propane explosion at Tacoma’s Atlas foundry filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the company Tuesday, contending its employees were to blame for the blast.

Relatives of Charles “Chuck” McDonald Sr. contend Atlas employees installed substandard clamps on a hose used to transfer propane from delivery trucks to storage tanks at the company’s Nalley Valley foundry.
McDonald’s wife and grown son and daughter are seeking unspecified monetary damages for “physical and mental anguish, pain and discomfort,” according to the lawsuit.

An investigation by the Tacoma Fire Department found that the explosion that rocked the plant Oct. 6, 2007, resulted from a “mechanical failure in the (propane) supply line at the connection to the propane tanker.” Fire investigators stopped short of assigning blame.
McDonald, 64, suffered burns over 75 percent of his body as he tried to deliver a load of propane to Atlas. He died of his injuries eight days later.
thenewstribune>>>>>>

Lurchgs · **^ Top** #2 02.21.2008

Let me get this right..Man delivers propane, truck (and foundry) blow sky high. (I've seen the video, believe it or not). Ok, it's a mess.

Man dies as result. Yah, that's bad.

But the FD says the cause was "in the supply line at the connection to the tanker" (emphasis mine). Not the tank, the tankER. The truck.

So, who is breathing methane here?

If the reporter got this right, the family is dead (pardon the pun) wrong. The foundry had zero control over the condition of the delivery vehicle. They should be suing the pants off the propane company (assuming the suit is justifiable - I'm assuming that it is, for the sake of argument)

On the other hand, if the reporter got it wrong, and the faulty connection was on the tank, then yeah, family might get somewhere suing the foundry.

roadkill439342 · **^ Top** #3 02.21.2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lurchgs

Let me get this right..Man delivers propane, truck (and foundry) blow sky high. (I've seen the video, believe it or not). Ok, it's a mess.

Man dies as result. Yah, that's bad.

But the FD says the cause was "in the supply line at the connection to the tanker" (emphasis mine). Not the tank, the tankER. The truck.

So, who is breathing methane here?

If the reporter got this right, the family is dead (pardon the pun) wrong. The foundry had zero control over the condition of the delivery vehicle. They should be suing the pants off the propane company (assuming the suit is justifiable - I'm assuming that it is, for the sake of argument)

On the other hand, if the reporter got it wrong, and the faulty connection was on the tank, then yeah, family might get somewhere suing the foundry.

You should read the WHOLE story:

Quote:

In its lawsuit, McDonald’s family contends he arrived at the plant that day to find that Atlas employees had disassembled the valve assembly from the storage tank’s intake hose.
“Two or more Atlas employees negligently and carelessly reattached the valve to the end of the liquid transfer hose using substandard automotive and/or plumbing hose clamps,” the lawsuit states.
The employees should have used heavy-duty industry-standard clamps to reattach the valve, the family said in a news release issued after their suit was filed.
“The negligence of the Atlas Foundry employees led to the initial release of propane gas that rapidly enveloped Charles McDonald,” Christensen said in the news release.

Burky · **^ Top** #4 02.23.2008

I have a bit of a problem with the family suing, since the driver is responsible for ensuring the proper condition of the unloading equipment before he connects up to it. In almost any place where a driver unloads into a system, the driver has the responsibility to visually check the condition of any connections within his sight. It works that way when I unload products, and as far as I know, that also applies to liquid and gas haulers. If the hose clamps weren;t of the correct type, he is the one person there who had the correct knowledge of how propane should be handled who should have recognized that as an issue and refused to unload until the correct repairs were made.

At the very least, he was part of the problem when he went ahead and unloaded anyways. The company may have some culpability, if the issue is proven, but making the claims and proving them in court are two different matters.

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