Struck By Falling Object

Welcome to the Rodgers Law Firm

When someone suffers a debilitating injury caused by being hit by a falling object, the victim and every member of the victim’s family lead totally different lives.

The pain and suffering caused by the injury may be further increased by intense feeling of anger, frustration, and resentment because the accident could have been easily avoided if the person at fault, the wrongdoer, had only been more careful.

We at the Rodgers Law Firm in Fort Worth, Texas understand the devastation and losses caused by falling objects. Victims may have no transportation, may be unable to work due to injury, may have no health insurance or large savings to pay for medical care, may not know how to find health care providers that will wait for payment until the case settles, and may not have the energy or know how to deal with the insurance company for the wrongdoer.

That's why we are here – to do everything we can to help our clients get the answers, the assistance, and the compensation that they are entitled to under the law.

We handle falling object cases throughout the DFW Metroplex and surrounding cities, including Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Denton, Burleson, Cleburne, Decatur, Weatherford, Haltom City, North Richland Hills, Richland Hills, Azle, Mineral Wells, Sherman, and Denison.

If you, a family member or a friend is a victim of a falling object accident, contact us for a free, no obligation consultation. We will meet with you at our office or any location convenient to you.

In a free, no obligation consultation with us, you may evaluate first hand our capabilities to help the victim and the victim’s family work through the legal, economic and emotional hurdles faced when the victim is struck by a falling object.

The following pages of detailed legal information will give you insights into the depth of our capabilities in falling object cases.

Examples of Falling Object Cases Handled By Our Law Firm

Construction Worker Hit by Falling Flashlight
Violation of OSHA Regulations
Traumatic Brain Injury
Midlothian, Texas

Our client, a 32 year-old high-rise iron worker and a member of a steelworkers union, was employed by a subcontractor on a power plant construction site. He was injured while working inside a tall concrete and steel smokestack tower. His job as a steel worker required good balance, climbing, squatting, lifting, and carrying abilities and the ability to work at heights.

He was wearing a hard hat but his job required that he frequently bend over at the waist and look down, a position that exposed the back of his head and neck to unprotected blows from above.

Unknown to him, an engineer employed by the general contractor was working 30 feet above him inspecting some completed work. The engineer was carrying a large flashlight that was not properly secured to his belt. The flashlight suddenly fell without warning and struck our client at the base of the skull. He was knocked unconscious for 10 minutes and transported by ambulance to the hospital.

The brain injury caused the following mental and physical conditions:
1. He began having post-trauma epileptic seizures – the seizures came on unexpectedly, were highly embarrassing, and precluded him from driving a car.
2. He became dizzy when he moved – movement during walking affected his gait and he had to concentrate on each step, he had to move slowly when getting into and out of chairs, he could not use ladders for such tasks as changing light bulbs and hanging tree lights, and using elevators and climbing stairs made him lightheaded.
3. He became very forgetful – he could not remember simple things such as where the car was parked, driving routes to familiar places, the day of the week, and family birthdays.
4. Complex information had to be given to him a little bit at a time.
5. He had a hard time concentrating, and he was unable to do more than one thing at a time.
6. His head shook due to the medication he had to take.
7. He had difficulty expressing ideas because he could not find the right words to say.
8. He had to depend on his wife to make all decisions requiring careful thought and choosing between alternatives.
9. He suffered from ongoing depression, anger, frustration, anxiety and irritability.

Expert engineering testimony stated that the force of the flashlight blow to his head depended on the weight of the flashlight and the speed it was falling when it hit him.

The flashlight weighed 36 ounces – heavier than a typical major league baseball bat that weighs 34 ounces.

The flashlight’s falling speed would depend on the length of time it took for the flashlight to fall, and could be calculated as follows:

Fall time Flashlight Speed on Impact
1.0 second 22 mph
1.5 seconds 33 mph
2.0 seconds 44 mph
3.0 seconds 66 mph

By comparison, Barry Bond’s bat has been calculated as traveling at 70 mph when he hits a home run.

Five years before the accident OSHA published a study that said a significant portion of all worker injuries involved workers being struck on the head by foreign objects, and noted that in one of the years studied there were 70,000 head and face injuries. The case settled before trial. (LH1500)

Shopper Injured By Falling Shelf in Big Box Retailer
Arlington, Texas
Our client was shopping for groceries in a “big box” store in Arlington, Texas one evening after work. Store employees were busy changing the food displays in the store. Food items would be taken from the displays, the displays would be disassembled then reassembled in a different pattern, and the food items would than be put back onto the displays.

He stopped his cart to read the label on a food item. As he was reading the label, a stack of long display shelves which had been stacked upright in the aisle by store employees and left unattended and unsecured, suddenly fell sideways without warning and struck him on the left knee, causing severe injuries to his knee. Therapy efforts did not work and he ultimately had surgery on the knee.

The store night manager testified that the store employees at fault for the falling display did not follow store policy, which required employees changing displays to block the area being changed so that customers could not come near the shelves and to put the shelves in shopping carts or otherwise secure them so the shelves did not fall over. The case settled before trial. (TF38)

Electrician Injured by Falling Cinder Block Dropped
By Brick Mason Working Overhead On Construction Site
Violation of OSHA Safety Regulations
Fort Worth, Texas

Our client, a licensed electrician, was working for an electrical contractor who had been hired by the general contractor responsible for constructing an elementary school. He was working on the ground floor installing electrical conduit.

Above him, employees of another subcontractor, a masonry contractor, were installing cinder blocks on a portion of the third floor wall of the school. They were using scaffolding to temporarily store the loose cinder blocks before they were manually picked up and then mortared into the wall.

OSHA regulations required that the scaffolding have safety devices, such as toe boards, screens, or guardrail systems to prevent objects from falling from higher levels on the scaffolding.

If not, the regulations required that a canopy structure be erected to keep potential falling objects far enough from the edge of the scaffolding so that those objects would not go over the edge if they were accidentally displaced.

If not, the regulations required that the area below the scaffolding to which objects could fall be barricaded, that employees be prohibited from entering the barricaded area, and that objects that may fall be kept far enough away from the edge of the scaffolding so that those objects would not go over the edge if they were accidentally displaced.

The general contractor and the masonry contractor did not follow the mandatory OSHA safety regulations.

One workday, as our client was working on the ground floor, a masonry contractor’s employee either lost his grip on a cinder block while lifting it or somehow knocked the cinder block off the edge of the scaffolding. The cinder block fell 20 feet and struck our client on his left knee, severely injuring him. His knee injury ultimately required surgery.

The case settled before trial after the deposition was taken of the person who dropped the cinder block and of the general contractor’s employee responsible for worksite safety. Both persons admitted that OSHA safety regulations were not followed. (TC33)

Overview of Falling Object Cases in Texas
Many people are injured each year in Texas as the result of objects falling on them in such places as in stores, from buildings, at work, from the backs of trucks, or on construction sites.
It is very unusual for an object to fall from the sky and injure a person below without an act of carelessness or wrongful behavior. Things do not fall from the sky and injure people below without someone being at fault, the person who was in charge of the falling object.

OSHA federal regulations and industry safety standards govern safety standards at work and on construction sites.

 

Some stores such as Home Depot, Wal-Mart, CostCo, Target, Sams, and Lowes display merchandise stacked in tall shelves that can be 10 or 15 feet high.

 

An object which falls to the ground from high in the air gathers speed as it falls, effectively becoming heavier and heavier as it travels. The further it falls, the greater the impact of the object when it strikes someone, and the more disastrous the injury suffered by the victim.

In about a third of accidents where merchandise has fallen from a high shelf on to a customer, that customer has sustained a head injury. Head injuries are among the most serious, permanent, and even fatal of injuries.

Another one-third of such accidents cause injuries to the victim’s feet.

 

In the remaining accidents, most injuries are to the victim’s back, neck and shoulders.

From the store owner’s viewpoint, this high stacking is a smart move. It cuts way down on warehouse costs, saving them millions of dollars. In itself, high-stacking isn’t necessarily a problem.

 

The problem enters when the store fails to secure the stacked items to prevent them from falling.

What causes such an item to fall? Perhaps it was carelessly stacked so that over time it became dislodged and fell. Perhaps an impact to the shelves beneath it caused a wobble that sent it tumbling. Perhaps an employee or another customer removed another item that was keeping the first one in place.

There aren’t any reliable statistics about how many customers have been hurt by falling merchandise in these super-stores. That’s because the warehouse owners aren’t required to file any accident reports, and because the OSHA safety standards protect workers but not customers.

There’s no government agency responsible for protecting customers from falling merchandise.

To establish liability in any falling object case, the lawyer must prove that the defendant was in exclusive control of the object that fell, either by placing the object in the location from where it fell without properly securing it, or in handling the material as it fell, and that the plaintiff did not cause the object to fall.

Losing the Right to Make the Claim
You must file your Texas falling object suit within a certain time period or else you will lose your right to pursue your claim. In many cases, the suit must be filed within two years from the date of the accident.

Simply contacting the business responsible for the falling object or contacting the businesses’ insurance company about the accident is not enough to stop the running of the two year period.

Cases involving federal and state governmental entities as defendants are governed by a different limitations procedures and periods. Claims against federal government entities are controlled by the Federal Tort Claims Act, which provides:
“A tort claim against the United States shall be forever barred unless it is presented in writing to the appropriate Federal agency within two years after such claim accrues or unless action is begun six months after the date of mailing, by certified or registered mail, of notice of final denial of the claim by the agency to which it was presented.”

Texas governmental entities are controlled by the Texas Tort Claims Act. The claim procedures in this Act must be followed. It requires that written notice, often using mandatory forms supplied by the agency involved, be given to the agency against whom the claim is being made within time periods shorter than a year after the accident, often as short as six months. Certain exceptions do exist in unique circumstances, but they require the analysis of a qualified attorney to determine if they are applicable.

There are other reasons to act quickly. Key witnesses may disappear, witnesses’ memories may fade, and vital documents may be lost. Sometimes it takes months of investigation to determine who the true defendants are that are legally responsible for the accident. It is crucially important that you do not delay in consulting with an attorney.

Contact us for a free no-obligation consultation as soon as possible to ensure that you retain your right to pursue your claim.

Ask Us for a Second Opinion If Another Attorney Has Declined To Represent You
Attorneys regularly decide whether the case that they are reviewing does or does not meet all the requirements to be a viable, sound case. Making this determination is not an exact science. Based on different experiences and analytic abilities, one attorney may turn down the opportunity to represent a client and another attorney may decide to take the case.

The second reviewing attorney saw something the first reviewing attorney may have overlooked. The first attorney may have decided that liability was not clear, that the damages were not large enough, that there was not available insurance coverage or other sources to pay the money damages, or that there were other problems in seeking a recovery.

We would welcome the opportunity to review your falling object claim even if another attorney has turned the case down. There is no charge or obligation for our review.
You may contact us at the following phone numbers at any time:

Office: toll free: 1-866-560-1075

local: 817-717-4080

Copyright 1994 - 2007 Clifford B. Rodgers.
Last Modified July 6, 2007.