Crane Firm Settles In Worker's Death - McGraw-Hill Construction | ENR
“We found a smoking gun,” says plaintiff’s attorney John Cummings, of Steven C. Laird law offices, Fort Worth. In the lawsuit, the victim’s family said Anthony Crane Rental was responsible for Talavera’s death for failing to inspect modifications that were made to a damaged pin-and-bracket system on the crane’s boom. Post-collapse examinations by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration showed that pins in the modified bracket-and-pin system had sheared off, causing the boom extension to fall, Cummings says. The company “denied making modifications,” Cummings says. “They said it must have been done by previous renters and they were unaware of it.”
This summer Cummings tracked down Darol Renfro, a mechanic formerly employed at Anthony Crane, who in a pre-trial statement said he was ordered by the company to perform the modifications.