Widow of worker killed by granite slab settles for $1.2 million - By Liz Mineo, MetroWest Daily News, MA
Reaching the settlement took some work, said the lawyers. The main challenge was to find a third party responsible for Valdecir's death.
'The first challenge was to find which companies were responsible for Mr. Rodrigues' death,' said Foglia.
'The second thing was to find out how the accident happened, whether it was a fluke accident or it was due to the lack of safety regulations,' said McCue.
According to the settlement report, at ASI, there were no training manuals, safety meetings, or mechanisms for ensuring that safety procedures were followed, and no testing to ensure that employees were aware of safety requirements.
New employees were simply matched with old employees, who hadn't been trained, and were expected to learn from them on the job, said the report. Before Valdecir's death, ASI had been cited by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration for various safety violations.