Robert Meehan was working for Flag Container Services, a private sanitation company, when a Dumpster he was emptying onto the back of a garbage truck at Richmond County CC in Staten Island, N.Y. became dislodged and fell on him. Flag Container was fined for safety violations after an investigation of the accident, but is not named in the suit, which contends the club overfilled the container with unsuitable material. Richmond County CC, which did not comment, could still bring Flag Container into the suit, according to the lawyer for Meehan’s sister, who filed the action.
The sister of a private sanitation worker who was killed in 2014 while unloading a Dumpster at the Richmond County Country Club golf course in Staten Island, N.Y. has filed a wrongful death suit against the club on her brother’s behalf, the Staten Island Advance reported.
The suit, filed by Tabatha Sajeva on January 12 in state Supreme Court in St. George, N.Y., alleges the country club’s negligence, carelessness and recklessness resulted in her brother Robert Meehan’s death on Nov. 12, 2014, the Advance reported.
Meehan, 40, of Hazlet, N.J., suffered severe head and torso trauma when a 10-foot Dumpster he was emptying onto the back of a garbage truck at the golf course became dislodged and fell on him, pinning him between the Dumpster and a cinder block wall. He was taken to Staten Island University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the Advance reported.
The lawsuit claims the country club overfilled the container with material that was unsuitable for it, the Advance reported, including long, rigid pieces of trash, like PVC conduit and nested plastic plant pots, that caused it to become dislodged from the truck and strike Meehan.
The country club knew, or at least should have known, that improperly loading the Dumpster with those items was contrary to its proper use, the suit contends.
While Meehan’s employer, Flag Container Services, is not named in the suit, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has fined the company for multiple serious safety violations following its own investigation of the fatal accident, the Advance reported.
OSHA’s investigation found that the Port Richmond, N.Y.-based company’s truck wasn’t equipped with the necessary latching devices needed to secure the Dumpster, which left it susceptible to becoming dislodged from the back sill of the truck, the Advance reported.
Last May, the agency fined Flag Container Services a total of $12,400, including $7,000 for the Dumpster-latching violation, which OSHA spokesman Ted Fitzgerald said was the maximum fine it could propose for a “serious” violation, the Advance reported.
Alan Karmazin, the lawyer for Sajeva, said Flag Container Services was not named as a defendant in the suit because state labor laws generally prevent workers from directly suing their employer for work-related injuries, the Advance reported
Flag Container Services could, however, still be held liable for Meehan’s death should Richmond County CC bring them into the lawsuit, as is their right, Karmazin said.
A representative for the country club did not respond to a request for comment on the suit, the Advance reported.
Flag Container Services is associated with and operates out of the same office as Formica Construction, which OSHA also fined last year for workplace safety violations following the death of an employee, the Advance reported.
William J. Formica Jr. is the principal executive officer for both Formica Construction and Flag Container Services, according to state Division of Corporations records.
Formica employee Delfino Velazquez, 43, suffocated when the mezzanine of the old Dana Ford Lincoln car dealership in Travis collapsed on him and three other workers who were demolishing the building on Nov. 28, 2014, just 16 days after Meehan’s death, the Advance reported,
Unlike Flag Container Services, which accepted OSHA’s fines, Formica is contesting the $121,000 in penalties it faces in the aftermath of Velazquez’s death, the Advance reported. The construction company, which has repeatedly declined comment about the incident, has been in negotiations with the Labor Department about settling the fines since December, but a settlement has yet to be reached.
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