A man who was badly injured when more than five tons of steel sheet pilings fell on him is suing the state’s largest construction company over the incident.
Eric Jabbusch of Greene filed the lawsuit in Androscoggin Superior Court on Tuesday. No dollar amount for damages is mentioned, but the suit asks for compensation for Jabbusch’s past and future medical expenses, pain and suffering, loss of income, disfigurement and permanent impairment.
Jabbusch was injured in July 2020 while working on an overpass project on Interstate 95 between Hermon and Hampden. Cianbro is based in Pittsfield and was the lead contractor on the job. Jabbusch worked for a subcontractor, H.B. Fleming of South Portland.
Both Jabbusch and a spokeswoman for Cianbro declined to comment Wednesday. However, Jabbusch’s lawyer, Travis Brennan, said in a statement that Cianbro “took inexcusable shortcuts that left over 10,000 pounds of metal dangerously unsecured. While Cianbro paid (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) fines and gets to move on with business as usual, Eric is left to cope with the fallout of his total blindness and profound crush injuries for the rest of his life.”
According to the suit, Cianbro was responsible for transporting the metal pilings, which were used to retain soil, to the job site. There were six pilings transported on the day of the accident, and each one was 35 feet long, 4.5 feet wide and weighed about 3,500 pounds.
The pilings were divided into two sets, the suit alleges, which were placed one on top of the other on a flatbed trailer. At the job site, according to the suit, the top set of three pilings slid off and hit Jabbusch, then 50 years old, pinning him underneath the metal.
The accident crushed Jabbusch’s pelvis, fractured his face and crushed ribs on both sides of his chest, the suit said, leaving him permanently blind and with difficulty walking, the lawsuit says.
Jabbusch was taken to Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor and later transferred to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, the suit says.
The suit said an investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Cianbro for failing to take steps to keep the metal material from sliding, falling or collapsing, and Cianbro acknowledged violating safety standards and paid fines.
The suit alleges that Cianbro failed to develop an adequate safety plan for loading and unloading the pilings and failed to train workers how to safely load and unload the material.
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