By MARA H. GOTTFRIED | [email protected]
UPDATED: October 20, 2016 at 8:11 am
http://www.twincities.com/2016/10/1...-for-man-struck-by-800-pound-log-outside-bar/
Delmer Fladwood never saw the 800-pound log careening toward him in St. Paul almost four years ago. The last things he remembers before it hit him on a winter afternoon in 2013 was leaving work, going to a neighborhood bar on West Seventh Street and stepping outside.
People had gathered to watch a St. Paul forestry crew cut down a massive tree across the street. Workers had removed the tree’s upper limbs and put them in the street to create a “crash pad” for the tree’s main trunk.
But when the tree toppled onto the logs, at least two of them flew across the street, striking Fladwood, then 65, in the legs, according to a lawsuit he filed against the city of St. Paul.
“I’ll never be back to normal,” Fladwood, of St. Paul, said this week. He suffered broken bones in both legs and a severed artery, leading to five surgeries and three months in the hospital.
“I’ve got titanium in both my legs. If you look at the X-ray, you wouldn’t believe all the breaks in them. My femur was just shattered like a tea cup.” The St. Paul City Council voted Wednesday to approve a $500,000 settlement to Fladwood, 69.
If Fladwood’s lawsuit had gone to trial, the central question would have been: Was the incident negligence on the city’s part?St. Paul City Attorney Samuel Clark calls it an accident.
“One of our city employees was standing right next to Mr. Fladwood, which underlines what an awful, terrible freak accident this was,” Clark said Wednesday. “It could have just as easily been one of our own employees. I think at this point everyone feels awful and is ready to move on and put this terrible accident behind the city.”
But Fladwood’s attorney said the city’s practice of using logs as a “crash pad” left spectators in harm’s way.
“I don’t think it would take a rocket scientist to figure out if a massive, massive elm lands on the logs in the street, you don’t know where the logs are going to go,” said Elliot Olsen. “… Here’s a guy who was a completely innocent bystander, he’s not an expert in taking down trees, he’s not the one who’s supposed to anticipate this is going to happen. The process the city used was sort of a ticking time bomb. It was only a matter of time before it injured a member of the crew or a bystander like it did here.”
St. Paul immediately made changes. Fladwood was injured on a Friday and all forestry workers met the Monday morning that followed “to review and strengthen the standard of securing the work zone for both traffic and pedestrian safety,” according to a 2013 email from St. Paul’s forestry supervisor.
The department stopped using tree debris “as a cushion for protection of paved surfaces” when cutting down large trees, according to the email, though St. Paul Parks and Recreation spokeswoman Clare Cloyd said that’s “still an accepted practice in the industry.” St. Paul now uses large steel plates to cushion a large tree’s fall, Cloyd said.
After the incident, forestry crews began using a form to document traffic and pedestrian safety in work zones. On high-traffic sites, they now assign at least one worker whose sole job is making sure pedestrians and traffic don’t get too close, Cloyd said. The city also purchased two-way radios and headphones for crews, for better communication.
The city reviewed what happened in 2013 and determined “no discipline was appropriate or necessary” for employees, Cloyd said.
Jan. 4, 2013, began as a normal day for Fladwood. The independent computer consultant finished his work and dropped by the Spot Bar at the corner of Randolph Avenue and Victoria Street. Fladwood arrived at 1:30 p.m., sipped a rum and Coke, then headed outside about 10 minutes later.
At least five other people were watching as the workers prepared to pull down the American elm, which the city determined had Dutch elm disease. The tree across the street from the bar was 60 feet tall and 4 feet in diameter and estimated to be 120 to 160 years old.
Fladwood’s lawsuit said city workers did not rope off the sidewalk near the bar or tell pedestrians not to stand there, but the city said in a court document “that it used a city employee rather than a rope to keep bystanders at a safe distance from the tree felling.”
When the tree was toppled and the logs flew, the same one that struck Fladwood hit or barely missed a St. Paul worker who also fell to the ground, according to the lawsuit. The city estimated the log that struck Fladwood was 7 feet long, more than 1½ feet wide and 826 pounds.
“I don’t remember anything,” Fladwood said this week. “I remember going outside and hearing a crack or something and next thing I knew, paramedics were there.”
Fladwood, who is a Vietnam War veteran, asked to be taken to the VA Medical Center, but paramedics told him he needed to go to a trauma center because of the severity of his injuries. He wound up at Regions Hospital. “When they lifted me off the gurney at the hospital, someone said my leg was bleeding like a faucet,” Fladwood said. An artery in his leg had been severed and Fladwood required emergency surgery.
Fladwood filed a lawsuit against the city of St. Paul in 2014, but the city responded in a court document that Fladwood “assumed the risk of being near the tree felling operation” and claimed official immunity. “The city’s argument was that the decision to use the ‘crash pad’ was protected by official immunity, which doesn’t deny that what happened to him was awful, just the city wasn’t liable,” said Clark, the city attorney.
But the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled earlier this year that the facts of the case did not allow the city to claim official immunity. St. Paul filed an appeal with the Minnesota Supreme Court, which declined to take the case, and the city and Fladwood agreed to settle.
“The city refused to accept any responsibility, and we had to chase them all the way to the Minnesota Court of Appeals,” said Olsen, Fladwood’s attorney. “… They claimed they’re immune from it, but why should the city be treated any different than anybody else who’s done something stupid like this?”
Fladwood’s permanent injuries, pain and suffering, lost wages and medical expenses are far greater than the settlement amount, Olsen said, but state law sets $500,000 as the maximum amount a municipality can be liable for in a tort lawsuit.
Philbert
UPDATED: October 20, 2016 at 8:11 am
http://www.twincities.com/2016/10/1...-for-man-struck-by-800-pound-log-outside-bar/
Delmer Fladwood never saw the 800-pound log careening toward him in St. Paul almost four years ago. The last things he remembers before it hit him on a winter afternoon in 2013 was leaving work, going to a neighborhood bar on West Seventh Street and stepping outside.
People had gathered to watch a St. Paul forestry crew cut down a massive tree across the street. Workers had removed the tree’s upper limbs and put them in the street to create a “crash pad” for the tree’s main trunk.
But when the tree toppled onto the logs, at least two of them flew across the street, striking Fladwood, then 65, in the legs, according to a lawsuit he filed against the city of St. Paul.
“I’ll never be back to normal,” Fladwood, of St. Paul, said this week. He suffered broken bones in both legs and a severed artery, leading to five surgeries and three months in the hospital.
“I’ve got titanium in both my legs. If you look at the X-ray, you wouldn’t believe all the breaks in them. My femur was just shattered like a tea cup.” The St. Paul City Council voted Wednesday to approve a $500,000 settlement to Fladwood, 69.
If Fladwood’s lawsuit had gone to trial, the central question would have been: Was the incident negligence on the city’s part?St. Paul City Attorney Samuel Clark calls it an accident.
“One of our city employees was standing right next to Mr. Fladwood, which underlines what an awful, terrible freak accident this was,” Clark said Wednesday. “It could have just as easily been one of our own employees. I think at this point everyone feels awful and is ready to move on and put this terrible accident behind the city.”
But Fladwood’s attorney said the city’s practice of using logs as a “crash pad” left spectators in harm’s way.
“I don’t think it would take a rocket scientist to figure out if a massive, massive elm lands on the logs in the street, you don’t know where the logs are going to go,” said Elliot Olsen. “… Here’s a guy who was a completely innocent bystander, he’s not an expert in taking down trees, he’s not the one who’s supposed to anticipate this is going to happen. The process the city used was sort of a ticking time bomb. It was only a matter of time before it injured a member of the crew or a bystander like it did here.”
St. Paul immediately made changes. Fladwood was injured on a Friday and all forestry workers met the Monday morning that followed “to review and strengthen the standard of securing the work zone for both traffic and pedestrian safety,” according to a 2013 email from St. Paul’s forestry supervisor.
The department stopped using tree debris “as a cushion for protection of paved surfaces” when cutting down large trees, according to the email, though St. Paul Parks and Recreation spokeswoman Clare Cloyd said that’s “still an accepted practice in the industry.” St. Paul now uses large steel plates to cushion a large tree’s fall, Cloyd said.
After the incident, forestry crews began using a form to document traffic and pedestrian safety in work zones. On high-traffic sites, they now assign at least one worker whose sole job is making sure pedestrians and traffic don’t get too close, Cloyd said. The city also purchased two-way radios and headphones for crews, for better communication.
The city reviewed what happened in 2013 and determined “no discipline was appropriate or necessary” for employees, Cloyd said.
Jan. 4, 2013, began as a normal day for Fladwood. The independent computer consultant finished his work and dropped by the Spot Bar at the corner of Randolph Avenue and Victoria Street. Fladwood arrived at 1:30 p.m., sipped a rum and Coke, then headed outside about 10 minutes later.
At least five other people were watching as the workers prepared to pull down the American elm, which the city determined had Dutch elm disease. The tree across the street from the bar was 60 feet tall and 4 feet in diameter and estimated to be 120 to 160 years old.
Fladwood’s lawsuit said city workers did not rope off the sidewalk near the bar or tell pedestrians not to stand there, but the city said in a court document “that it used a city employee rather than a rope to keep bystanders at a safe distance from the tree felling.”
When the tree was toppled and the logs flew, the same one that struck Fladwood hit or barely missed a St. Paul worker who also fell to the ground, according to the lawsuit. The city estimated the log that struck Fladwood was 7 feet long, more than 1½ feet wide and 826 pounds.
“I don’t remember anything,” Fladwood said this week. “I remember going outside and hearing a crack or something and next thing I knew, paramedics were there.”
Fladwood, who is a Vietnam War veteran, asked to be taken to the VA Medical Center, but paramedics told him he needed to go to a trauma center because of the severity of his injuries. He wound up at Regions Hospital. “When they lifted me off the gurney at the hospital, someone said my leg was bleeding like a faucet,” Fladwood said. An artery in his leg had been severed and Fladwood required emergency surgery.
Fladwood filed a lawsuit against the city of St. Paul in 2014, but the city responded in a court document that Fladwood “assumed the risk of being near the tree felling operation” and claimed official immunity. “The city’s argument was that the decision to use the ‘crash pad’ was protected by official immunity, which doesn’t deny that what happened to him was awful, just the city wasn’t liable,” said Clark, the city attorney.
But the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled earlier this year that the facts of the case did not allow the city to claim official immunity. St. Paul filed an appeal with the Minnesota Supreme Court, which declined to take the case, and the city and Fladwood agreed to settle.
“The city refused to accept any responsibility, and we had to chase them all the way to the Minnesota Court of Appeals,” said Olsen, Fladwood’s attorney. “… They claimed they’re immune from it, but why should the city be treated any different than anybody else who’s done something stupid like this?”
Fladwood’s permanent injuries, pain and suffering, lost wages and medical expenses are far greater than the settlement amount, Olsen said, but state law sets $500,000 as the maximum amount a municipality can be liable for in a tort lawsuit.
Philbert
