ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 13, 1996 TAG: 9602130118
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
note: above
The manufacturer of a recycling truck has agreed to pay nearly $1 million to a Roanoke sanitation worker who lost his leg when the truck overturned in 1992.
Brent Brown, a Roanoke lawyer who represented Jerome Claytor, said General Engines Co. was negligent in designing the truck, making it top-heavy and prone to the kind of accident that injured Claytor.
General Engines agreed Monday to settle the case as it was going to trial in Roanoke Circuit Court. The decision was reached after a judge ruled that witnesses would be allowed to testify about problems with other trucks made by the company.
"This is a case about corporate accountability," Brown said. "As the result of cases like this, we may be able to save the legs or the lives of other people."
Nineteen similar trucks designed by General Engines experienced stability problems in other cities before they were taken out of service, Brown said. The accident that resulted in Claytor's injury was the most serious.
Claytor was a passenger in the truck - an "Eager Beaver" side-loading recycling truck - when it was making a U-turn in a church parking lot off Melrose Avenue Northwest on Aug. 17, 1992.
The truck, "a trouble-plagued model" that had too much weight on the right side, toppled over to the right, severing Claytor's right leg below his knee, Brown said.
At the time of the accident, the truck had been on the road just three weeks.
Human error was ruled out as a cause of the accident, Brown said.
The lawsuit, which sought $5 million in damages, claimed that the truck was designed by the Florida-based company "in such a way that the weight differential caused the truck to be unstable." The $73,000 truck has been taken out of service.
The exact amount of damages is still being worked out in an annuity, Brown said, but the approximate amount is $970,000.
Claytor, a former high school track star who was 27 at the time of the accident, still works for the city as a dispatcher.
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