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Our client was a painter who was hired to do some work on an elevated subway line, painting the steel structure that supported the train tracks. He needed to use a hydraulic lift to reach the area, but the machine they gave him wasn’t working properly from day one. When raising the platform he was standing on, the hydraulics would randomly stall, and he’d have to fiddle with the controls to get it working again.
He immediately brought the issue to his supervisors’ attention but was told not to worry about it. Rather than providing him with a new lift, they told him to keep playing around with the controls until they worked. Feeling he had no choice, that’s what our client did — and the results were tragic.
One day, the lift stalled. As he was trying to correct the problem, the machine suddenly reactivated and jutted forward. Our client became pinned between the lift and the train trestle. He could have died; thankfully, he managed to free himself and lower down. But his life would never be the same again.
Our client required back, neck, shoulder, and hip surgery. Though he was more than 20 years away from retirement age, he has not been able to work since the accident in 2013, and he probably never will work again.
StolzenbergCortelli LLP
305 Old Tarrytown Rd.
White Plains, NY
10603
99 Main Street
Nyack, NY
10960
26 Court Street
Brooklyn, NY
11242
55 Old Turnpike Rd
#502
Nanuet, NY
10954
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