MARTA Agrees to Pay $17 Million to the Family of Man Killed Due to Workplace Negligence
The lawsuit arose out of the death of Robert Smith, a contractor who died on June 3, 2018 while performing work as part of a project to install a cellular wireless system in MARTA’s stations and tunnels.
On the day of his death, Rob and his crew were installing conduit in a tunnel on MARTA’s rail line. The work was part of a cellular wireless project that would allow passengers and MARTA employees to access their cell phones in underground stations and tunnels. Smith Electric was a subcontractor on the project.
At the end of the workday on June 3rd, Rob had to remove his on-track equipment (“OTE”) from a hi-rail access point that was near the work area. MARTA’s primary flag person was responsible for obtaining authority from the MARTA control center to move the OTE outside the work area to ensure trains would be blocked from entering that section of track. Without obtaining the necessary approval, the primary flag person sent Rob to the hi-rail access point, which had live train traffic. Rob was unaware MARTA’s flag person had failed to get approval from rail control and that the area had live train traffic.
After driving the OTE up to the hi-rail access point, Rob was positioned in front of the OTE preparing it for removal when a MARTA train arrived at a nearby station approximately 150 to 200 feet south of the hi-rail access point. The MARTA primary flag person did not see the train because he was positioned at the front of the OTE talking to Rob and the train approached from the back. Rob did not see it either. A MARTA secondary flag person was positioned near the work area when the train arrived. That flag person saw the train arrive, but he did not alert Rob or the primary flag person to the train, nor did he let the train operator know that workers were ahead on the track.
The OTE is clearly visible on the track ahead whenever the train pulled into the station. After dropping passengers at the station, the train operator was on the left side of the operator’s compartment with his back to the track when he pressed a button that allowed the train to move forward automatically without the operator looking ahead. As the train moved forward and got closer to the OTE, MARTA’s secondary flag person tried to shout “train” to alert Rob and the primary flag person but they could not hear him due to noise from the OTE. The secondary flag person did not have a whistle or air horn either, even though MARTA’s rules required that he have one. The train operator turned around and saw the impending collision approximately 4 seconds before impact, but by then it was too late to stop the train. The train crashed into the back of the truck and the truck hit Rob, causing his death.
Smith’s surviving wife, Michelle Smith, hired Darl Champion of The Champion Firm, P.C., and co-counsel Rudjard Hayes of Sanchez Hayes & Associates, shortly after her husband Rob’s death. The lawsuit against MARTA was filed in Fulton County Superior Court in 2018. MARTA originally refused to acknowledge 100% responsibility for Rob’s death and attempted to blame him and a co-worker as being partially responsible for the incident.
After extensive litigation over a year and a half, which included the depositions of more than 20 MARTA employees, MARTA brought in a new law firm to take over the defense. At that point, the strategy changed. MARTA accepted that it was 100% negligent in causing Rob’s death but now it argued that the Workers’ Compensation Act’s exclusive remedy provision barred the Plaintiff’s claims entirely. As a result, MARTA argued it had no liability at all for Rob’s death.
Extensive discovery was conducted on the exclusive remedy defenses. After a nearly seven hour hearing before Judge Emily Richardson in June 2021, the judge informed the parties in November 2021 that she was rejecting the exclusive remedy defenses MARTA had raised.
In March 2022, faced with the prospect of a trial for Rob Smith’s death, MARTA agreed to settle all claims against MARTA and its employees for $17 million.
