Time Warner Cable Pays $5.6 Million for Restaurant Explosion Friday Aug 28 2015 16:43 EDT Tipped by mob Two years ago we noted that fiber construction in Kansas City resulted in a restaurant exploding, killing one local and injuring fifteen others. The cause of the explosion was a gas main clipped by Heartland Midwest, which had been subcontracted to extend a fiber-optic line for Time Warner Cable. DSLReports.com reader mob directs our attention to a local KMBC report that notes Time Warner Cable was found guilty of the explosion and forced to pay $5.78 million. Time Warner Cable was found culpable for 98% of the damage, with the restaurant owners liable for 2% -- even though their lawyer argued that a poorly-marked utility line played a starring role in the accident: quote:
JJ's restaurant was determined to be 2 percent responsible in the case. USIC, the company that marked the underground gas lines, was not found to be liable, something that surprised JJ's attorney Steve Emerson. "Our theory of the case was that there were three utiilty lines that should have been marked and they only marked two, but the jury heard the evidence and disagreed with that," said Emerson. "So be it. We respect their verdict."
By and large poorly-labeled utility lines are often at the heart of these kinds of accidents, with gas-line ruptures surging every time there's a push to install notably more fiber. |
 gar187erI do this for a living
join:2006-06-24
Dover, DE
kudos:5 |
wtf....call me crazy, but how is a MSO found guilty in this?!?!?
They hired a contractor to do a job.
That contractor called in a ticket for locates.
The locates are then handled by a locate company.
Locate company fails to mark a gas line that only the gas company and locate company knows about; The same one that the the locate company SHOULD have marked but didnt.
Yet a JURY finds that the MSO is guilty?!?!?! | | | |
smk11
Member
2015-Aug-28 4:51 pm
Insurance company pays $5.6M just doesn't have the same ring...Non-story.
$1.20 insurance premium increase fee will be on your next bill. | | | |
Flyonthewall
Anon
2015-Aug-28 7:16 pm
Jury made the right callUltimately the digging wouldn't be happening if TWC hadn't order the dig. Doesn't matter if TWC didn't intend to cause an explosion, they had to know it could happen, they pushed the ball down the hill to begin with. That's why you don't drive drunk, because of what could happen. Yet you still have to have insurance in case of what 'might' happen. Same rules apply to this. | |
How about .. |
