$1 Million Jury Verdict After Backhoe Bucket Injures Foreman

When two heavy, motorized-equipment vehicles commonly used at road construction sites collided, one man was seriously injured. The foreman of a resurfacing crew was operating a roller when he was struck by the bucket on the rear of a backhoe and knocked off.

In a two-week trial, Blume, Goldfaden Principal John Blume demonstrated to an Essex County jury that both the roller seat and steering wheel were crushed in the collision that knocked the worker off the roller and that the driver of the backhoe was at fault. The jury awarded $1 million to the worker, now 41, who lost a kidney and also suffered a lacerated spleen and four fractured ribs.