The family of a 19-year-old man who died in an accident involving an aerial work platform received a $1.7 million settlement in September 2021 in their Monmouth County wrongful death suit.
The plaintiff was working at Six Flags Great Adventure, where workers were stringing holiday lights on trees and poles, when he was struck by the front tire of an aerial work platform. The plaintiff was acting as a spotter, walking beside the machine, when the tire hit him and rolled on top of him and stopped. The operator, another Six Flags employee, reversed the machine off of the plaintiff, and he was taken by helicopter to a local hospital, where he died of internal injuries, according to Peter Chamas of Gill & Chamas in Woodbridge, who represented the family.
Chamas filed suit against the defendant who rented the work platform to Six Flags. Chamas also claimed the defendant failed to train Six Flags’ employees to use the machine safely, that its mistakes caused the other employee to operate a machine he was not qualified to use, and that the other employee’s actions caused the death of the young man. Because of the workers’ compensation statutes barring claims against the employer, a claim could not be brought against Six Flags Great Adventure.
The settlement was reached in late July before a scheduled mediation.
