Driver’s family sues his employer

The company began installing warning systems in the months after the accident.

STAFF REPORT

WARREN — The wife of a man who died when his roll-off garbage container truck struck a bridge overpass on state Route 11 in December 2007 because its hydraulic “boom” was in the upright position has sued the company that employed him.

Angela Cross, wife of Raymond Cross Jr. of Mercer, Pa., filed the suit this week in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, seeking at least $25,000 in damages from Tri-County Industries Inc. of Grove City, Pa., and several allied companies.

The suit said Tri-County maintained the truck Cross was driving in a hazardous condition, which caused Cross’ accident.

The suit said the accident might have been prevented if Tri-County hadn’t removed or failed to maintain a sensor system that would have alerted its driver that the truck’s “boom” was not in its retracted position.

Edward Vogel, vice president of Tri-County, said shortly after the accident a roll-off truck operator uses controls inside the truck to raise the hoist to leave off a garbage container. Afterward, he uses the controls to return the hoist to its down position.

Vogel could not be reached to comment on the suit Thursday, but in the weeks after the accident, he said no safety device is in use on such trucks that would prevent them from being driven with the hoist in the air because the trucks need to be able to move forward or backward while the hoist is raised.

By January, however, the company had begun to install a “boom” warning system on some of its trucks, Vogel said at that time.

The case is assigned to Judge W. Wyatt McKay.