Thank you all for input
I like to thank everybody for your input.
My job for the county is equipment operator.
I became the operator of this machine after the accident, again this was not me who was involved.
I went thru Local 150 IUOE apprenticeship program back in the 70's.
I am looking to retired in 2 years.
The machine I operate is a Badger Cruz-Air 1085C rubber tire excavator.
Being employed by a municipality we are not cover by OSHA but rather by Wisconsin Commerce Dept. which adapts most of OSHA rules.
The operator at that time ran over a gentleman on a Bike.
After seeing what happen.
This is one of the reason why I move cautious
I will share with you the newspaper articles of the accident of this machine.
This happen back in 2005.
County doesn’t retire backhoe
BY CORRINNE HESS KENOSHA NEWS
Family members of a man hit by a Kenosha County backhoe said they were shocked to learn last week that the county is continuing to use the machinery, despite court testimony that it is unsafe.
Milutin Vukmir was driving to his Bristol home last week when he spotted the 22-ton Cruz-Air excavator being used at highways 45 and 50.
Vukmir thought the county would have retired the vehicle after an expert witness testified in June that William S. Prescott, the driver who struck his brother Dale Tudjan in August 2004, was unable to see out of the excavator.
“If that was truly the case, how can the county allow its workers to keep driving it ?” Vukmir said. “To me that is gross negligence. It is the equivalent of you or I driving with a smashed windshield.”
Gary Sipsma, director of the county Division of Highways, said the people who use the excavator reviewed the Prescott accident and are aware of the situation.
“I don’t believe any modifications have been done to the machine itself,” Sipsma said. “We really didn’t have any problems prior to that accident and haven’t had any problems since.”
Sipsma said the county has two identical excavators that are used daily for work including ditch digging and cleaning.
Sipsma said while he can understand why the Tudjan family is upset, the county relies heavily on the machinery.
“It is a very useful piece of equipment,” Sipsma said. “There is always a backlog of work that has to be done.”
Prescott, 46, of Elkhorn, struck Tudjan, 39, of Bristol Aug. 13,2004, while Tudjan was riding his bicycle on Highway 45 just south of Highway 50.
Prescott reportedly drove onto the north shoulder to let faster traffic pass and hit Tudjan.
During his trial, defense expert Albert E. Klais said the excavator’s bucket arm, the bucket arm’s support and the edge of the cab had all blocked Prescott’s view of Tudjan nearly the entire time he drove toward him on Highway 45.
Jurors found Prescott, who is still employed by Kenosha County, responsible for the crash and fined him $50 plus court costs for a total of $181.
The Tudjan family didn’t fare as well.
Dale Tudjan suffered 11 critical injuries from the accident, including a skull fracture and brain hemorrhage. His left leg was amputated above the knee on Aug. 17,2004.
He is currently living at the Mount Carmel brain injury facility in Milwaukee.
Tudjan is still unable to walk and is fed though a tube.
Communication is slight. He gives his brothers, who visit him four to five times a week, a thumbs up or down sign, but is often unaware of his surroundings.
“We ask him questions and he fails about 50 percent of the time,” Vukmir said. “It is hard to say if he knows who we are. I think he senses it because we are there a lot, but as far as if he knows what happened prior to the accident, we’ll never know.”
Dale’s brothers, Milutin Vukmir and Dean Tudjan, filed a claim against Kenosha County and were awarded $50,000 in July — the maximum amount the Tudjan’s could collect from a municipal government under Wisconsin’s liability caps.
Article 2:
Court fines driver in bike crash
BY JESSICA HANSEN KENOSHA NEWS
A Kenosha County backhoe operator was found guilty and fined Tuesday for an accident that led an amputation and other injuries for a Bristol bicyclist.
Jurors deliberated about two hours Tuesday before finding that William S. Prescott failed to keep a safe distance when he struck the bicyclist, Dale S. Tudjan, 39. Tudjan was riding south of Highway 50 on Highway 45 in Bristol last August when Prescott reportedly drove onto the shoulder to let faster traffic pass.
Prescott, 46, of Elkhorn, said the excavator he drove only reached 12 to 17 mph, and he said he hugged the centerline to keep the oversized machine squarely on the road.
Passing was dangerous, but he testified Monday that drivers had passed him illegally earlier that August day.
As he drove through Bristol, near Highway 50, Prescott said he looked over his left shoulder and saw a dump truck. He thought the truck was about to pass, so he moved to the right. He wanted to avoid an accident, he said.
Instead, when Prescott looked back ahead, he saw a bicyclist on the road’s shoulder. He could not avoid a crash.
“There was a cloud of dust from the gravel on the shoulder,” said Jack T. Ross Jr., a truck driver and a former member of the Salem Fire Department, who witnessed the accident.
“Then, I saw the man (on the bicycle) do, like, a complete turn and a half being thrown to the side,” he said.
“There wasn’t enough time to grab my air horn or do anything to stop it,” said Johnny Lunetta, another truck driver who saw the accident. “He just disappeared under the tire and got spit out.”
The accident would not have happened if Prescott had maintained a safe distance as required by law, Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Tracey Braun argued. Under the law, that safe distance is no less than three feet.
Defense attorney Fred Zievers argued that Tudjan, not Prescott, breached that safe space. Zievers suggested Tudjan “panicked” when he realized the 22-ton vehicle was so close and turned to look, inadvertently turning his bicycle into the vehicle’s path.
Zievers also argued that Prescott could not see Tudjan to avoid him. Braun said Prescott is responsible for the crash, regardless whether or how long he could see Tudjan.
Two experts testified about how much time Prescott might have had to spot Tudjan.
One accident reconstruction showed Tudjan did disappear in Prescott’s blindspot for about one second, when Tudjan was between 20 and 50 feet from the excavator, Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department Capt. Gary Preston said. But, Preston added, Tudjan would have reappeared within two to three seconds before impact.
Defense expert Albert E. Klais said the excavator’s bucket arm, the bucket arm’s support and the edge of the cab all blocked Prescott’s view of Tudjan nearly the entire time he drove toward him on Highway 45.
Jurors found Prescott was responsible for the crash, despite the reported visibility issues. Prescott got a $50 fine and was ordered to pay court costs, for a total of $181, according to Kenosha County Circuit Court records.
But while jurors held Prescott accountable, defense lawyer Zievers said the real responsibility rests with county officials, who allowed an 8.4-foot vehicle without side mirrors to drive on an 8.5-foot roadway. That, despite concerns about unsafe turning and other driving issues with the machine, which Prescott said he shared with a supervisor.
“The county put it out unescorted. The county put it out without mirrors on. The county put it out there without flagmen. The county put it out without a flat bed to drive it” the seven miles from a work site to the Kenosha County Center, Zievers said.
