Callahan & Blaine

Twenty-year-old Declan Sullivan was killed while filming a University of Notre Dame football practice from a hydraulic scissor lift as part of his on-campus job. The lift was extended to a height that just exceeded the football goal posts, and either blew over or collapsed in a strong gust of wind during the team’s practice, slashing a nearby fence.

Sullivan, who was in the lift when it toppled, appeared initially responsive to emergency personnel, but stopped breathing en route to the hospital and was declared dead shortly after arrival. There was a high wind advisory in South Bend, Indiana when the accident occurred.

In an eerie premonition, Sullivan made two posts to his Twitter feed about the strong winds shortly before he was killed. Notre Dame’s athletic director, Jack Swarbrick says he did not notice high winds at the time, and adds “there is a lot to learn here; we will learn it all… We will learn it in an expeditious manner.” In general, the University has been vague in its public responses, pending an investigation by Indiana’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Indiana OSHA is treating the accident as a workplace fatality because Sullivan, a film major, was a student employee at Notre Dame who was on the job when the accident occurred. Safety experts say that scissor lifts should not be operated in wind speeds above 25mph, and the forecast the day of the accident called for winds between 30 and 50 mph. There are also questions about whether Sullivan signed a waiver in accordance with University policy recognizing that the lifts are potentially dangerous, or whether he ever received training to safely operate the lift.

Callahan & Blaine, California’s premier litigation firm, is one of the leading catastrophic injury firms in the state of California. In fact, in the last five years alone our lawyers have obtained over $1.2 billion in verdicts and settlements, including a $7 million settlement for a cyclist who was left with a traumatic brain injury after being struck by a newspaper delivery truck, and a $7.25 million settlement in a case when a man was run over trying to board a city bus in Orange County, California.

Our success in litigating and negotiating personal injury cases comes from our uncommon approach; we handle each personal injury case as though it were a complex business litigation case, attacking it from every angle possible. While our firm is located in Orange County, California, we handle serious personal injury, wrongful death and product liability cases nationwide.

If you or someone you know has suffered a catastrophic injury or died as the result of a workplace accident, please contact our California law firm for expert legal counsel.