Friday, May 17, 2024

Oklahoma Trucking Company Seeks To Seal Lawsuit Documents From Public After Explosion Killed Contractor

A Minco firm is looking for to have court docket paperwork hidden from public view because it denies wrongdoing in a Sept. 8, 2021 worksite explosion that killed Joey Bonds, a contracted welder and father of 5.  

Kristin Bonds, Joey’s spouse, mentioned she nonetheless thinks of him each day.  

“My house still looks like he never left,” mentioned Kristin. “His fishing poles are still in the dining room. His clothes are still hanging up in the closet. His dog still looks for him.”  

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“That day I lost everything in 2.5 seconds. I lost my spouse, I lost my best friend, I lost my fairy tale,” she mentioned.  

At the time of the explosion, Joey Bonds was engaged on a leak in a trailer that belonged to Firestone Trucking Inc. on the firm’s worksite in Minco.  Bonds, a contractor, was killed immediately after the explosion. The father of 5 was 40 years previous.  

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cited the corporate for 2 “serious” violations, together with not notifying a contractor of fireplace hazards present in gear being repaired.  

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Bonds was employed to restore a leak in a trailer, in keeping with the report. The day previous to the restore, the trailer carried 150 gallons of “oil/gas production water,” which is flammable. The firm admitted to not cleansing the trailer previous to instructing Bonds to restore it, in keeping with the OSHA report.  

Bonds’ lawsuit, filed in Grady County district court docket, goes one step additional. She claims the corporate “deliberately failed to warn Bonds” of the flammable supplies within the trailer.  

Firestone Trucking denies all wrongdoing, in keeping with legal professional Joshua Poovey.  

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“Our client, Firestone Trucking, is sympathetic to the Bonds family and grieves their loss as a result of this tragic accident. Firestone denies the allegations raised against it. We will not comment further at this time due to the pending litigation,” Poovey mentioned in an electronic mail to News 9.  

In its response to the lawsuit petition, Firestone Trucking urged that Bonds ought to have been in a position to discover the flammable materials within the truck.  

“The condition was open and obvious to Joey Bonds,” the corporate wrote.  

Firestone and its insurer, Zurich American Insurance Company, requested the court docket to seal a number of paperwork together with Kristin Bonds’ petition and particulars from the OSHA report. The paperwork might affect potential jurors “in a manner not condoned by Oklahoma.”  

Paul Kolker, an legal professional for Kristin, objected to the businesses’ movement to seal. He mentioned the OSHA report and different paperwork are publicly obtainable and present “the truth.”  

“These are things that are publicly accessible but for some reason this company did not want them to be part of the record,” Kolker mentioned.  

The movement to seal can be argued earlier than a Grady County decide in December.  

More than something, Kristin mentioned she desires to stop one other tragedy on a worksite.  

“It needs to be corrected so nobody else has to go through the same pain that me and my kids are going through,” Kristin mentioned. “I mean we wake up every morning and the biggest person that was in our home is not there.” 





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