I worked for a 3PL as an Industrial Engineer and Project Manager for new construction. We were building a 350,000 SF warehouse on a site in Indiana. We hired civil engineers to provide the site design and the excavator who in turn hired the engineering company as their sub to do all the layout for the cut and fill (leveling of the site by scraping the high spots and depositing in the low spots in addition to digging a retention pond for stormwater runoff control.
One of the engineers (rookie) apparently had set up his transit right in the middle of the "haul road" the dozer used as he pulled a scraper behind him to dig the retention basin and deposit the excavated fill where the building was laid out. He set up just below the crest of the hill with his back to traffic and was wearing ear muffs due to the cold. He had no spotter.
Needless to say, the dozer operator never saw him as he came up from the basin and over the crest. He ran over the engineer repeatedly and dragged his body over the site never realizing he was even there. No one witnessed the event and the dozer operator only stopped when he saw what he thought was a pair of pants embedded in the ground.
I had to give a deposition as to the relationships between our company and the contractors involved. The deceased was a young guy with no wife or kids and the whole thing settled out of court.
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