title
LISA MELTON, AS PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ESTATE OF JARED MELTON, DECEASED V. CITY OF GAINESVILLE D/B/A GAINESVILLE REGIONAL UTILITIES, A POLITICAL SUBDIVISION OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA, COURT CASE NO. 2012-CA-4494 (NB)
recommendation
The City Commission: 1) approve the terms of the negotiated settlement; and 2) authorize the City Attorney to settle the claim of Lisa Melton, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Jared Melton, resulting from an incident that occurred on August 22, 2011.
explanation
On August 22, 2011, Jared Melton ("Melton") was working at the Tuscan Bend Apartments performing boring samples on the premises. His employers had previously contacted Sunshine State One Call to have underground utilities located on the property. Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) performed a series of locates on the property.
One of the requests was to locate utility infrastructure within 10 feet of the perimeter of Building B. The GRU Underground Utilities Technician located utilities in that area using both maps and a transmitter/receiver locating tool. No utilities were located in the area eventually excavated by Melton. However, while excavating in the area with a metal hand auger, Melton contacted an energized wire which resulted in his death by electrocution.
An investigation by GRU after the incident revealed that the map illustrating the location of its utilities in the area was spatially inaccurate. Instead of the underground electric wire being 35 feet off Building B as shown in the map, the wire was physically located 7 feet off the building, within the area GRU had been asked to perform a locate. In addition, the transformer which was the energy source for that underground wire was remotely located and adjacent to a different building within the complex. That transformer, according to the map, had no relation to Building B. Therefore, the technician hooked up his transmitter/receiver locating tool to the transformer that ...
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