Opinion ID: 2973040
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Lee’s injury

Text: On the day of his accident, Lee crossed the Siemens conveyor once without incident. The conveyor belt was not moving at the time, and the makeshift stairway held in place. Lee, in fact, thought that the conveyor was still under construction because there was debris on and around it. As a result, when he attempted to cross the conveyor later that day, he did not even check to see if the belt was moving before he crossed. Lee claims that he never heard a warning horn, the sound that was supposed to indicate that the conveyor was being turned on. When Lee attempted to cross -3- No. 04-6481 Lee v. UPS, Inc. the conveyor on this second occasion, the stacked wood pieces that comprised the makeshift stairway began to wobble. Lee, in an effort to catch himself, stepped onto the conveyor. Unbeknownst to him, the conveyor belt was moving, and it threw him onto the floor. Scott Buchanan, a coworker of Lee’s who had crossed just before him, rushed to his aid. Lee, according to Buchanan, appeared shaken but not seriously injured. After Lee’s fall, Lee and Buchanan walked together to the portable restroom, located a few hundred feet away from the job site. Lee went to an urgent care facility later that day. An examination revealed back, neck, shoulder, and leg injuries as a result of the fall, but he returned to work the following day with only minor limitations. Three weeks later, however, Lee received a second opinion from a doctor who recommended that he be placed on a light-duty restriction. Because Delta had no light-duty work for Lee to do, he lost his job. D. Siemens’s knowledge, possession, and control of the conveyors On the day that Lee was injured, he was installing new conveyors in an area above a set of conveyors that were manufactured and installed by Siemens. Lee testified that Siemens employees were in the area that day, and Volker Wetzel, a project manager for Siemens, admitted that he “walked” the area almost daily. Wetzel also recognized the danger of stepping onto a moving conveyor belt, because he himself had fallen as a result of doing so while working at the Worldport. Because of the safety concerns associated with the conveyors, Siemens developed “start-up warning” procedures, including flagging the area with “Danger” tape, blasting a handheld air horn, and communicating with the workers in the immediate vicinity. The parties dispute whether a horn was sounded prior to Lee’s fall. -4- No. 04-6481 Lee v. UPS, Inc. E. UPS’s knowledge, possession, and control of the accident site Smith, the Delta foreman, testified in his deposition that he had discussed safety concerns regarding the conveyor with officials at UPS: Q: Mr. Smith, in the time leading up to Mr. Lee’s accident [,] . . . you conducted weekly safety meetings correct? A: Yes. Q: Okay. Do you recall some of the issues that were addressed in those meetings? A: Yes. Lighting, no way to cross the conveyor except for—no way to get across the conveyor except for stepping on it. I believe they were starting the conveyors without sounding the horns, I believe that was an issue. Smith also discussed with UPS the poor lighting and the potential for injury if the conveyor was turned on without the workers’ knowledge. UPS safety manager David Stein acknowledged that the workers could “get hurt” on a moving conveyor belt and admitted that using a wooden platform to cross the conveyor was dangerous.