TACOMA — The family of a truck driver who was fatally injured in a massive explosion last October as he was delivering liquid propane to a foundry filed a wrongful death lawsuit Tuesday.
The claim for unspecified damages was filed in Pierce County Superior Court by the family of Charles “Chuck” McDonald Sr., 64, a driver for IXL Transportation Services, against Atlas Foundry Limited Partnership, doing business as Americast Technologies Inc. and as Atlas Casting &Technology.
Atlas President Duane Britschgi would not comment on the lawsuit Tuesday, saying neither he nor the company’s lawyers had seen it.
Britschgi said the company had been in contact with lawyers for McDonald’s wife, Gloria, and daughter Leeann and son Charles “Scott” McDonald Jr., however, so, “It’s not a surprise at this point … we’ve been expecting something.”
At issue is responsibility for clamps on a liquid transfer hose McDonald used on Oct. 6 to deliver propane from his 8,000-gallon tanker to the historic foundry just north of the interchange of I-5 and State Route 16, the highway leading to the Tacoma Narrows bridge.
Leaking propane rapidly turned to a cloud of gas that enveloped the truck and driver and ignited in a towering fireball. Fifteen minutes later the tanker exploded in a blast heard a mile away, hurling a two-axled part of the truck more than 150 feet into the air and onto the overpass of Highway 16, closing the road for hours.
McDonald, burned over 75 percent of his body, managed to crawl behind a metal shed before his truck blew up, then lay in agony for about two hours until he was found by firefighters, who had to cut a hole in a fence to pull him to safety. He died Oct. 14 of medical complications at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
“This has been such a devastating loss for our family. It’s hard knowing how much pain he went through before he died,” Leeann McDonald said.
According to the lawsuit, a valve assembly had been disassembled before the driver arrived, and “two or more Atlas employees negligently and carelessly reattached the valve” to the transfer hose with automotive or plumbing hose clamps instead of a permanent swage or clamp that would have met industry standards.
Britschgi said in October that Allied employees had worked on the valve connection “at the request of the driver” after McDonald noticed that the heavy coupling was disengaged. Britschgi’s comments came after fire officials released a report saying the connection between the valve and the hose had failed.
Drivers are responsible for making connections to the truck and checking transfer hoses for safety, the Atlas president said.
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