The husband of a Shelby County worker who died when she was pulled into an industrial machine in 2017 was awarded $3 million in damages after a Jefferson County judge found Tuesday two employees removed safety guards that could have prevented the fatal accident.
Alabaster resident Catalina Estillado, also known as Eva Saenz, died Aug. 16, 2017 at ABC Polymer Industries in Helena when her hand got caught in the machine’s rollers.
After a three-day bench trial, Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Elizabeth French found two ABC employees — Vice President of Operations Dean Leader and Director of Operations Will Durrall — in effect removed a safety guard provided by the machine’s manufacturer.
The judge found Leader and Durrall told told employees to raise a barrier guard and cut breakaway pieces of plastic polymer known as wraps with a boxcutter, and that these instructions contributed to Estillado’s fatal accident, according to court documents.
The machine was also supposed to have a limit switch to slow the speed of the rollers when the guard is raised, but the apparatus had been removed.
Neither an attorney representing the men nor ABC Polymer Industries Owner Randy Reed could be reached for comment on French’s decision awarding $3 million in punitive damages to Estillado’s widower, Pablo Crescencio.
It’s unclear whether the judgment will be appealed.
Crescienco initially filed a lawsuit against the company alleging he was entitled to workers’ compensation on his wife’s behalf but that matter was settled out of court.
The company was also cited by OSHA and faced $200,000 in fines after the agency said the accident was preventable.
It was unclear why Leader and Durrall told workers to raise the barrier guard.
“If every time there’s a wrap you have to shut down the whole machine, production stops and they lose money. And this may sound like a cliché, but this company put profits over safety,” said Freddy Rubio, one of Crescencio’s attorneys. “They didn’t want to stop the machine.”
Rubio noted that Estillado only spoke Spanish and that she and other Latino employees at ABC did not have access to safety guidelines in their native language.
“Just like Catalina, there are thousands and thousands of Latino workers that do not speak English..that cannot read a safety manual in English,” he said.
In her ruling, French said the $3 million “is the amount necessary based on the gravity of the wrong, to adequately punish the defendants, and to deter similar conduct from others.”
Asked if he believed the judgement would prevent future accidents, Rubio said, “I think ABC received a big message [Tuesday.]”
