A district court in Louisiana has has awarded a $7.2 million verdict for the tire explosion death of man killed while inflating a Goodyear truck tire.
The jury found Goodyear Tire & Rubber failed to provide adequate warning about both the existence and cause of sidewall zipper failures with its G182 tire. On Feb. 5, 2014, Elwood Breaux Jr. and a co-worker were inflating a G182 tire after noticing the tire pressure was low. Breaux was holding the tire upright when the sidewall ruptured. The force of the air escaping from the tire threw him backward, and he sustained serious internal injuries to his chest and abdomen. Breaux never left the hospital and died from his injuries 28 days later.
The January 2019 trial lasted two weeks. In his Sept. 10, 2019, ruling, Judge Michael Clement ruled that Goodyear had not carried out its duty to warn Breaux and co-workers about the tires’ dangers and how to avoid being injured. Judge Clement awarded $6.73 million for Breaux’s six children and his wife, with an additional $481,075 going to Plaquemines Parish, which had intervened in the lawsuit to recoup costs associated with the tragedy.
The trial team included co-lead counsel Kyle Farrar and Skip Lynch of Kaster Lynch Farrar & Ball with assistance from Danny Meeks and Kristen Meeks of Metairie, La.-based Meeks and Associates. Kaster Lynch Farrar & Ball paralegals Daneen Muscato and Malisa Uwagawa served as support.
