This case involves a woman who suffered injuries while working at a warehouse facility located in Idaho. The loading docks were all outfitted with commercial roller doors. At the time of the accident the plaintiff was unloading various items on the loading dock. She was standing near the door when, without warning, the door came down and struck her on the head. As a result of the impact, the woman suffered severe and traumatic brain injuries. It is alleged that the door was not properly inspected and up to specification, causing it to close unintentionally and violently.
Question(s) For Expert Witness
1. Do you extensive experience engineering/inspecting commercial roller doors?
2. What kind of steps and protocols need to be followed to ensure doors are working properly?
3. Please explain your experience working on similar cases?
Expert Witness Response E-011086
My entire career has been devoted to inspecting/engineering commercial roller doors. I am a licensed professional engineer (including in the state of Florida). This case sounds like somebody opened this overhead door, and without warning the door rolled back down on the plaintiff. The door has counterbalance springs that are designed to hold the door all the way open when it is opened completely, and it will not necessarily hold the door up if you don't open it fully. There's a transition point between where the door will close by itself and where it will pull open and stay open. It has to be heavy on the floor and strong when fully open. In between, you don't really know where that transition point is. This injury is probably not the result of a manufacturing defect or a design defect, but an adjustment may have needed to be made. Springs weaken over time, so the manufacturer could have properly manufactured the door and the installer may have wound springs properly on the day it was new, but, years later, the springs may have weakened and the transition point changed. The location at which this occurred is responsible for maintaining and inspecting these doors, which it seems like they did not do in this case. I am currently working on two cases that are very similar to this one. Most of my early litigation experience comes from being trained as a defense expert during my time at Windsor and Overhead Door, but since early in my career my litigation experience is more 50/50 plaintiff to defense ratio. This seems to be a case I am extremely well suited for, and I am happy to help.
About the author
Joseph O'Neill
Joe has extensive experience in online journalism and technical writing across a range of legal topics, including personal injury, meidcal malpractice, mass torts, consumer litigation, commercial litigation, and more. Joe spent close to six years working at Expert Institute, finishing up his role here as Director of Marketing. He has considerable knowledge across an array of legal topics pertaining to expert witnesses. Currently, Joe servces as Owner and Demand Generation Consultant at LightSail Consulting.
