The tragic death of 24-year-old Russellville man still haunts the family members who were closest to him. Two years after Wade Walters was crushed by a steel beam while working on a project for Arkansas Nuclear One, his mother and father continue to fight for justice.
The Walters family is represented by Sach Oliver, of Oliver Law Firm. In an interview with Channel 7, the family explained that the litigation is going into its second year and the pain of their loss is not lessening with the passage of time. On the contrary, the longer the Walters family is embroiled in the lawsuit, the more difficult it becomes.
“The second year has been way harder, I think you come to a point where you realize there’s no end to this, there’s no getting over this, there’s no getting through it,” said Susan Allen, Walters’s mother.
The accident happened on March 31, 2013, while Walters was on a construction site at Arkansas Nuclear One. The beam that killed him fell from a collapsed crane. Within three months, Walters’s mother filed a wrongful death lawsuit with Oliver naming Entergy Arkansas, Inc., Bigge Crane and Rigging and Siemens Energy, Inc., among others, as defendants.
In the suit, the Walters family claims that Arkansas Nuclear One acted negligently. In favor of cutting corners to save money and resources, the company did not properly test the load carried by the crane that killed Walters. Entergy claims that Walters was an employee of Entergy, while a circuit court judge has established that he worked for Precision Surveillance Co. That company had been contracted to work on the Arkansas Nuclear One project.
The defendants have since filed a motion to appeal, and the Walters family continues to suffer as Entergy Arkansas, Inc. and others drag their feet.
The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled to pass this case on to the Worker’s Compensation Commission, but Oliver plans to request a hearing that he hopes will take place within a few months.
The attorneys at Oliver Law Firm know how deeply the Walters family has been hurting since the loss of their son. We send our best wishes as we continue to pursue justice on their behalf.
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