City's safety record a concern

By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser City Hall Writer

The city has paid nearly $700,000 over the past year to two people who suffered severe injuries when they fell 15 feet into city-operated dump pits in separate accidents.

Since the two incidents, city officials said the refuse facilities have installed more safeguards. City Corporation Counsel David Arakawa said workers have painted yellow areas to warn people of the dangers of falling off the ledge. "They have chains up and they post signs," Arakawa said. "Subsequent to these cases, they put up railings."

The $700,000 for the two cases are part of the millions of dollars the city pays each year related to claims ranging from sexual harassment, excessive force by police and injuries in parks and on sidewalks. State and federal governments face similar lawsuits.

The two cases are on the extreme end of "slip and fall" lawsuits filed against the city, but still raise some concerns about the city's exposure to paying for those injuries.

"I think we can do better," said City Council Policy Chairman John Henry Felix. "We can't prevent all incidents from occurring. We can reduce the number substantially."

Arakawa this year needed to ask the council to approve payment of $6.1 million worth of claims made in lawsuits against the city since April 2001. He said 11 major cases settling in just a few months boosted the cost.

Arakawa said that the city takes all claims seriously, but that the record shows safety is a priority. "Two people fell in out of the thousands that use it," he said. And he said some who claim injury played a part in the incidents. "They're running, they're walking backward, they're not paying attention to where they're walking."

The first dump injury case occurred on Aug. 19, 1998, when John Griffiths, a 49-year-old retiree doing volunteer work at the Dae Won Sa Buddhist Temple in Palolo, drove to the city's Kapa'a transfer station in Kailua to dump branches and cuttings from the temple grounds.

Griffiths' attorney, David Gierlach, said Griffiths was unloading the branches when he tripped over a chain slung low across the edge of the dump pit and fell 15 feet to the concrete floor. Griffiths suffered a fractured hip, three broken ribs, a punctured and collapsed lung and large blood clots in both legs, according to attorneys on both sides.

Because of the crushed hip, he is required to take blood-thinning medication for the rest of his life to help reduce the risk of a fatal blood clot, Arakawa said.

Gierlach said the city ran out of yellow paint used to paint a stop line 8 feet from the precipice, so "people would back up right to the edge."

In the second case, radiology technician Gayle Lynne Waddingham was at the Kawailoa Transfer Station on the North Shore on Sept. 2, 2000, when she fell off the ledge and 15 feet to the bottom of the shipping container, according to Arakawa and her attorney, William Fenton Sink.

Waddingham said the protective chain was lying on the ground; the city argued that Waddingham had removed the safety chain.

Sink said his client, who is in her 40s, suffered a fractured pelvis, fractured leg and ankle and crushed bones in her right foot. Arakawa said Waddingham may need more surgery to take out the metal screws that were put in after the accident.

Gierlach said a refuse supervisor who worked at the Kailua dump told him, under oath in preparation for a trial, that people fell in at a rate of about one a year. "The supervisor said that at least a dozen people had gone in to his knowledge."

In response to that supervisor's statement, city spokeswoman Carol Costa said attorneys advised the city to not provide to The Advertiser a summary of how many people have fallen into the dump pits. "We have no records for other claims for injuries," Costa said.

Costa said about 144,000 people dump trash at Honolulu's three transfer stations each year (the third station is at Ke'ehi). Arakawa said the city oversees 6,700 acres of parkland and 730 miles of sidewalk. Looking over all the numbers, city officials said the number of claims seems reasonable.

In the last quarterly report that Arakawa provided to the council, five of the lawsuits settled against the city from January through March involved slips, trips and falls. In most cases, the settlements were small, ranging from no payment to $5,000.

Arakawa said the city has a pretty good safety record. "I think that's reflected in the number of cases and the amounts of the settlement."

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.