A 24-year-old died laying cable in the Texas heat. His mom is suing.
When the ambulance picked up 24-year-old Gabriel Infante, his internal body temperature was nearly 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
It was heat stroke, and emergency responders rushed him to the hospital. Infante had been at work, laying fiber optic cables on a 101-degree day in San Antonio, when he’d started acting confused and dizzy. He’d fallen twice, and his best friend had started pouring water over him, trying to cool him off.
Hours later, Infante would die at the hospital
— a victim of extreme heat and, a lawsuit filed by his mother alleges, failure by his construction company to keep its workers safe in the hazardous June weather. He was one of hundreds of people to die of heat-related causes last year.
His mother’s lawsuit, filed last month in Bexar County, Tex., accuses B Comm Constructors of negligence, saying the company failed to protect its employees from the heat hazard or to implement protocols to prevent heat-related illness. His mother is seeking $1 million in damages.
The suit also alleges that a foreman at the job site dismissed Infante’s symptoms, suggesting he was on drugs, even after an emergency responder said he was exhibiting signs of heat stroke. Rather than calling an ambulance immediately, the foreman first suggested calling the police, the lawsuit alleges.
The suit accuses B Comm of creating “an extreme degree of risk” for workers, including by not having a first aid procedure, not adjusting work schedules in response to the high temperature and not providing a shaded rest area.
The Post
reported last week. In Texas, the Republican-led legislature this session voted to take away local governments’ ability to set regulations for workplace issues, effectively voiding heat-safety rules in Austin and Dallas that
required water breaks. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed the bill into law last month.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/07/22/texas-heat-death-lawsuit/
