COVINGTON, Ga. — A former construction worker says the foreman in charge of removing the Access Road bridge was “negligent” in October when he drove heavy machinery onto the structure after cuts were made to its concrete face.
As a result, the bridge collapsed because of foreman Michael Garrett’s actions and the worker, Robert Mullins, sustained numerous injuries and “incurred reasonable and necessary medical expenses” exceeding $1.2 million, a lawsuit stated.
Mullins, a Villa Rica resident, is seeking “actual damages in amounts to be shown at trial” and a jury to hear the case against Garrett in White County Superior Court, Mullins stated in the lawsuit.
The former worker spent almost a month in Grady Medical Center following the incident.
He is bound to a wheelchair and has been forced to move in with relatives whose residence is not designed for a handicapped person, said his attorney, Matthew Stoddard.
“He’s in a lot of pain,” Stoddard said.
Mullins also was severely shaken by seeing a close friend, co-worker Demario Battle, die in the collapse, Stoddard said.
“He’s clearly very badly hurt and this other person died,” Stoddard said. “He’s a tough guy but you can tell he’s (shaken).”
The lawsuit stated the job site at the old Access Road bridge over the Yellow River consisted of “pillars coming out of the ground, multiple support beams laid across the pillars, and concrete slabs laid out on top of the support beams.”
It stated that Georgia Department of Transportation hired Georgia Bridge and Concrete LLC — which is not a party to the lawsuit — to demolish the Access Road Bridge near exit 88 on I-20 in Newton County.
Georgia Bridge contacted B&D Concrete Cutting Inc. “and asked if B&D Concrete would come to the job site and ‘cut up the bridge’ so that Defendant Garrett could thereafter remove the bridge from the job site in pieces.”
Mullins and Battle arrived at the job site on Oct. 19, 2021, “walked out onto the bridge with concrete saws, and began cutting the bridge along certain sectional lines that were pre-marked with blue spray paint, according to the lawsuit.
“Upon information and belief, Defendant Garrett was the (Georgia) Bridge employee who premarked the sectional lines with blue spray paint.”
The lawsuit stated Garrett pre-marked the sectional lines to be cut with the concrete saws but B&D Concrete “was still in charge of the time, manner and method of Plaintiff Mullins’ work.”
Mullins used B&D equipment and the company chose the time he arrived, the order “in which to make the sectional cuts along the painted blue line,” and “retained control over how Plaintiff Mullins went about using the concrete saw to make the cut.”
He then alleged that while he and Battle were on the bridge performing their work “and after numerous cuts had been made, Defendant Garrett negligently drove a heavy large excavator out onto the already cut up bridge.”
“Defendant Garrett’s actions caused the bridge to collapse,” Mullins’ suit alleged.
It stated that when the bridge collapsed, Mullins, Garrett, Battle and “the excavator, the concrete saws, and portions of the bridge all came crashing down.”
“As a result of the bridge collapse, Plaintiff Mullins was seriously injured, and non-party Demario Battle died.”
Garrett, an employee of Georgia Bridge & Concrete LLC, in a response stated that he denied being negligent and did not violate a “duty to exercise some degree of care.”
The Cleveland, Georgia, resident, said he denied all the allegations Mullins made, including driving a “heavy large excavator out onto the already cut up bridge,” and said he “breached no duty” to Mullins.
