HOUSTON — A wrongful death lawsuit has been brought against Dow Chemical and several other companies.
Byron Alfred of The Alfred Firm filed the suit against Qualawash Holdings, Dow, Performance Materials N.A., Union Carbide, and Spirit Transportation on behalf of the family of Sidarieus Lozano (Deceased) and his co-worker, Roy Robinson.
Lozano was a Qualawash employee who passed away as a result of chemical exposure he sustained on December 28, 2019. This lawsuit alleges negligence in safety precautions from multiple sources in relation to the December 2019 incident.
In the days leading up to Dec. 28, 2019, a tanker truck arrived for cleaning at the Qualawash facility from The Dow Chemical Company and related entities (Union Carbide and Performance Materials). The tanker’s hazardous chemical contents had been mislabeled and, as a result, the workers at the Qualawash facilities did not know the actual chemical contents of the tanker. The tanker was delivered by a truck owned by Sprint Transport.
While cleaning the inside of the chemical tanker, Lozano lost consciousness due to being overwhelmed by chemical fumes. Robinson, Lozano’s co-worker, entered the tank in an attempt to rescue Lozano. Lozano died as a result of chemical exposure, while Robinson was able to be revived after suffering permanent injuries to his internal organs.
While this incident occurred at the Qualawash site, The Lozano Family’s lawsuit alleges that the responsibility is shared by Dow Chemical Company, Union Carbide, Performance Materials NA, and Sprint Transport, LLC due to the misidentification of the tanker’s contents. Safety regulations require the generators, transporters and owner/operators of hazardous waste to document each chemical that is contained in tankers from the time it is produced, until it reaches the off-site waste management facility that will store, treat or dispose of the waste. Proper documentation allows all parties encountering the hazardous chemicals to take necessary precautions in handling the chemicals. Here, these precautions were not taken and the contents of the tanker were not properly identified.
“What happened at the Qualawash facility on the day of this incident is a failure of an entire safety system that was meant to protect hard-working men and women like Sidarieus and Roy,” says Byron Alfred, the family’s attorney. “This should never have happened,” Alfred added.