Widow alleged that personal safety alarm used by the St. Louis department was faulty
By Robert Patrick ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Copyright 2006 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
After a two-week trial, dozens of witnesses and charges that the St. Louis Fire Department was using unsafe equipment, a lawsuit filed by the widow of a firefighter killed in 2002 ended quietly Friday night when the case was confidentially settled.
Neither side would comment on the terms of the settlement. But the amount is believed to be between $1 million and $5 million.
The case centered on the Survivair Personal Alert Safety System, or PASS device, which is worn on a firefighter’s chest and is supposed to emit a piercing alarm when a firefighter becomes lost, trapped or immobile.
The Survivair PASS is in use by the St. Louis Fire Department and at least three other local departments.
Laura Morrison, widow of firefighter Rob Morrison, filed suit on behalf of herself and her two children in late 2004. In court, Morrison’s lawyer, Dan Finney Jr., told jurors that water caused a malfunction of Rob Morrison’s PASS device in a fire on May 3, 2002, when Morrison became confused or lost, passed out and wasn’t rescued for 20 minutes.
Firefighter Derek Martin, who was trying to rescue Morrison, also died.
Finney said firefighters would have found and rescued Morrison if his PASS had been alerting.
Survivair’s lawyer, Lynn Hursh, admitted to jurors that some PASS devices manufactured before 2004 leaked and allowed water access to internal electronic circuitry. But he said engineers knew it was a possibility and designed the PASS so that water would not cause it to fail, but to turn on, go into constant alarm or to cycle on and off.
He also said Morrison, the Fire Department and other firefighters were responsible for a series of mistakes that led to Morrison’s death, including one witness who said Morrison shrugged off an alarm warning that his air was low. Others said the alarm only briefly sounded.
Experts said that leaks into the PASS device could cause it to fail. Others said leaks would cause the unit to constantly alarm, to cycle on and off or to turn on when turned off. A number of firefighters said they never heard Morrison’s PASS, including his rescuers. Others thought they did.
Jurors interviewed after the settlement was announced said the vote was split and they were far from a resolution when the deal was reached after 7 p.m. Friday.
Juror Desola Nunley said, “I just felt that both parties were at fault.” But Nunley said she didn’t want to deny compensation to the Morrisons.
Finney said jurors told him that they believed the PASS was defective.
Hursh said several jurors approached him and said that they felt there was not proof that water got into Morrison’s PASS.
Laura Morrison said she hoped the trial, and the pending lawsuit involving the family of Derek Martin, would prompt the St. Louis Fire Department to replace all of their Survivair equipment.