Naperville accident claims life of Nicor employee

A Naperville motor vehicle accident last week claimed the life of a Nicor employee.  The Nicor employee was operating a backhoe on the shoulder of the road near the intersection of Leverenz Road and Book Road.  A box truck sideswiped the backhoe, causing it to topple over and trap the operator beneath it.  He was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The family of the deceased Nicor employee is certainly entitled to worker's compensation death benefits, but can also pursue a third party motor vehicle liability suit and Illinois wrongful death suit against the driver of the box truck, and presumably his employer.  In serious accidents like this, it is crucial to identify all of the potential sources of compensation for the family of the decedent, so it would also be worth looking into seeing whether a product liability suit against the manufacturer of the would be feasible.  Areas worth considering is whether the outriggers on the backhoe were in use at the time and whether there was sufficient roll protection for the operator.  As experienced Chicago wrongful death lawyers, this would be part of the work-up that we would do on a case such as this.