The family of a steelworker who was killed while building grandstands for the inaugural Formula 1 Grand Prix race in Las Vegas is suing several companies in a wrongful death lawsuit.
Tizoc Antonio, 37, had only been working for a few hours on his first day at the F1 construction site at the Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas when he suffered an “incised wound of the neck” and was killed. He died on September 23, 2023, 8 News Now reports.
According to court documents, Antonio had attended an on-site training session earlier that morning. Around 11.30 a.m., he and other workers at the site were making cuts into aluminum decking with an electric concrete saw. They were working on the decking because it was “too tight to fit around an aluminum column,” according to the court documents.
The saw reportedly kicked back and partially decapitated Antonio, according to the lawsuit.
“As a direct and proximate result of the defect(s) and failure to warn of said defect(s), Decedent Tizoc sustained catastrophic bodily injury trauma and suffered before his his untimely passing,” the lawsuit says.
The family alleges that the saw did not have a “safety stop” mechanism on it to prevent its blade from turning when it was disengaged.
“According to witnesses, the saw kicked back, struck the column, then struck the employee in the neck, causing a severe laceration to his neck. The employee died as a result of his injury,” an OSHA investigation determined.
The lawsuit alleges that the decking had been “properly designed,” and that if the saw had included an “antikickback stop,” that Antonio would not have died. It claims that the saw was “defective and not reasonably fit for the purposes and uses for which they were intended.”
The lawsuit alleges that the companies working on the project, Carma Group and steel-contractor Standard Steel, were stressing that “time is of the essence” ahead of the race.
Both Carma and Standard Steel, as well as Bellagio, LLC, its parent company MGM Resorts and Evolution Power Tools, LLS, are named as defendants in the lawsuit. The Independent has requested comment from the defendants.
The filing is asking for more than $15,000, which is the standard minimum in Nevada civil cases, and it has requested a jury trial.
Following its investigation, OSHA issued Standard Steel a penalty of more than $11,000, which the company has contested, according to court records.
