Shaw’s sued over death of Saco trucker crushed by rock salt
The estate of a truck driver who lived in Saco has filed a wrongful death claim against Shaw’s Supermarket Inc. after a pallet stacked with 50-pound bags of rock salt tipped over and fell on him, causing injuries that ultimately killed him, court papers state.
Randall “Randy” Rackliffe was a driver for Brown Dog Carriers of Biddeford when he picked up a loaded trailer on Jan. 18 at the Shaw’s Distribution Center in Wells, according to a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland.
The trailer had been packed by Shaw’s employees and included pallets carrying bags of Morton’s Safe-T-Salt stacked on top of shrink-wrapped cases of bottled water, according to the claim filed by Joya Kim Maynard of Mars Hill, Rackliffe’s sister and personal representative of his estate.
Rackliffe drove the trailer to a Shaw’s in Raynham, Massachusetts, where store employees began moving pallets out of the trailer, the lawsuit states.
“Randy was standing to the side of the Shaw’s employees in the trailer, holding steady a pallet containing paper products in order to make it easier for the Shaw’s employees to extract the pallets of water and rock salt,” according to the suit.
“The pallets were unstable and improperly secured,” the lawsuit states. “As the Shaw’s employees moved the pallets of water and rock salt, the bags of rock salt tipped over, striking and crushing Randy.”
Rackliffe was hospitalized for his injuries at Maine Medical Center in Portland and died there eight months later on Sept. 12. He was 62 and left behind two daughters and four grandchildren, according to his obituary.
The lawsuit seeks damages from Shaw’s, claiming that the company’s negligence in ensuring the safe loading and unloading of goods caused Rackliffe to suffer “catastrophic, multisystem trauma from his crush injury.”
Shaw’s did not immediately respond to requests for an interview. The Massachusetts-based company, which was founded in Portland, operates 150 stores across New England.
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Tagged: lawsuit, retail, shaw's supermarkets, supermarkets, trucking
Kelley writes about Maine businesses large and small, focusing on economic development, workforce initiatives and the state’s leading business organizations. Her wider experience includes municipal and. More by Kelley Bouchard
