No Damages Awarded to Indiana Worker Burned Inside Heated Tank

A lawsuit filed by an eastern Indiana man seriously burned inside a heated chemical tank has ended without any damages being awarded.

Zachary M. Hale sued several entities, including trucking company Miller Transporters Inc. in 2013, two years after he fell through unguarded openings into a tank of 200-degree caustic soda while working for a truck-washing company.

The soda used to clean tanker trucks burned the then-21-year-old Richmond man over 60 percent of his body.

Hale’s suit said he was left with excruciatingly painful and disabling scarring and argued that the defendants should have corrected the unsafe working conditions.

But the Palladium-Item reports a Wayne County judge recently ruled in favor of Miller Transporters Inc., the suit’s sole remaining defendant. The judge previously ruled in the other defendants’ favor.