CHARLESTON – A man is suing the Kanawha County Board of Education after he claims it failed to supervise its students when they were performing work on a vehicle in a mechanics course.
Ben Franklin Career & Technical Center was also named as a defendant in the suit.
On May 5, 2014, Aaron Walker was traveling east on Interstate 64 when a tire from the front driver's side of Matthew Keen's vehicle, flew off his truck, crossed the concrete barrier and violently struck the windshield of Walker's vehicle, crashing through the windshield and striking him in the head, according to a complaint filed in Kanawha Circuit Court.
Walker claims he suffered a skull fracture with concussion and post-concussion syndrome; a deviated septum; severe injury to his teeth; a traumatic brain injury; glass in his eyes, ears and nose; scarring on his face, shoulder and chest; neck pain; lower back pain from bulging discs' possible blod clots in his legs; and was otherwise injured.
Keen and John Poe were students at Ben Franklin and were in the Heavy Equipment Mechanic's course, according to the suit.
Walker claims Keen and Poe worked on Keen's Dodge pickup truck and used Ben Franklin's facility to do a brake job on the vehicle.
Keen and Poe negligently performed the brake job by failing to secure properly the lug nuts on the front driver's side tire of the truck, according to the suit.
Walker claims the work performed by students was unsupervised by any of Ben Franklin's teachers or trainers who were present supervising other students.
The school board and Ben Franklin had a duty to supervise work performed by students at their facility so as to not permit vehicles worked on at the center to be driven away from the center in a dangerous condition, according to the suit.
Keen is seeking compensatory damages. He is being represented by Charles R. "Rusty" Webb of Webb Law Firm PLLC.
The case is assigned to Circuit Judge Charles King.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number: 15-C-1012