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Bradley Miller | Video Transcript
MALE VOICE: Bradley Miller was killed when he was 15 years old when he fell from an electrical tower equipped with pegs for climbing.
MALE VOICE: The jury will hear about specific failures of American Electric Power to live up to its duty.
MALE VOICE: American Electric Power installed climbing pegs on its high-voltage tower enabling teenagers to easily climb to the top.
MALE VOICE: American Electric Power failed to ensure that warning signs were present, which may well have discouraged teenagers from climbing the tower.
MALE VOICE: American Electric Power never erected a climbing barrier on the overlooked tower, even though it knew the area was frequented by teenagers.
MALE VOICE: And most of all, American Electric Power failed to make any inspections of its tower when even a quick glance of the area would've told AEP that teenagers were gathering at and climbing on the high-voltage tower.
The tower climbers placed pop cans on the tower as a sign of how high they had climbed it. A simple visual inspection of the tower would've told AEP that the tower was certainly being climbed at higher and higher levels. But AEP never bothered to look or take any action.
American Electric Power had direct knowledge that teenagers gathered at the overlooked tower because local residents had complained about their being there. According to West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals American Electric Power had extraordinarily high standard of care to protect the public that has always involved taking appropriate measures to keep the public away from high voltage.
And the jury will not be able to remove from its collective mind news reports of youths injured and killed climbing easily accessible electrical towers with climbing pegs. Hard as it may be to believe, American Electric Power employed a reclosure system. This reclosure system contributed directly to Bradley Miller's death since he was shocked not once but time and time again as AEP's system turned the power back on repeatedly.
MALE VOICE: And I'm missing him to death. I love him so much that I want to remember him how he was. It should be the kids burying their parents, not the parents burying their kids. He was my life. - - Bradley Miller.
