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Lof*ycrRKruffJury Deliberates Missile ClaimsWICHITA, Kan. (AP) - A jury has started deliberating the first six of 45 claims filed against the federal government and Martin Marietta Corp., after a 1978 Titan 2 missile accident.Five member^ of the Howard Higgins family seek $1.5 million each. Radio newsman Nelson Schock, 47, of Valley Center, Kan., wants $2.7 million in damages.Their federal court lawsuits say they were exposed to a missile fuel component, nitrogen tetroxide, that leaked from a Titan II mu ile complex near Rock, Kan., on Aug. 24, 1978.Kansas has 18 Titan 2 missiles. Arizona andArkansas have the other 35.Two Air Force missile fuel transfer crewmen were killed in the accident. A third was injured critically and is disabled permanently.Schock covered the accident for KFDI radio in Wichita. The Higgins family operates a farm near the missile complex.In his closing argument Monday afternoon following 17 days of testimony, A1 Kamas, representing the claimants, said wind direction and speed statistics following the accident provide concrete evidence that the toxic vapor cloud reached the Higgins farmhouse.He said medical experts testified that the respiratory and psychological symptomsof which the Higgins family and Schock complained were attributable to exposure to the vapors that leaked from the missile silo.“The United States and Martin Marietta have taken this entire matter as a joketrom the very beginning,” Kamas said.Assistant U.S. Attorney Sharon Werner said in her closing statement that government lawyers would not have spent hundreds of hours preparing a defense against the $10.2 million in claims if the case was viewedas a joke.“It’s a serious matter to us,” said Payne Ratner Jr., representing Martin Marietta, designer and builder of the missile.Ms. Werner said not all of the claimants had identical symptoms, and not all of the symptoms began at the same time. She said that in most cases, objective tests don’t confirm the complaints.Ms. Werner argued that the claimants weren’t exposed to the vapors because none of them reported seei ngor smelling the toxic gas. Even if they were exposed, injuries would be temporary and reversible, she said.Attempting to convince the jurors not to award $2.7 million to Schock, Ratner said $35,000 placed in a treasury bill account would yield enough annual interest to pay for the $350 a month in medicine that the newsman has to take for asthma that he says developed after the leak.However, Ratner added, “I'm not suggesting he should be awarded $35,000.”Kamas said if Schock lives to 73, the average male life expectancy, he will spend more than $413,000 on medicines. The lawyer said testimony indicated Schock already is 50 percent disabled and only will be able to work another three years,meaning he will lose about $606,773 in wages
Newspaper Details
Fayetteville Northwest Arkansas Times
Fayetteville, Arkansas, US
Tue, Aug 17, 1982
Page 12
Full Page
Clipped by
Arkansas S.
AR, USA 25 Feb 2020
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