Philadelphia Personal Injury Attorney Blog | Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis LLP

Purdue University in Indiana has agreed to settle out of court with a family whose son died on campus after being electrocuted. The body of freshman student Wade Steffey of Bloomington, Indiana was found two months after he was electrocuted in a high voltage university utility room. The university claims he was intoxicated at the time of his death, but doctors hired by the family dispute that.

It took two months to find the young man's body after he was reported missing. Wade was last seen in January at Purdue's Owen Hall dormitory. His body was found two months later in the buildings high voltage room after weeks of intensive searches. Investigators determined that Steffey was accidentally electrocuted inside the room. Consultants hired by the university concluded that the door to the room had been left unlocked.

Steffey's family received the maximum allowable damages under Indiana law.

While Purdue University has not formally accepted responsibility for Steffey's death, it has secured its buildings' high voltage rooms, making them inaccessible, while helping to establish and fund a scholarship in Wade Steffey's name.

If you or a loved has been injured or died due to no fault of your own, please contact the Pennsylvania personal injury attorneys at Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis, serving clients in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.