Sons of worker killed at Orleans sue Boyd

By Steve Green (contact)

Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009 | 4:05 p.m.

A new lawsuit charges that officials at the Orleans hotel-casino knowingly ordered employees to violate safety procedures and directed them into dangerous situations, causing the deaths of two workers.

Seth Andrew Luzier and Gabriel Thomas Luzier, sons of Richard Luzier, filed the suit Jan. 28 in Clark County District Court against the Orleans, two Orleans officials and Boyd Gaming Corp. of Las Vegas, which owns the Orleans.

This is at least the second lawsuit filed by family members of workers Luzier and Travis Koehler, who died Feb. 2, 2007, in an accident on the off-Strip, Tropicana Avenue property. Officials said Luzier entered a manhole to work on a pipe and was overcome by toxic fumes. When Koehler and coworker David Snow entered to save him, all three were rendered unconscious and only Snow survived.

A Boyd spokesman declined comment on the Jan. 28 suit, filed by Las Vegas attorney Kevin Hanratty of Hanratty Roberts Law Group.

The suit says Seth and Gabriel Luzier, who are both over age 18 and were residents of Bradywine, Md., when their father died, have suffered grief, sorrow, loss of companionship and unspecified financial damages because of the death of their father.

The suit charges that, "Defendants knew or should have known that the failure to follow known safety procedures, follow safety guidelines and exercise reasonable care would render dangerous and unsafe conditions.

"Defendants intentionally directed employees to violate known safety procedures and safety guidelines, and directed employees into dangerous and unsafe conditions with full knowledge of the known risks of danger, including death to those persons, namely plaintiffs' father Richard Luzier and Travis Wayne Koehler."

In December, attorneys for Koehler's parents, Debra Koehler-Fergen and Robert Koehler, sued Boyd over the death of their son.

In the past, Boyd spokesman Rob Stillwell has called the incident a "horrific tragedy" and said the company would work to prevent another accident.

Steve Green can be reached at 990-7714 or steve.green@hbcpub.com.