Ben Dorger, Standard-Examiner file photo

WILLARD — A tow truck driver who was severely shocked under a high-voltage Rocky Mountain Power transmission line at Willard Bay State Park has lost a personal injury lawsuit against the utility.

Cooper Bacon is disabled, his lawsuit said, because of electric shock injuries he suffered July 7, 2014, at the park’s north gate. Medical reports said he sustained brain damage and other permanent injuries as he was preparing to tow an RV that had broken down.

Bacon’s suit, filed by Ogden attorney Emily Swenson in 2017, accused Rocky Mountain Power and its parent company, PacifiCorp, of negligence and creating a public nuisance. The claims were based on electrostatically induced current shocks that had been reported at the park, although no others were apparently as severe as Bacon’s.

But PacifiCorp produced sufficient evidence during the litigation that on the night of Bacon’s injuries, the power line was operating in compliance with state law and standards under the National Electric Safety Code, U.S. District Judge Howard Nielson Jr. ruled Aug. 18 in dismissing the suit.

“None of the expert or fact witnesses in this case had ever seen or heard of an incident involving overhead power lines that resulted in significant injury or anything comparable to the continuing symptoms reported by Mr. Bacon absent direct contact through a conductor with the power line,” Nielsen wrote.

Mark Shenefelt, Standard-Examiner

The West Haven man’s case failed to establish that the power line’s operation was the proximate cause of his injuries, or that the utility breached its public duty, the judge said. A PacifiCorp engineer testified in a deposition that the transmission line was operating at 364.7 kilovolts on the night of the incident, one kilovolt below the line’s normal maximum voltage.

“The court finds that the evidently unforeseeable nature of Mr. Bacon’s experience weighs strongly against any inference of negligence,” the judge wrote.

Nielsen noted that Swenson and PacifiCorp sharply disputed the extent of Bacon’s symptoms, “whether those symptoms are genuine or the result of malingering or conversion, and whether they were caused by electrical shock or by some other event or events in Mr. Bacon’s life.” But, he said he did not need to rule on those disputes because the other factors tipped in PacifiCorp’s favor regardless.

A Rocky Mountain Power spokesperson said previously that the utility investigated the incident and was not able to recreate conditions that were described in the suit. Efforts to reach Swenson were not immediately successful.

Bacon had crawled beneath the RV to disconnect the driveline so he could attach the vehicle to his tow truck when he was shocked.

Medical reports from the University of Utah burn unit said Bacon lost consciousness for about 45 seconds and was not breathing when he was pulled out from under the RV. He regained consciousness and had trouble seeing, was confused and vomited, then blacked out again for 15 seconds. In addition to treatment for the burns, he needed shoulder surgery.

In a 2018 interview, Bacon said he could no longer work as a tow truck operator. He said the shock left him with a seizure disorder, short-term memory loss and post traumatic stress disorder.

The medical bills piled up close to $200,000. “I lost my house, my dog and my car,” Bacon said.

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