Feb. 5—The widow of a Pittston man who died after a mound of rock salt collapsed, burying him alive, filed a lawsuit against the salt's manufacturer and the company that stockpiled the product.

Carol Donahue of Pittston filed suit against JVA De-Icing Inc., 78 Cottage St., Carbondale, in connection with the Feb. 8, 2021, death of her husband, Mark Donahue, in an industrial accident at a storage facility on Coxton Road in Duryea.

According to the lawsuit, Donahue worked as a dump truck driver for John Halliday Trucking Inc. He was standing between two trucks, which were in a line of trucks waiting to have rock salt loaded, when the approximately 40-foot-high mound unexpectedly gave way.

The collapse sent a wave of rock salt into the trucks, causing a chain reaction in which the first and second trucks were pushed into a third truck. Tons of rock salt buried and crushed Donahue, who was standing between the second and third trucks.

The suit, filed in Lackawanna County Court by Moosic attorney Christopher Caputo, alleges the collapse occurred because the JVA employee loading the trucks "undercut" the pile, which was also destabilized because it was not covered, allowing it to be exposed to precipitation.

In addition to JVA, the suit names Cargill Inc., of Wayzata, Minnesota, which contracted with JVA to store the rock salt for delivery to its customers. The suit alleges JVA and Cargill were negligent for failing to follow safety procedures, including failing to cover the rock salt and allowing it to be piled too high.

Halliday Trucking is not named as a defendant in the civil lawsuit. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigated the case and fined the company $12,000 for a safety violation, according to a filing with the agency.

A person who answered the phone at JVA on Thursday said the company had no comment on the lawsuit. Attempts to reach Cargill for comment were unsuccessful.

Contact the writer:

tbesecker@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9137;

@tmbeseckerTT on Twitter.