Explosions Fires Airbags Expert Witness

Expert Witness No.2022

Education

University of Arkansas at Fayetteville

1960 BS Chemical Engineering
1964 MS Chemical Engineering
1967 Ph D Chemical Engineering
1966 Society of Sigma XI (Phi Beta Kappa for engineers)

Areas of Expertise

Federal Court Qualified To Testify On Airbag Issues

Expert Witness 2022 has had 44 civil and criminal airbag cases investigated for failure to deploy, Deployment induced injuries, holes burned in airbags, single, dual stage, side impact and knee bolster airbag systems, analysis of vehicle deceleration data from airbag computer & crush measurements.  Deposition and courtroom trail experience. 

Accident reconstruction for worker injury and death at chemical plants, oil refineries, natural gas liquids processing plants, and other manufacturing facilities.  Extensive knowledge in explosion cases, including flammability envelopes, deflagration, and detonation issues.

Haz-0p review of new or revised chemical processes to identify hazards and revise design to ensure safe operation under all conditions.

Safe use, handling, storage and transport of inorganic and organic chemicals.

Documentation of pathways, concentrations, and duration of plaintiffs' exposure to chemicals and chemical products (e.g., refinery and chemical plant benzene exposure assessment), as a foundation for establishing medical causation.

Preparation of epidemiology reviews to establish medical causation.  Studies linking chemical exposure to birth defects and cancers including leukemia (AML, CML, CLL)

Toxic Tort Case Assessment.  Will Plaintiff’s Exposure To The Toxic Agent And The Medical Causation Studies Support The Claim?

Identification of chemicals and chemical products to match known acute and chronic disease symptoms, complete with supporting medical journal epidemiology studies suitable for use in litigation.

Preparation of Interrogatories, Requests for Production Requests for Admissions and deposition questions and review of petitions and motions for technical accuracy.

Determination of source, identity and amount of "hard-to-find" chemical contaminants in polluted waters (surface, subsurface, and aquifers).

Assessment Of Chemical Process And Chemical Product Patents.

Accident reconstruction for injuries resulting from failures of automotive air bags.

1988-2006 President Chemtex Corporation - Dallas, TX
Technical expert and expert witness for criminal defense cases and civil litigation (plaintiff and defense) of automotive air bag failures, worker injuries caused by chemical plant fires and explosions, chemical exposure, environmental pollution, and State of Arizona Attorney General Grand Jury investigation, U.S. Department of Justice Benzene NESHAP complaints, and U. S. Department of Labor (OSHA) investigations of workplace safety violations. 

1987-1988Vice President Engineering & Commercial DevelopmentVirtex Oil & Gas Corporation Bristol, VA
Designed, constructed, and started up two major fuel alcohol plants, Developed business architecture, negotiated all contracts, selected and leased, site, procured all equipment, secured feedstock purchase and product marketing agreements, selected and supervised contractor and obtained all environmental, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and operating permits.

Worked with Virginia legislature and succeeded in getting legislation passed to allow tax credits for the last Virginia alcohol plant to be built.

1985-1987 Vice President Business Development Virginia Oxygenates, Inc. - Bristol, VA
Worked with Virginia legislature and succeeded in preserving the Virginia fuel alcohol program.

Developed fuel alcohol project that generated $4.2 million gross revenue during the first year of operation, preventing the company's demise and forfeiture of prior years $5.5 million net operating loss tax benefit. I developed the project business architecture, obtained unsecured financing for $1.5 million of plant equipment, negotiated all contracts (site lease, feedstock procurement/product marketing, technology selection & licensing, and effluent disposal), designed, built and started up plant, and hired and trained operations staff.

1982-1985 Vice President Technology & Engineering Cellanol Corporation - West Palm Beach, FL
Developed strategy and implemented program for commercialization of proprietary cellulose-based fuel ethanol process.  Negotiated all contracts, selected site, designed & constructed plant, hired and trained operations staff, started up, operated and maintained plant.

1980-1982 Vice President Technology & Marketing Litton Industries - Houston, TX
Succeeded in obtaining first US EPA Section 211(f) Clean Air Act Waiver for methanol/gasoline blends.

Responsible for design and engineering of barge mounted methanol plant program.  Working directly for Litton Industries’ CEO, I was responsible for process and marine technology selection, overall design, selection of engineering contractor and shipyard construction.  Duties also included development of automotive markets for fuel grade methanol.

1966-1980 Senior Planning Associate Celanese Chemical Company - Corpus Christi, New York, Dallas
Developed major product line strategies for Strategic Plan for $1 billion annual sales.  Total company computer business model developed and used to develop financial reports for growth strategies.  Defined key activities required by manufacturing, marketing, research & development to maintain product leadership. 

Group Leader Process Development
Provided experimental program design and data analysis of bench scale process development programs and plant technical support. I designed, constructed, and operated fully instrumented, continuously operated micro units. Project team and plant support work produced substantial earnings increases for world's largest methanol and formaldehyde plants.  Supervised two Ph.D. chemists.

Senior Computer Applications Engineer
Developed major computer systems for preliminary and detailed chemical process design.
 
Senior Pilot Plant Supervisor
Provided chemical and mechanical process designs, construction, and operation of large, fully instrumented pilot plants for major development programs.

Summers 1963,1964 Senior Development Engineer Shell Oil Company - Houston, TX
Developed on-line computer control systems for fluid catalytic crackers. Developed computer models for prediction of motor gasoline octane number.

1960-1962 Senior Process Engineer Dupont - Gibbstown, N. J
Responsible for operation and maintenance of fully integrated acrylonitrile pilot plant (ORLON monomer) and caprolactam (Nylon-6 raw material) semi-works

Professional Organizations

Society of automotive engineers

Publications

Available upon request