When a data center project or operating facility in Texas is connected to a serious injury or death, the investigation must establish what happened—not simply who owns the campus. Brian Beckcom and Vuk Vujasinovic examine the construction activity, equipment, electrical systems, truck operation, and company responsibilities that may support a civil injury or wrongful death claim.
The person hurt may work for the operator, a construction contractor, a staffing company, or a delivery service. They may have no connection to the project at all. Those differences matter when deciding who had a duty to protect them and what claims Texas law allows.
Brian Beckcom and Vuk Vujasinovic investigate injury and wrongful death claims involving construction work, industrial equipment, and commercial trucks. Brian Beckcom and Vuk Vujasinovic are Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. From our Houston office, we represent injured people and families across Texas.
Injuries on the job, at the gate, and on the road
The investigation should follow the work that caused the injury, even when it crosses the property line.
- Construction and installation crews: injuries involving falls, excavations, electrical work, structural work, cranes, rigging, concrete placement, and moving equipment.
- Operations and maintenance personnel: injuries during equipment servicing, electrical testing, generator work, cooling-system maintenance, and other tasks at an operating facility.
- Delivery drivers and equipment crews: injuries while unloading, releasing tiedowns, using forklifts, backing vehicles, or positioning heavy components.
- Motorists, passengers, cyclists, and pedestrians: collisions with dump trucks, concrete mixers, flatbeds, equipment haulers, fuel-delivery vehicles, or other commercial vehicles serving the project.
- Visitors and neighboring property occupants: injuries allegedly caused by a specific construction activity, unsafe access arrangement, falling material, fire, or release that requires investigation.
We use witness accounts, company records, physical evidence, and appropriate technical analysis to connect the injury to the activity and companies involved.
What happened before the equipment moved?
After a lifting or crushing injury, the important decisions may have been made well before the incident. Someone selected the crane or forklift, planned the route, prepared the ground, chose the rigging, and decided where workers would stand. A complete investigation asks what those decisions required and what actually happened.
Cranes, rigging, forklifts, and heavy loads
Generators, transformers, cooling equipment, structural components, and other deliveries may require coordinated lifting and positioning. Relevant questions include the load’s weight and center of gravity, the equipment’s capacity, ground conditions, clearance, rigging condition, communication, and separation of people from moving equipment.
Lift plans, equipment inspection records, photographs, video, operator information, and the original rigging can help reconstruct the sequence. A load’s fall does not identify the legally responsible company by itself; the roles of the operator, rigging crew, supervisor, and others must be examined separately.
Falls, excavations, and changing work areas
An unfinished roof, floor opening, temporary access route, trench, or elevated work platform can change as different trades move through the project. We examine the condition when the person was hurt, who created or controlled it, and the protection actually provided. Earlier photographs and daily reports can be important when the scene has changed before an inspection.
OSHA’s construction guidance identifies falls, electrical contact, unguarded machinery, and heavy-equipment contact among construction hazards. The standard governing a particular task still must be identified; a general description of construction risks is not proof of a violation in an individual case.
Electrical injuries and maintenance at operating data centers
The work does not end when a building opens. Equipment still needs testing, servicing, repair, and replacement. An operating campus may also have new construction underway nearby.
After an electrical shock, arc-flash burn, unexpected startup, or release of stored energy, the questions include:
- What equipment and energy sources were involved?
- Who had authority to isolate, switch, test, or restart them?
- What did the work order, permit, and isolation procedure require?
- What was communicated between the facility’s personnel and outside contractors?
- What do switching records, alarms, maintenance logs, and available control-system data show?
Construction electrical work, electrical work in an operating facility, and machine servicing can be governed by different OSHA provisions. For example, construction circuit lockout and tagging, electrical work practices, and hazardous-energy control during covered maintenance are not interchangeable rules.
An incident involving heat, smoke, chemicals, or gases requires the same care with causation. Medical findings, the substance or conditions involved, the person’s work, and the timing of the exposure must support the claim. We do not assume that an illness was caused by a facility simply because it occurred nearby.
Trucks serving a data center can injure people miles from the site
A haul truck can leave the project with excavated material. A flatbed can arrive carrying equipment. A concrete mixer or fuel truck can turn across an active traffic lane. The location of the collision may be an access road, a rural intersection, a highway, or an unloading area inside the fence.
For a public-road collision, we investigate the driving and the commercial operation behind it. Depending on the vehicle and event, the evidence may include:
- Available dashcam footage, vehicle event data, telematics, and electronic driving records.
- Dispatch messages, delivery tickets, gate entries, routes, and work schedules.
- Driver qualifications, training, maintenance, and inspection records.
- Load dimensions, permits, escort arrangements, loading instructions, and securement.
- Sight lines, turning movements, temporary traffic controls, and the condition of the access point.
For an unloading injury, the focus may shift to who controlled the unloading area, released the restraints, operated the lifting equipment, or directed the driver’s position. Different companies can have different responsibilities during the same delivery.
Federal cargo-securement requirements address covered cargo-carrying commercial vehicles and include equipment-specific provisions. Their application depends on the vehicle, cargo, and operation; they should not be applied indiscriminately to every load or truck.
Our commercial-truck practice examines these facts alongside the project’s records. A delivery ticket can establish where a truck was going. It does not, alone, make the customer responsible for the trucking company’s negligence.
The industrial and trucking cases behind our approach
Our industrial and transportation cases show how we examine lifting operations, heavy-haul decisions, and electronic records. Each involved its own facts and legal framework.
A fatal crane operation: $44,370,000 jury verdict
Vuk led the trial after a rigger was killed by a falling pipe at a Beaumont refinery. The work involved separate refinery, rigging, and crane-company responsibilities. Vuk examined the crane company’s written safety commitments, planning, training, and supervision. The jury returned a $44,370,000 verdict and allocated responsibility among three companies. The case later settled; the verdict is not a statement of the amount ultimately paid.
An overloaded equipment truck: $9,638,589.96 settlement
In the Tornado Trucking case, protruding oilfield equipment struck a family’s vehicle on the shoulder of U.S. 59. A two-year-old child died, and his mother and sister were injured. Brian and Vuk investigated the load, driver history, altered records, and insurance coverage. The case resolved for $9,638,589.96. The work illustrates why a heavy-haul investigation must examine decisions made before the truck reached the crash scene.
A commercial driver’s electronic record: $29,920,310 recovery
Brian and Vuk co-led a commercial-truck case involving a young man with a brain injury. Recovered phone data and social-media timestamps helped establish the driver’s activity before the collision. The case resulted in a $29,920,310 recovery. Electronic records can supply a timeline that witness recollections and an initial incident report do not.
Every case is different. Prior results depend on the facts of the individual case and do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Which companies can be held responsible?
The answer depends on a company’s own conduct, its legal duties, and the relationship between the people doing the work. Potential subjects of an investigation include the employer, general contractor, trade contractor, facility operator, property owner, crane company, motor carrier, loader, and equipment-maintenance provider. Being on that list does not establish liability.
Contracts help identify responsibilities, but actual practices matter too. We examine who directed the task, controlled the work area, operated or maintained the equipment, received hazard reports, and could take the action relevant to the injury.
Workers’ compensation coverage changes the analysis
For an employee covered by Texas workers’ compensation, benefits are ordinarily the exclusive remedy against the covered employer for a work-related injury or death. Specific exceptions require separate analysis. A responsible third party may still face a civil claim, and the compensation carrier may have reimbursement rights. See Labor Code Chapter 408 and Chapter 417.
A different company name does not necessarily establish a third-party claim. Written arrangements providing workers’ compensation through a general contractor can affect employer status under Section 406.123. We examine the policy and agreements, not just the badge or paycheck.
If the employer is a nonsubscriber to Texas workers’ compensation, an employee may have a negligence claim against it. Lack of coverage does not establish fault: the claimant still must prove employer negligence. Section 406.033 also limits certain defenses in those cases. A company’s occupational-injury benefit plan is not necessarily statutory workers’ compensation coverage.
VB Attorneys does not handle workers’ compensation benefit claims. Our focus here is whether the facts support a civil injury or wrongful death case.
Property ownership is not enough
Texas law limits some claims arising from contractor work on commercial property. When Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 95 applies, a property-owner claim requires proof of control over the manner of work beyond merely starting, stopping, or inspecting it, plus actual knowledge of the danger and a failure to warn adequately.
Other premises and negligent-activity claims have their own requirements. A claim involving a visitor, a contractor performing an improvement, or a motorist on a public road should not be treated as though each presents the same legal question.
When a data center injury takes a life
A family may be trying to understand the death while several companies investigate the incident and control access to the site. Identifying the employer, contractors, vehicles, equipment, witnesses, and records early can help preserve an independent account of what happened.
Under Texas law, wrongful death claims are for the benefit of a deceased person’s surviving spouse, children, and parents. A survival action is different: it preserves the injured person’s claim after death. Who may bring each action and what losses it can address must be evaluated under Chapter 71, together with any applicable workers’ compensation restrictions.
Our wrongful death practice addresses both the event and the family’s resulting losses. A fatal incident is not automatically proof of negligence, and an OSHA investigation does not replace the family’s civil case.
The losses behind the case
The investigation must also explain what the injury has changed. That can mean documenting treatment and rehabilitation, time away from work, an altered career, help needed at home, and future care. Medical records and appropriate experts can help distinguish an immediate expense from a need that may continue for years.
After a death, we work to understand the family’s relationships and the support that was lost, alongside the evidence needed for any survival claim. Which damages are available depends on the claim and the proof. We do not value a person’s case by comparing it with the dollar figure in an unrelated result.
Serving people affected by Texas data center projects
Our office is in Houston. We evaluate appropriate cases throughout Texas, including communities where data centers are operating, expanding, or being developed.
Official project information reviewed October 31, 2026, identifies:
- Abilene and Taylor County. Crusoe has announced operating infrastructure and additional construction. Its March 2026 announcement described site preparation for a separate Microsoft campus beside the existing campus. Developer update.
- Shackelford County. Vantage identifies its Frontier campus and reports that construction began, with phased delivery planned. A projected delivery date is not confirmation that a building has opened. Frontier announcement.
- Milam County. SB Energy’s project website describes phase one as under construction, with first operations expected in 2027. Project FAQ.
- Dallas-Fort Worth and Ellis County. Google identifies data center locations in Midlothian and Red Oak. Google’s Texas locations.
- Greater San Antonio, Bexar County, and Medina County. Microsoft identifies operating data centers in Bexar and Medina counties and publishes separate construction updates for additional work. Regional information and County Road 381 construction update.
- El Paso. The city identifies Meta’s project in northeast El Paso, north of Stan Roberts Sr. Avenue and west of U.S. 54, with phase one underway. City project information.
- North and West Texas development areas. Google has announced construction in Wilbarger County and a data center with energy infrastructure in Gray and Roberts counties, as well as new campuses in Armstrong and Haskell counties. Microsoft has announced plans outside Pecos in Reeves County; that announcement does not confirm construction of every proposed facility.
These locations describe development activity, not findings of unsafe work or accidents. Project schedules and permits can change. The relevant building, construction phase, truck route, and work underway must be checked for the date of an injury.
What to preserve after an injury or fatal incident
Get medical care and address immediate safety first. Keep information already in your possession: original photographs and videos, witness contacts, the incident or crash-report number, company and equipment names, work messages, medical records, and correspondence about the incident. Write down what you personally remember without trying to fill gaps.
Do not enter restricted property, remove company records without authorization, handle damaged electrical equipment, or return to an unsafe scene to collect evidence. Tell your lawyer where relevant material may exist.
Depending on the event, counsel can evaluate requests to preserve surveillance video, access and gate records, work permits, daily reports, lift plans, maintenance histories, dispatch messages, vehicle data, and the equipment itself. Not every system records the same information, and retention periods vary. An early, incident-specific request is more useful than assuming every company possesses the same records.