CASPER, Wyo. — A Casper man is suing the company behind Tire-Rama for lost wages, medical bills and suffering allegedly stemming from a traffic collision on CY Avenue and Southwest Wyoming Boulevard on Sept. 9, 2019.
The driver of the tractor-trailer combo that rear-ended him testified Tuesday that he had had “no brakes” leading up to the collision, and that he’d just picked it up from the shop on Prospector Drive after dropping it off earlier for brake service.
He hit Nicholas Skalicky, who was facing east on CY Avenue and waiting at the red light to turn left. The once-active volunteer firefighter and Mine Rescue Team captain is now in constant pain with pinched nerves and herniated discs that need surgery, according to his attorney, Jason Ochs.
Skalicky is seeking $10 million, Ochs told the jury during openings, saying Tire-Rama violated a duty of care by releasing an unsafe vehicle. The plaintiffs would argue that sum after determining the question of liability for The Tire Guys Inc., doing business as Tire-Rama.
“You’re going to learn all about air brakes in this trial,” Ochs told the mostly male jury on Monday.
Defense counsel Scott Klosterman told the jury that blame for the accident lay with the 1998 Volvo tractor’s inattentive driver, George Dickerson.
Dickerson testified Tuesday about the crash and his previous experience as a CDL-licensed commercial vehicle operator. He appeared in a suit but was bound at the ankles with a black strap, as he remains in custody awaiting an ostensibly unrelated trial for second-degree homicide.
Dickerson’s testimony about having “no brakes” was implausible given that he said they’d worked fine when he dropped the truck off and the shop hadn’t worked on the braking system at all except to replace one shoe while fixing a seal leak, Klosterman said.
Dickerson said that when he picked up the Volvo, he’d tested the brakes on a slow reverse, and that it had stopped on the incline of Prospector Drive before turning east onto CY Avenue. It was when going through the Talon Drive stoplight that he said he had no brakes, though the air system was fully operational.
Dickerson said he “tried everything he could think of” to slow the Volvo, including the separate, electronically controlled trailer brakes and engaging the emergency brake on the air compressor. All those measures should have afforded Dickerson some braking, Klosterman said.
Dickerson said he was only able to engage the engine brake and downshift before the collision.
Klosterman also pointed out that there was a quarter-mile between where Dickerson said he realized he had no brakes and the intersection where the crash occurred. Dickerson said there had been too much traffic to maneuver away from Skalicky.
“The best of bad choices was the lane with one vehicle in it,” Dickerson testified.
The speed of the Volvo on impact — and whether it could have caused the injuries that Skalicky claims — is another issue to be argued, counsel indicated during openings.
Photos of the vehicles at trial showed the rear bumper bent downward on the Nissan that Skalicky was test driving. The Volvo tractor had a slightly dented brush guard.
Klosterman said medical imaging will show evidence that Skalicky may have a pre-existing degenerative condition that could be causing the symptoms that Ochs says render his client unable to work due to debilitating flare-ups of nerve pain.
Proceedings in the scheduled 10-day trial closed Tuesday with testimony by plaintiff’s expert witness Tom Ward, who inspected the Volvo three years after the accident.
Since the wreck, no maintenance had been performed and the Volvo had gone about 4,500 miles, according to the deposition of the owners.
Klosterman pressed Ward on his conclusion that there had been only one working front brake on the day of the accident. Ward testified about the the out-of-adjustment slack adjuster and like-new brake shoe on one side of the drive axle. He also found leaks that led him to conclude that two other brake shoes had been soaked with oil.
Defense filings indicate their own expert, a mechanic at Peterbilt of Wyoming, will dispute these conclusions, saying up to three of the brakes were working at the time of the accident.
Klosterman pressed Ward that if even one front brake was working, Dickerson’s professed efforts should have produced some braking and caused the vehicle to pull in one direction, contrary to Dickerson’s testimony of events.
Dickerson was working at Magic City Stoves at the time of the accident, and the Volvo belonged to the company’s owner, Steve Schicketanz.
His son, Steve Schicketanz Jr., testified Tuesday about a singular brake failure incident on the highway in late August 2019 which had prompted Magic City to take the Volvo to the shop for service. Schicketanz Jr. said he’d been able to finish going to and from Minnesota with “less than adequate” brakes, aided by Jake Brakes and downshifting.
Dickerson was not cited by Casper police at the scene of the crash, now-Detective Chris Miller testified. Miller said Dickerson had showed him the receipt from Tire-Rama and released the vehicle to be towed back to the shop.
Schicketanz Sr. said he had no idea what, if anything, was done to the Volvo after it was towed back. Schicketanz Jr. said he picked it up from the shop either later that day or the next morning.
Junior said he’d driven the Volvo dozens of times since the wreck with no brake problems.
Dickerson, Magic City Stoves and Schicketanz were named as defendants in the original suit filed in 2021, the plaintiffs alleging the Volvo qualified as a commercial vehicle and that the parties thus had a duty to verify its safety.
Dickerson was dismissed as a defendant in April, and Magic City reached a settlement more recently, court filings indicate.
Schickentanz Sr. testified Monday that he’d done business with Tire-Rama for years leading up to the accident, and has taken vehicles in 30–40 times since.
“They do quality work, don’t they?” Klosterman asked Shicketanz Sr.
“Yes, I still take my vehicles there,” Shicketanz Sr. said.
