Family member killed on job site

Just wanting to hear any advice I can get on this subject.

My brother-in-law, 20 years old, was killed in a mowing accident at his place of employment. The mower malfunctioned and he went over an approximately 8 ft. culvert dropoff where the mower landed on top of him. The culvert had no guardrail, the mower had no lapbelt or safety bars.

I know that in the state of Indiana there is limited things you can do as far as wrongful death when someone 18 or over dies of wrongful death and has no spouse or direct dependents such as children.

Please, any advice on what we can pursue would be helpful to justify his death.

[randalljd]

His estate can still sue for the damages and wrongful death. Meet with several local injury lawyers to discuss.

How did the mower malfunction? What actually happened?

A spring on the mower broke causing the mower to malfunction. The belt slipped. The mower shut off due to the malfunction which means no breaks except for the e-brake which is hand operated on the floor of the mower and there was no time to pull the ebrake. This was not the first time this happened with this mower and a month after his accident another employee encountered the same problem but was in a wide-open space where he could stop in time.

We have talked to a lawyer who keeps coming up short on how we can legally sue since he does not have any direct dependents financially relying on him. They said that because of wrongful death laws, there is limited recovery for parents and siblings. I still don't understand why we can't sue the mower company for product liability/defect. Even if it wasn't for his accident leading to his death, the model of mower is continuing to malfunction and more people could get hurt.

meet with several lawyers to discuss as a first step. Don't rely on one opinion. Then you can choose which if any have outlined options that make sense. This kind of case if it does proceed at all should be on a contingency fee basis only.