Suit Claims Malfunctioning Pump Sprayed Gas In Woman's Eyes

A woman has filed a personal injury suit against a gas station and its owners, claiming that she suffered serious personal injuries due to a malfunctioning hose spraying gas into her eyes.

According to the suit filed by Neko Childress-Jethro on April 24 in Illinois’ St. Clair County Circuit Court, she was pumping gas at a Shell station on April 27, 2007, when the gas sprayed into her eyes and on her entire body.

Childress-Jethro claims the incident caused her to be hindered from attending to her usual duties, lose large sums of money, experience great pain, anguish, disability, disfigurement, and lost normal life, and incur medical costs.

The suit alleges negligence on the part of the station and its owners, Phillip R. Fiudo and Sherry L. Fiudo, for failure to properly maintain the gas pumps, allowing improperly maintained gas pumps to remain in use, and failure to warn.

Childress-Jethro seeks damages in excess of $50,000, plus costs, from the three-count suit.