A neutral arbitrator awarded a former employee of Philadelphia Electric Company Energy (PECO) $4.5 million Tuesday for injuries the worker sustained while attempting to install a gas service for a residential customer. In March 1999, Joseph Johnson was measuring the amount of pipe it would take to run an underground gas line to the customer's house when a coworker ran over him with a backhoe loader. He suffered fractures of his coccyx, right hip, pubic bone and sacrum as well as a torn urethra and prostate.

Johnson sued the distributor of the backhoe, Wenner Ford Tractor Rentals, claiming the company was liable because the backup alarm was off at the time of the accident. His attorneys argued that the alarm should never have been built with an on/off switch.