Worker injured at Wal-Mart site dies in hospital

A worker severely burned in an electrical accident this August at the construction site for the new Wal-Mart Supercenter in Bloomington died Friday.\nScott Shelton, of Anderson, passed away at about 10:45 p.m. Friday in the burn center at Wishard Memorial Hospital after his heart stopped, according to hospital officials and family members. He was unable to be resuscitated.\nShelton, 35, who received burns covering 95 percent of his body, had been in an induced coma at the Wishard burn center. He was moved briefly to the Riley Hospital for Children in an effort to stabilize him in September.\nShelton, an employee of Electromation Inc., in Muncie, was injured Aug. 26 after an electrical panel he and two other men were working on was charged with 12,000 volts of electricity and shorted. The resulting electrical arc -- which extended six to eight feet -- sparked a fire in the service room, lighting all three workers on fire. \nLarry Shelton, Scott's father, declined to speak in detail about his son's death but said the family will be making funeral arrangement in Alabama, where he is from originally.\n"He was a wonderful man and an even better daddy to his daughter, Mallory," family friend Janell Kerr said, adding that the accident and subsequent medical care Shelton needed had been very stressful on the family and his fiancee, Tammy Sniegowski.\nThe Shelton family is in the process of preparing a lawsuit against several of the companies involved in the incident, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., with their attorney William Emerick, who said they would be filing it soon. \nAnother injured worker, Stephen Abbott, and his family have already filed a lawsuit in Monroe County, citing safety negligence on the part of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the LaSalle Group Inc., which was the general contractor at the site, and Duke Energy. In addition, Abbott's lawsuit said that prior to the day of the accident, the electricians had worked on the electrical units only when the power was off.\nThe Occupational Safety & Health Administration is currently investigating the incident as well.\nRobert Eury, 29, of Bloomington, and Abbott, 27, of Otterbein, Ind., who were both burned in the accident along with Shelton, remained in serious but stable condition at Wishard Hospital on Sunday night.\nShelton is survived by his parents, Larry and Janet Shelton, of Alabama; his fiancee, Tammy Sniegowski, and a seven-month-old daughter, Mallory Shelton, both of Anderson; and several siblings, cousins and other extended family members in both Tennessee and Alabama.