Teenager Burned in Philadelphia Food Truck Explosion Settles With U-Haul for $54.35 Million

On July 1, 2014, a propane tank exploded aboard a food truck parked on Wyoming Avenue near Third Street in the Feltonville section of Philadelphia. The truck, La Parrillada Chapina, sold Guatemalan food and belonged to Olga Galdamez. Temperatures had reached 93 degrees that afternoon when the tank fueling the truck's cooking equipment ruptured and ignited a fireball that engulfed the vehicle. Galdamez, 42, and her 17-year-old daughter were burned in the blast and died three weeks later. Eleven other people were hurt, including two teenagers who were in or near the truck.

One of those teenagers was a girl identified publicly only as Jane Doe. Her lawyers did not name her because she was a minor, and news coverage of the settlement did not describe her injuries for the same reason. The Duffy Firm, which represented her, says she was helping in a food truck owned by her aunt and was left with disfiguring burns over more than 65 percent of her body.

Plaintiffs' attorneys traced the explosion to how the propane tanks were serviced. They said Miguel Rivera, the general manager of U-Haul's Hunting Park location in Philadelphia, had repeatedly filled tanks that were about 70 years old and lacked the safety devices federal regulations required. The lawyers also said the tanks were overfilled, leaving no room for the gas to expand as the temperature climbed that day. U-Haul said it did not fill the specific cylinder that exploded, but plaintiffs' counsel pointed to video showing a U-Haul worker filling it. Federal prosecutors separately charged U-Haul of Pennsylvania and Rivera in June 2018 with violating hazardous materials regulations, one count of which related to the food truck explosion.

With trial less than a week away, U-Haul agreed in June 2018 to pay $160 million to resolve all four claims, plus an additional confidential amount, even though other defendants had also been sued. The money was divided among the victims: $36.47 million to the Galdamez estates, $69.17 million to the other injured teenager, a boy who suffered burns over more than 65 percent of his body, and $54.35 million to Jane Doe. Attorneys for the plaintiffs said her recovery was the largest settlement ever paid to a minor in Pennsylvania state court history, and that the overall $160 million figure was the largest pretrial settlement in the state's history. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Jane Doe was represented by lawyers including Thomas J. Duffy. The deal was brokered by a retired federal magistrate judge sitting as a private mediator, and because Jane Doe was a minor it required approval from a judge in the Orphans' Court division of the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas.

U-Haul did not admit liability. A company spokesman said U-Haul and its insurance carriers worked to fund the settlement and that all of the injured parties had been compensated. Rivera's attorney said his client maintained his innocence, had admitted no liability in the civil settlements, and would defend against the federal indictment.