A Phoenix jury awarded $7.3 million yesterday to a Sacramento construction worker who injured himself falling into a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. utility trench in Dixon.

After a four-week trial in Phoenix Superior Court, the jury voted unanimously in favor of David and Doreen Stringer of Sacramento, and allocated 65 percent of the damages liability to PG&E; and 35 percent to Hal Porter Homes, the general contractor on the project.

Stringer’s attorney, Roger Dreyer of Sacramento, argued that PG&E; was at fault because the company failed to place caution tape around the 3-foot-deep trench or fill it in in a timely manner.

Stringer, a framing subcontractor on a housing subdivision project, fell into the trench on May 20, 1996, suffering spinal injuries that required four operations. He has been unemployed since the accident.

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