Global Fastener News

Powers Fasteners To Be Only Firm Indicted For Big Dig Collapse

Jason Sandefur

Powers Fasteners Inc. appears to be the only company that will be indicted for the 2006 fatal ceiling collapse in Boston’s Big Dig tunnel.
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has reportedly concluded that only Powers and the two companies that managed the Big Dig — Bechtel Co. and Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas — were criminally negligent, the Boston Globe reports. Coakley has ruled out further indictments “unless settlement talks with (Bechtel and Parsons) break down,” according to the Globe. The two large firms are reportedly hammering out details of a settlement in excess of $300 million.
Powers Fasteners, which supplied the epoxy blamed in the July 2006 fatal tunnel collapse, was indicted for one count of involuntary manslaughter.
“The only reason that our company has been indicted is that unlike others implicated in this tragedy, we don’t have enough money to buy our way out,” Powers Fasteners president Jeffrey Powers stated after the indictment was announced.
According to the Globe, Powers Fasteners offered $8 million to settle the case before the charge was announced, but the “offer did not satisfy Coakley’s demand that any settlement be painful,” the Globe reports. Powers reportedly carries about $26 million worth of professional liability insurance. “Coakley had wanted Powers to pay something out-of-pocket that was big enough to show contrition,” according to the Globe.
If confirmed, these developments would appear to back Jeffrey Powers’ claim that his comparatively small company lacked the financial clout to buy its way out of legal trouble.
Attorneys for Powers Fasteners have asked that Coakley and her assistant prosecutors be recused from the case due to an “irreconcilable conflict of interest.” Powers Fasteners claims that “while the Attorney General was making the determination to criminally charge Powers, she has been seeking to advance the Commonwealth”s ability to collect as much money as possiblefrom Powers and others– to cover the significant cost overruns caused at least in part by the state”s own mismanagement of the Big Dig.”
Powers, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, and several other companies also face a wrongful death lawsuit by the family, as well as a civil suit filed by the state.
By singling out Powers Fasteners, Coakley’s assessment of the case contradicts a National Transportation Safety Board report that spread broad blame for the ceiling collapse. The NTSB investigation found that designers and construction crews had not considered that the epoxy holding support anchors could pull away. The NTSB also specifically faulted ceiling designer Gannett Fleming for failing to stipulate which kind of epoxy to use during installation.
As the Globe summarized, Coakley now faces a public relations challenge “to convince the public that Powers is the most culpable firm in the tragedy and uniquely deserving of criminal prosecution.”
Arraignment is scheduled for September 5. �2007 FastenerNews.com