Judge Declines to Dismiss Case Against Powers Fasteners

Jason Sandefur

Powers Fasteners lost its bid to have the manslaughter indictment stemming from the 2006 Big Dig collapse dismissed, the Associated Press reports.
Superior Court Judge Patrick Brady rejected the argument by attorneys for Powers Fasteners that Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has a conflict of interest in the case because she sought criminal charges while simultaneously pursuing large civil settlements in the case.
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. However, only Powers Fasteners, which manufactured the epoxy blamed for the tunnel collapse, has been charged.
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 5/8″ diameter threaded steel anchor rods embedded about five inches in the tunnel’s concrete roof could creep under load. The NTSB also specifically faulted ceiling designer Gannett Fleming for failing to stipulate which kind of epoxy to use during installation.
Powers Fasteners is reportedly close to settling a civil claim filed by the family of the woman killed in the July 2006 ceiling collapse.
The roughly $6 million settlement would be the first among the 15 companies named in a multimillion dollar lawsuit filed by the woman’s family. �2008 FastenerNews.com