As federal investigators dug under the collapsed steel beams at the post office construction site in Chicago Thursday, they uncovered a clue as to what may have caused the accident that killed two ironworkers and injured five others-a possibly faulty beam support.
A bolting system supporting a beam, investigators said, apparently failed, causing the beam to fall and creating a chain reaction that sent four floors of steel-and the workers perched on top of them-crashing to the ground.
“We have found a seat lug, which is part of the bolting system, which appears to have failed,” said Gary Anderson, area director of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. “It’s something we’re going to look closely at.”
A hospitalized worker reported that the beam that collapsed Wednesday was already positioned on the seat lug.
Greg Macijunas said workers were setting temporary bolts in the beam while he was installing permanent bolts on a different beam when the accident occurred.
“Guys started screaming, `It’s going. Get out of here,’ ” said Macijunas, who was listed Thursday in fair but stable condition at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. “Then I remember being on the ground.”
The broken seat lug was shipped to Washington Thursday for testing, Anderson said.
Meanwhile, an attorney filed lawsuits Thursday on behalf of three of the injured workers. Attorney Curt N. Rodin filed the suits in Cook County Circuit Court on behalf of Robert Buchanic, Robert Rygiewicz and Jeffrey William against the project’s architect, structural engineer and general contractor.
Buchanic, 51, of Palos Hills, was listed in fair condition at Thursday with a crushed foot, hospital officials said. Rygiewicz, 48, of Lowell, Ind., was listed in serious condition at Cook County with head injuries. William, 33, of Oak Lawn, was listed in fair condition at Christ Hospital and Medical Center in Oak Lawn. He sustained broken ribs and a broken shoulder blade along with cuts and bruises, officials said.
Another worker, John Kirk, 41, of Elmhurst, was treated and released Thursday from Mt. Sinai Hospital and Medical Center, officials said. Kirk is not involved in the suits.
Rodin did not specify a dollar amount in the suits, adding that other parties could be sued later. As for whether he believed the accident could have been prevented, Rodin said, “I have my suspicions at this point.”
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“My gut feeling is yes, this is something that could have been avoided,” Anderson said. Though he stressed that it may be months before OSHA inspectors have definite answers as to why the beam fell, he said, “We don’t think it’s weather. We don’t think it’s wind. We don’t think it’s any kind of natural force.”
“There ought not be this kind of collapse,” said city Building Commissioner Dan Weil, who visited the accident site at Harrison and Canal Streets Wednesday. “When this kind of thing happens, there has to be a reason. This was not an act of God.”
Work on the $241 million project, which will become Chicago’s new main post office, has stopped while federal inspectors study the collapse. According to Anderson, the OSHA investigation will concentrate on several areas:
– Structural: Were too few bolts used or were the beams overloaded, causing the bolts or seat lug to break? Were the bolts themselves improperly fastened, or defective?
– Procedural: Did Pitt-Des Moines Inc., the Pittsburgh-based steel fabricator and erector of the building, follow its building plan? If so, were the plans adequate and were the right kind of bolts ordered for the job?
– Preventive: At what point in the building process was an error, if any, made that could have caused the accident? Could any errors have been avoided or intercepted in time to head off the collapse?
Anderson estimated that it would take several months to complete the investigation. “We’re going to have to do some metallurgical testing as to what caused the bolting systems to give way,” he said.
He acknowledged that one theory-that some of the bolts used were defective-was of considerable interest to his inspection team.
“It may not be all the bolts,” he said. “Perhaps one or two in the framework were bad. We’re just too early into the investigation to say for sure.”
Bad bolts, he said, could be hard for a worker to spot. “If a bolt that had been manufactured was weak, you might not be able to see that from looking at it. Visually they look fine.”
Although Pitt-Des Moines was cited by OSHA for worker safety violations on the project, Anderson said that had no bearing on Wednesday’s accident.
“What we’re dealing with here is an engineering problem, not a personal protection problem,” he said.
Nor was the project being rushed to meet construction deadlines, according to Postal Service spokesman Jim Mruk. “Most of the challenging work had been completed,” Mruk said. “The rest of the project should have moved along very smoothly.”
As builders and postal officials scrambled to re-evaulate the project, the families of the dead and injured workers grappled with the aftermath of Wednesday’s collapse.
Patrick Newsome, 25, of Thornton, and Larry Thormeyer, 47, of South Holland, both died as a result of the accident.
“I remember seeing Larry Thormeyer and then he was gone,” said Macijunas, 32, of Oak Lawn. “It was like he slipped on a sheet of ice.”
Macijunas suffered a broken bone in his right foot and two broken ribs and had to have 46 stitches in the back of his head. “I was very lucky,” he said. “I thank my God. I can go home and see my kids. A couple of guys can’t do that.”
Matthew Thormeyer, who flew Wednesday from Florida to Chicago to join his brother and mother, said he always knew of the danger involved with his father’s job, but he never expected him to be harmed.
“It’s always on your mind. It was never a major topic,” he said. “It’s still a shock.”
Although they were well aware of the dangers of ironworking, Maria Newsome said her family is stunned by the death of her brother-in-law, Patrick Newsome. She described Patrick Newsome as a loving man who lived with his mother.
She said, in spite of the danger of the job, Newsome was drawn to ironworking.
“He was gung-ho about it. He’s got a videotape of himself,” she said. “The guys on the cranes videotaped him. He loved the celebrity. He was the center of attention.”