Cell Tower News: Lawsuit filed over firefighter tower death

Lawsuit names SBA Communications, others as defendants

In February 2014 a tower in Clarksburg, W.Va., collapsed, killing two tower climbers and injuring others. The stress of the collapse caused stress on guy wires connecting the tower to a nearby tower which also collapsed, killing one firefighter, Michael D. Garrett, and injuring another as they tried to rescue the original party. Now the mother of the firefighter killed in the incident has filed a lawsuit and is taking five different companies, plus city officials to court.

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The companies named in the lawsuit include S&S Communications Specialists Inc., SBA Communications Corp., FDH Inc., FDH Engineering Inc. and FDH Velocitel. The city officials named as defendants are the Summit Park Volunteer Fire Department and Brenda Fragmin, its former chief. Naming companies in the lawsuit makes total sense: They’re the ones in charge of the towers that collapsed and ultimately killed her son, even if subcontractors performed the actual maintenance. The grounds on which Garrett is basing her case against city officials is a report from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The organization investigated the fatal incident and found that “an ineffective incident command on the part of Defendant Summit Park and Defendant Fragmin was one of the contributing factors.”

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration did eventually cite the company that had direct responsibility, S&S Communications, and doled out a fine to the tune of $14,000. However, when we reported on it the question was raised whether this was sufficient in terms of accountability in a fatal accident. Looks like Garrett’s mother agrees and will see just how much accountability the courts are willing to grant in this incident.