2014 tragedy reaches federal court
The story of the fatal West Virginia tower collapse in 2014 continues this week as the case reaches federal court. This past June RCR Wireless News reported the 2014 collapse of two towers that killed three people and injured two others had resulted in wrongful death lawsuits on behalf of the deceased and personal injury lawsuits on behalf of the two inured tower workers. Most the lawsuits named SBA Communications, its subsidiaries and FDH Velocitel as responsible parties.
This is a complex case involving liability of subcontractors and subsidiaries, the actual approach to the repairs and many other things. For a detailed analysis of the case so far, head over to Wireless Estimator. As the case moves from the circuit court to the federal court, here’s three main updates you need to be aware of:
1. The plaintiffs have amended their complaint to indicate that their employer should have provided more detailed information on how to handle repairs to the site. According to their statement, the company employing them, S&S Communications, was knowledgeable of the requirements for this particular repair, but did not follow or enforce compliance with safety standards.
2. FDH Velocitel wants their involvement from the lawsuit dismissed because the company only bought some of FDH’s assets, and that was an agreement that wasn’t signed until a year after the incident.
3. FDH Velocitel is claiming the work on the tower done by Kyle Kirkpatrick, Jerry Hill and Randall McElhaney was done so negligently. In their repairs, they removed five diagonals from the tower, two each on two sides and one of the third side. Additionally, the filing also claims the climbers loosened six diagonals above and below the ones removed. No temporary bracing was used when all of this vital structural equipment was removed and therefore that is what caused the tower to collapse.
This third development is even more complicated since SBA claims S&S worked on the tower without its or FDH’s knowledge and S&S removed these diagonals without pre-fabricating replacements in the interest of time and disregarding safety. SBA denies even hiring S&S, claiming it could not even produce an updated Certificate of Insurance.
There’s a lot of finger-pointing and denial of responsibility, but hopefully the federal court can sort this out. RCR Wireless News will provide an update on this case as it becomes available.
$16,000 of tower batteries stolen
Cell tower batteries valued at $16,000 were stolen from a site off of Main Street in Grasonville, Maryland, recently. A service technician arriving to perform routine maintenance discovered 20 batteries were missing from the site. According to reports, the batteries were manufactured by Alcatel-Lucent and weighed about 70 pounds each. The incident is currently under criminal investigation. Police say there was no sign of forced entry, which means the thief likely had knowledge of the combinations. This is as good a time as any to remind those of you in charge of such things it doesn’t hurt to frequently change your site lock combinations, especially if you have different sets of crew cycling through the site.
It feels like a broken record by this point, but this is just the latest in a long string of battery thefts this year.
Tower news quickies
• NWSA launches first two certification programs.
• Comcast-backed company buys 120 towers.
Regional/local tower news
- New cell tower on track for construction near Owasco, New York, neighborhood.
- Wheeling, Illinois, board strikes down plan for 84-foot cell tower at school.
- Alternate property may be considered for cell tower in Freehold Township, New Jersey.
- Battle brewing over potential cell tower in Sun City, California, community.
- Clover, South Carolina, neighbors, councilman, vow to fight 180-foot cell tower at zoning appeals board.
