Massachusetts weighs criminal charges in Big Dig collapse

[acmavm]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0727/p02s01-usju.html

Such a move would set a new legal precedent and might encourage other prosecutors to bring similar charges in structural failures.

By Caitlin Carpenter | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
from the July 27, 2007 edition

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Boston - Boston's Big Dig, the most expensive highway project in US history, has had its share of woes – from highly publicized leaks to a fatal ceiling collapse that has spawned a civil suit. Now, Massachusetts' attorney general is mulling whether to press criminal charges against the state authority that oversaw the project and some of the contractors.

That possibility has the nation's contracting industry watching closely – and with good reason. Criminal charges against contractors for the failure of a structure they designed or built would be unprecedented. A conviction could embolden other attorneys general to file criminal charges when construction accidents prove fatal.

"A conviction of a Big Dig contractor like Bechtel would be a landmark precedent in the criminal law precisely because such convictions are thought to be impossible to obtain," says Jim Harrington, a partner at Robins, Kaplan, Miller, & Ciresi, a Boston law firm whose practice includes corporate criminal and negligence cases. "Charges and a conviction of the design and install contractors here would send a chill wind through the construction industry."

It's not clear that Attorney General Martha Coakley will file criminal charges.

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US Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry and US Rep. Michael Capuano, all Massachusetts Democrats, are pushing for a national tunnel-inspection program similar to the one that exists for bridges, a move recommended by the NTSB.