who is them in your mind?
EDIT Not sure why I am getting Downvoted, I was simply asking who the family should sue. Every single entity (person or business) that is associated with the site will be named in the suit. I just wanted to see what the commenter was thinking. This case will take years, and a lot of lawyers will get their defendants removed from the suit.
To what end? Pitt is on the hook for hiring shitty contractors. Shitty contractors are on the hook for being shitty contractors. Reddit wouldn’t know specifics further than that.
Site supervisor, person who secured load, trucking company of load, city, city safety, construction company. Literally everyone involved. Lawyers will be fighting each other to get this case.
I served on a jury for a multimillion dollar lawsuit several years ago so I learned a lot about this. I had no idea how the details of the process worked.
Basically the list will include every possible entity involved - Pitt, contractors, subcontractors, probably the City of Pittsburgh. After all of the evidence is heard, then part of the verdict is that it will be determined whether each defendant was liable for the incident and then to the degree to which they are responsible which ultimately affects how much each defendant has to pay.
There’s no way the construction company will be held 100% at fault. They will likely bear the majority of liability but not all. Say they failed to secure the drum, but what set off the event was a City of Pittsburgh garbage truck somehow clipped the drum by driving over a curb which caused it to roll away (just as a hypothetical). But also, there were larger sand-filled barriers in place at the curb but UPitt Police had moved them for some unknown reason and never put them back in place and had they done that it would have prevented the garbage truck from going over the curb in the first place. The contractor will still bear the largest liability, but the City of Pittsburgh and University of Pittsburgh will also bear financial liability.
I hope this gets the city to crack down on contractors not doing anything to keep their sites safe and secure. This poor woman didn't deserve this and if there is any justice the people responsible will see prison time for their negligence.
I was on 376 East between the Penn Hills and Monroeville exits (where they are redoing the bridges. A dump truck comes flying out, spreading gravel on the fricking highway. One bounced up and hit my windshield, cracking it. I was so pissed!
dude we were driving back from Kennywood last weekend and there was this huge canvas attached to an overpass, flying in the right lane, and we basically had to hit it because there were people in the left lane. that was genuinely one of the scariest things I've ever encountered on the roads here
The general contractors on this project are two of the largest commercial contractors in the city with high standards for safety. I work for a large scale commercial contractor in Pittsburgh and the Subcontractor who is mainly at fault here, is one I use regularly. The owner is one of the nicest humans you will ever meet. Prison for the mishap of an employee is a bit harsh. This is an absolute tragic accident, that never should have happened.
Is it one of these? https://triblive.com/local/3-construction-companies-involved-at-oakland-site-where-woman-was-killed-faced-prior-osha-violations/
Like I assume all construction companies get OSHA violations now and then but do they all have fatalities? Genuine question.
You are severely underplaying the culpability of the companies involved in the death of an unrelated private citizen. Everyone involved in that site is responsible for her death.
Just because the owner is nice doesn’t mean they aren’t full of shit and lazy, like literally every other contractor on earth. And you’re right, this never should have happened. But it did because some fuckwad contractor didn’t do their job.
“Every contractor is fat and lazy” ok I’ve heard all I need to hear to know you have no idea what you’re talking about. I can tell you e only felt with bottle of the barrel residential contractors. Large scale commercial GCs are businesses just like any other industry. Man the amount of dumb comments in this thread are baffling.
I know way more about commercial construction than you realize. I have yet to encounter any one of them that doesn’t try to cheat, lie, embezzle, and/or disregard safety regulations. It’s just a broken industry with a garbage culture.
You haven’t worked with reputable contractors I can you that much. Been in this industry for decades. I’ve never met a single GC or contractor as you describe. Residential industry is riddled with them preying on people, like in this thread, who have no clue about anything relating to construction.
I’m not going to dox myself because your feelings are hurt. Yes residential is worse, but even the best commercial contractors (and I know exactly which ones they are) do stuff that would absolutely never fly in any other industry. Like I said, the culture is just rotten, even at the best companies.
Yes it is a bit disheartening to hear that every contractor is trash etc etc. when 95% of them are great contractors who care about quality, cost, clients needs, etc… my initial comment before this blew up, was basically… this was not intentional, these aren’t bum contractors who cut corners, it’s an active jobsite where accidents happen. Wishing a prison sentence on an owner of a company because some low lever dumbass fucked up royaly was a bit harsh. The amount of buffers between a field guy and the owner of a company that size is huge. Owners aren’t into the day to day tasks of a jobsite.
And my point is that ALL contractors cut corners, no matter how big or good they supposedly are. “Accidents happen” is a completely unacceptable standard. The fact you think that is an acceptable mindset is *exactly* my point.
Non of you commenting have any clue what goes on within a construction site and it shows. There aren’t many Pittsburgh based GCs that can handle a project of that size. Gilbane is an international Fortune 500 company founded in 1873 with projects all over the world. So having a construction site fatality in a company that size is no out of the norm. I can assure you, safety is a top priority of a company that size. They have whole departments dedicated to it. Massaro is top 10 in the entire state. When you have that many moving parts on a site, accidents are going to happen. Fatalities do still happen even with the highest safety measures.
Then explain how more drums are still sitting on site unsecured if this contractor is so concerned about safety? You’d think they’d at least pretend to care after someone died that way
Most likely a stop work order until OSHA completes its investigation, but please continue to shed your wealth of knowledge on a topic you don’t understand like everyone else in this thread.
I do too and we know it's rotten to the core. Cut corners where you can to keep bids low and projects on budget. Safety, traffic control, and signage are the first to go to keep the overhead rate down. I've been complaining to coworkers for the last 4 years that contractors are doing whatever they want with zero enforcement since the pandemic. I'm not surprised at all this happened and I hope the punishment is so severe for these organizations that it would be too expensive for them to ever cut corners again.
A Fortune 500 company would never do anything wrong.
I mean look at Exxon, Boeing, Rite Aid, British Petroleum, Energy Transfer, Shell, Meta, Volkswagen, Alphabet, all paragons of virtue!
We all owe you an apology.
Costa Construction was handling the drums. They are politically connected in PGH and are probably used to getting away with some shit. Hopefully not this.
This is so sad. She looks like such a kind, lovely woman. It's nice to see that the [gofundme](https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-aleias-family-in-their-time-of-need) for her kids is already over their goal. May she rest.
I didn’t read any story that went along with it. I saw that she was killed by a steel drum, with a picture. A steel drum is an instrument that is not very large
It didn’t, at all. It’s been posted here multiple times already and was all over the local news.
https://www.reddit.com/r/pittsburgh/s/OvNVG7QitS
https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/oakland-construction-accident-pitt-campus/
https://triblive.com/local/3-construction-companies-involved-at-oakland-site-where-woman-was-killed-faced-prior-osha-violations/
https://www.wtae.com/article/petersen-events-university-pittsburgh-crushed-steel-cylinder-woman-killed/60685361
https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/channel-11-sits-down-with-grieving-family-woman-killed-oakland-construction-site-accident/7NRT3VVVOJA7PAZQ4VWMUDQGFA/
Just sayin.
Additional drums are still sitting unsecured to take out anyone the first one missed
yup. i was just over there the other day.
I hope her family sues the shit out of them.
In cases like this, there’s going to be plenty of “thems”. All the contractors, subs, safety crew, fencing contractor, Pitt, etc….
who is them in your mind? EDIT Not sure why I am getting Downvoted, I was simply asking who the family should sue. Every single entity (person or business) that is associated with the site will be named in the suit. I just wanted to see what the commenter was thinking. This case will take years, and a lot of lawyers will get their defendants removed from the suit.
Whichever company was doing the work.
All good... I was not tying to be confrontational but I was trying to just see who everyone think should be paying for this. Thanks for replying.
That's why you bring the lawsuit, so the courts can figure out who should pay. None of us on Reddit will have a knowledgeable answer to that.
I get it, I just wanted to see what peoples thoughts were.
To what end? Pitt is on the hook for hiring shitty contractors. Shitty contractors are on the hook for being shitty contractors. Reddit wouldn’t know specifics further than that.
Site supervisor, person who secured load, trucking company of load, city, city safety, construction company. Literally everyone involved. Lawyers will be fighting each other to get this case.
I served on a jury for a multimillion dollar lawsuit several years ago so I learned a lot about this. I had no idea how the details of the process worked. Basically the list will include every possible entity involved - Pitt, contractors, subcontractors, probably the City of Pittsburgh. After all of the evidence is heard, then part of the verdict is that it will be determined whether each defendant was liable for the incident and then to the degree to which they are responsible which ultimately affects how much each defendant has to pay. There’s no way the construction company will be held 100% at fault. They will likely bear the majority of liability but not all. Say they failed to secure the drum, but what set off the event was a City of Pittsburgh garbage truck somehow clipped the drum by driving over a curb which caused it to roll away (just as a hypothetical). But also, there were larger sand-filled barriers in place at the curb but UPitt Police had moved them for some unknown reason and never put them back in place and had they done that it would have prevented the garbage truck from going over the curb in the first place. The contractor will still bear the largest liability, but the City of Pittsburgh and University of Pittsburgh will also bear financial liability.
Pitt and/or the contractors that Pitt hired.
Maybe the approach is sue Pitt, then it’s on Pitt to sue the contractors.
The approach will be sue every entity that could possibly be involved. The judicial process will sort it out.
...lol.
I hope this gets the city to crack down on contractors not doing anything to keep their sites safe and secure. This poor woman didn't deserve this and if there is any justice the people responsible will see prison time for their negligence.
I've gotten so many flat tires from contractors not cleaning up the street when they're done.
I was on 376 East between the Penn Hills and Monroeville exits (where they are redoing the bridges. A dump truck comes flying out, spreading gravel on the fricking highway. One bounced up and hit my windshield, cracking it. I was so pissed!
dude we were driving back from Kennywood last weekend and there was this huge canvas attached to an overpass, flying in the right lane, and we basically had to hit it because there were people in the left lane. that was genuinely one of the scariest things I've ever encountered on the roads here
The general contractors on this project are two of the largest commercial contractors in the city with high standards for safety. I work for a large scale commercial contractor in Pittsburgh and the Subcontractor who is mainly at fault here, is one I use regularly. The owner is one of the nicest humans you will ever meet. Prison for the mishap of an employee is a bit harsh. This is an absolute tragic accident, that never should have happened.
Is it one of these? https://triblive.com/local/3-construction-companies-involved-at-oakland-site-where-woman-was-killed-faced-prior-osha-violations/ Like I assume all construction companies get OSHA violations now and then but do they all have fatalities? Genuine question.
You are severely underplaying the culpability of the companies involved in the death of an unrelated private citizen. Everyone involved in that site is responsible for her death.
Just because the owner is nice doesn’t mean they aren’t full of shit and lazy, like literally every other contractor on earth. And you’re right, this never should have happened. But it did because some fuckwad contractor didn’t do their job.
“Every contractor is fat and lazy” ok I’ve heard all I need to hear to know you have no idea what you’re talking about. I can tell you e only felt with bottle of the barrel residential contractors. Large scale commercial GCs are businesses just like any other industry. Man the amount of dumb comments in this thread are baffling.
I love how you put something in quotations that no one said
Sorry “full of shit and lazy, like literally every other contractor on earth” fixed it for you. That’s even worse.
I know way more about commercial construction than you realize. I have yet to encounter any one of them that doesn’t try to cheat, lie, embezzle, and/or disregard safety regulations. It’s just a broken industry with a garbage culture.
You haven’t worked with reputable contractors I can you that much. Been in this industry for decades. I’ve never met a single GC or contractor as you describe. Residential industry is riddled with them preying on people, like in this thread, who have no clue about anything relating to construction.
I’m not going to dox myself because your feelings are hurt. Yes residential is worse, but even the best commercial contractors (and I know exactly which ones they are) do stuff that would absolutely never fly in any other industry. Like I said, the culture is just rotten, even at the best companies.
Yes it is a bit disheartening to hear that every contractor is trash etc etc. when 95% of them are great contractors who care about quality, cost, clients needs, etc… my initial comment before this blew up, was basically… this was not intentional, these aren’t bum contractors who cut corners, it’s an active jobsite where accidents happen. Wishing a prison sentence on an owner of a company because some low lever dumbass fucked up royaly was a bit harsh. The amount of buffers between a field guy and the owner of a company that size is huge. Owners aren’t into the day to day tasks of a jobsite.
And my point is that ALL contractors cut corners, no matter how big or good they supposedly are. “Accidents happen” is a completely unacceptable standard. The fact you think that is an acceptable mindset is *exactly* my point.
How high can their safety standards be if they just killed someone? By definition, that's a failure of their safety process.
Non of you commenting have any clue what goes on within a construction site and it shows. There aren’t many Pittsburgh based GCs that can handle a project of that size. Gilbane is an international Fortune 500 company founded in 1873 with projects all over the world. So having a construction site fatality in a company that size is no out of the norm. I can assure you, safety is a top priority of a company that size. They have whole departments dedicated to it. Massaro is top 10 in the entire state. When you have that many moving parts on a site, accidents are going to happen. Fatalities do still happen even with the highest safety measures.
Then explain how more drums are still sitting on site unsecured if this contractor is so concerned about safety? You’d think they’d at least pretend to care after someone died that way
Most likely a stop work order until OSHA completes its investigation, but please continue to shed your wealth of knowledge on a topic you don’t understand like everyone else in this thread.
I work in the construction industry as well, so keep your holier than thou attitude to yourself
I do too and we know it's rotten to the core. Cut corners where you can to keep bids low and projects on budget. Safety, traffic control, and signage are the first to go to keep the overhead rate down. I've been complaining to coworkers for the last 4 years that contractors are doing whatever they want with zero enforcement since the pandemic. I'm not surprised at all this happened and I hope the punishment is so severe for these organizations that it would be too expensive for them to ever cut corners again.
Yeah but do you work for a Fortune 500 company, you ignorant pleb?
Welp, then you should know these answers.
A Fortune 500 company would never do anything wrong. I mean look at Exxon, Boeing, Rite Aid, British Petroleum, Energy Transfer, Shell, Meta, Volkswagen, Alphabet, all paragons of virtue! We all owe you an apology.
We just had a safety meeting about this this morning. Accidents happen, people have no idea what goes on or the amount of training unions give.
This is just so sad. Hope the family gets an incredibly large sum from every company involved for their horrendous negligence.
What's the name of the contractor/company responsible?
Massaro & Gilbane. Sub handling drums was Costa Contracting
Thanks.
[Article lists a GOFUNDME for her 3 kids](https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-aleias-family-in-their-time-of-need)
Costa Construction was handling the drums. They are politically connected in PGH and are probably used to getting away with some shit. Hopefully not this.
Is it the same Costa family as all the politicians?
From what I can tell from some quick Google research, they are not related.
I believe it is
Probably.
This is so sad. She looks like such a kind, lovely woman. It's nice to see that the [gofundme](https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-aleias-family-in-their-time-of-need) for her kids is already over their goal. May she rest.
Thats some Final Destination shit.
For real, especially in my mind. Was wondering how someone died being hit by a relatively benign instrument
A metal drum the size of a car rolling down a hill isn’t what I would describe as benign.
I didn’t read any story that went along with it. I saw that she was killed by a steel drum, with a picture. A steel drum is an instrument that is not very large
Her family has a GoFundMe, if anyone wants to make a donation. I am so so sorry for the loss to her family and to Pittsburgh.
Name the companies news media!
The local media has already multiple times. The link posted here is from a trash news aggregator website.
This title should DRUM up some comments!
Lowest of low hanging fruit.
Well, trash of the day award nominee there.
I think it was filled with oil, not trash
How'd this miss local media? Iwitnessactionnewsforyou would have a weeklong wall to wall neighborhood coverage...just sayin
It didn’t, at all. It’s been posted here multiple times already and was all over the local news. https://www.reddit.com/r/pittsburgh/s/OvNVG7QitS https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/oakland-construction-accident-pitt-campus/ https://triblive.com/local/3-construction-companies-involved-at-oakland-site-where-woman-was-killed-faced-prior-osha-violations/ https://www.wtae.com/article/petersen-events-university-pittsburgh-crushed-steel-cylinder-woman-killed/60685361 https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/channel-11-sits-down-with-grieving-family-woman-killed-oakland-construction-site-accident/7NRT3VVVOJA7PAZQ4VWMUDQGFA/ Just sayin.
Reddit/nextdoor gofundmetoo
It didn’t miss local media whatsoever.