WIDOW FILES LAWSUIT OVER BRIDGE COLLAPSE
Construction worker died when walkway gave way.
MIAMI — A Lake Worth law firm on Wednesday filed suit on behalf of the widow of a 37-year-old Sunrise construction worker who died when a $14.2 million pedestrian walkway at Florida International University collapsed in March.
Navaro Brown, who was working for a company that provides products to strengthen bridges, was among six who died when the 950-ton bridge that spanned a seven-lane highway in Sweetwater crumbled as mid-day traffic streamed under it. While the five others died at the scene, Brown was taken to a nearby hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries, according to news accounts.
In the 69-page wrongful death lawsuit filed in MiamiDade County Circuit Court, Lake Worth attorney John Romano and Fort Lauderdale lawyer Michael Salad accuse roughly 10 companies involved in the fatally-flawed project of gross negligence. The company that Brown worked for is not being sued. Similar lawsuits have been filed by the other families who lost loved ones in the collapse.
The companies, including the general contractor, designers, safety monitors and equipment companies, “failed to take any and all necessary precautions in order to prevent a catastrophic failure of the subject bridge,” Romano and Salad wrote. They are seeking an unspecified amount in damages for Brown’s widow, Winsome Joy Campbell.
Munilla Construction, one of the companies that worked on the bridge and is being sued, has called the accident a “catastrophic collapse” and promised to conduct “a full investigation to determine exactly what went wrong.”
Other companies, including Tallahassee-based Figg Bridge Engineering, which is also named in the suit, expressed similar sentiments, according to Time magazine.