Partial Settlement Announced For 2006 Fatal Crane Collapse

General contractor Lease Crutcher Lewis and structural engineer Magnusson Klemencic Associates have settled a lawsuit with the family of the man who died in his apartment when the boom of a 210-ft tower crane toppled while working on Tower 333 in Bellevue, Wash. Details of the settlement were not disclosed. An LCL action against MKA, part of the suit, remains unresolved. According to MKA Chairman and CEO Jon D. Magnusson, MKA designed the crane base assuming a tie-in to the building frame in the initial configuration, but the crane was erected without a tie-in. The reason for this is the subject of the dispute, he says. A citation following the 2006 crane collapse issued against MKA by the state Dept. of Labor and Industries recently was vacated by the state Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals. The state labor agency also cited LCL and fined it $5,600, for “failure to obtain measurements to ensure crane-base deflection limits were not exceeded,” says Bill Lewis, LCL chairman.