Jury awards more than $100 million to victims, families in 2019 Seattle crane collapse

A Seattle jury awarded more than $100 million Monday to the victims and families of victims of a crane collapse that occurred in the city three years ago, reports The Associated Press.

Four people were killed by the collapse of the 300-foot crane, including two ironworkers and two others.

The crane fell off the roof of a Google building while being taken down by workers, crushing multiple cars on the streets. Two workers fell along with the crane and died.

Sarah Pantip Wong, a 19-year-old college student, and Alan Justad, a 71-year-old former city worker, were both killed when the cars were crushed.

Three others injured by the crash, in addition to the families of Wong and Justad, brought the case before the Seattle jury Monday.

Separate lawsuits were filed by the families of Travis Corbet, 33, and Andrew Yoder, 31, the ironworkers who died in the accident.

Some of the companies involved in the crane assembly, including Omega Morgan, Northwest Tower Crane Service and Morrow Equipment Co., were found to have shown negligence in their review of the crane disassembly instructions in order to save time.

“You had Northwest Tower Crane pulling too many pins too fast, creating an opportunity for disaster,” said Todd Gardner, an attorney for Wong’s family. “You had Omega Morgan deciding they were going to continue to work despite the winds. … Had either of them done their job, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“When your work affects the public, your job is to protect the public,” said David Beninger, an attorney for Justad’s family. ”Hopefully this will also bring some closure for the families and individuals hurt by this preventable collapse.”

The Hill has reached out to the three companies involved for comment.