The Boston Globe reported yesterday that the family of the Jamaica Plain woman crushed in the 2006 Big Dig ceiling collapse will receive over $28 million. Milena Del Valle was killed while driving down Interstate 90 with her husband on July 10, 200. Concrete panels weighing 26 tons fell from the ceiling of the connector tunnel and crushed the 38-year-old mother to death.
Investigations of the construction site accident revealed that it was the result of several failures, which some authorizes are calling deliberate negligence. The National Transportation Safety Board criticized the epoxy vendor, the firm which designed the tunnel’s ceiling, the company which installed the bolts, and the construction company for not taking steps to prevent the ceiling collapse.
Within two months of their mother’s death, the family had filed wrongful death suits in against 18 defendants in Suffolk Superior Court. Yesterday’s agreement with the last and largest of those defendants will bring the lawsuit to a close.
According to the family’s lawyers, Denner & Pellegrino, LLP, the Del Valle family accepted a settlement totaling $18.1 million from the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, the construction contractor, the project manager, and six other companies associated with the Big Dig. Previously, they had settled with two other defendants for $10 million.
Family gets $28M in Big Dig settlement, Boston Globe, September 30, 2008