GWC Injury Lawyers has been retained by the family of Pedro Santiago Mateo, a construction worker who died in a building collapse.
Worker Killed In Building Collapse
Pedro Santiago Mateo, a construction worker working on a building renovation project in Bronzeville, became trapped when the exterior brick façade of the building collapsed in the early morning on January 12. The 141-year-old vacant building was under construction at the time of the collapse. Two other workers were also at the construction site. However, only Mr. Santiago Mateo suffered fatal injuries. The Chicago Fire Department responded to the scene, where it took several first responders more than 45 minutes of digging before they were able to reach the body, which was under several feet of debris. Pedro was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
Pedro’s family is making arrangements to transport his body to his native country, where he will receive a proper burial. Our thoughts and prayers are with them all.
GWC To Perform Forensic Analysis
In matters such as this, conducting a forensic analysis as to the cause of a building’s failure is always a critical step in the investigation of a lawsuit. Unfortunately, city officials made the decision to tear down the entire building within a day of the collapse, thus potentially compromising the analysis and investigation. Nonetheless, GWC will overcome the challenges of completing a forensic analysis of the cause of this collapse, as it has done in similar construction failure cases involving catastrophic injuries and fatalities.
According to one of the decedent’s coworkers on the jobsite, the building owner instructed the workers to break up the concrete with a jackhammer, discard the broken concrete, and then dig the entire basement floor “by hand” with nothing but shovels. This would lower the eventual basement floor by over 3 feet, so that the renovated building would have a much taller basement ceiling. Apparently, the loss of lateral soils around the 141-year-old stone foundation walls compromised the integrity of the walls to support the exterior façade built on top of the stone foundation walls, thereby causing the collapse.
GWC lawyers and experts will perform their own forensic analysis to prove that the cause of this collapse was due to:
- negligence in the design of and the construction methods/materials used in the renovation
- a lack of stabilization of the exposed foundation walls
- other preventable measures that were ignored by management on this project
Attorneys Serving Workers Injured In The Construction Industry
Construction accidents are often at the heart of some of the most challenging personal injury litigation matters, requiring knowledge not only of the applicable law but also of the intricacies associated with safety and operational necessities in the construction industry. When serious injuries occur on construction sites, competent legal counsel can make all the difference for the victims and their loved ones. For over four decades, GWC Injury Lawyers LLC has proudly represented construction workers in all of the building trades. Building trades unions throughout Illinois frequently turn to the lawyers and staff of GWC when one of their members is involved in an accident on a construction site.
With more than $2 billion recovered in verdicts and settlements on behalf of our clients, GWC is one of the leading Personal Injury and Workers’ Compensation law firms in Illinois to handle significant cases involving catastrophic injuries and fatalities. Our Chicago construction accident lawyers have the experience, the determination, the resources, and the well-earned reputation of success necessary to help injured workers and their families get the justice they deserve.
If you have been hurt on a construction site, contact GWC today to schedule a free, no-obligation case evaluation with one of our dedicated injury attorneys. You may call our office at (312) 757-7462, click here to chat with a representative at any time, or email the firm’s owner Louis C. Cairo at [email protected].
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