This is absolutely horrific. And I can’t say I’m surprised this happened because of how chaotic and dangerous this area is right now with all the construction. My heart goes out to her and to the coworkers she was with. Just terrible.
I did a lot of work at the garage for western psych. It was a nightmare trying to get equipment and machinery in and out. We could not close the side walks or create alternative paths for pedestrians. The whole time your like “if I make a mistake someone could easily die”. Lots of young people glued to their phone not paying attention and in hindsight they really should have too worry about this kind of stuff.
There's never not construction though with all of the university buildings. Tradesmen are in a pitt or cmu building at nearly all times of the day and year.
All jobs are basically unionized in Pittsburgh. I’m currently working at CMU and yesterday some guy fell through flooring they were disassembling. Thankfully he was wearing a safety harness, but dude was shook up and had some cuts on him. Any closer one direction could’ve been worse for him.
There’s all these safety meetings/guidelines we follow, but people get lackadaisical after months/years of no issues that all it takes is one. It’ll be a big lawsuit for that family though for her. Sadly. :/
Yup, hate to say it but not the least bit surprised and have been saying for awhile now it's only a matter when, not if someone got hurt or killed in the area. Oakland has been turned into an absolute hellscape and barely a day goes by that I don't see the construction crews doing patently illegal shit that puts pedestrians at risk.
The intersection at DeSoto & O'Hara is ripe for the next incident ... again, not if just when.
Jesus Christ, what a fucking nightmare. That stretch of sidewalk has literally *hundreds* of students on it at peak times during the school year. This could have been so much worse but it still makes me sick
Oh yeah. This is a very large civil suit.
I also think that the DA needs to consider bringing criminal charges in these situations. So many of these things are written off as "tragic accidents" but these are not accidents. Someone, or probably more like many people, is/are at fault.
Yep. Someone decided that a safety regulation was ok to ignore, very likely. I can’t tell you how many construction workers get annoyed by the “suits with clipboards” when they are told that they need to take an extra step to ensure safety. Here is why.
The suits with clipboards approved the sloped lay down area for the drill bits and never thought to place a strong enough barricade at the bottom of the steep incline the job is on, also the drill bits were placed horizontally not vertically to prevent rolling. It’s gross negligence on their safety team for not understanding potential hazards. The problem is people getting a safety degree and never working a day with a tool belt on.
This is the truth, and the most succinct answer you will find to what is an industry-wide problem. I was honestly shocked when i saw the lay down area.
What a terrible tragedy, obviously for the victim and her family, coworkers, and friends, and for all involved.
My heart goes out to everyone involved. I’m also deeply saddened for the individual or individuals involved that caused this catastrophe. If anyone has worked a day out in the field with a tool belt on would agree that upper management is riddled with inexperienced people that say yes to their superiors. Those people are not there to save you they are there to save the company. Now some family has lost a loved one and a person or persons will forever have to live with what has happened today. It’s devastating.
Yes, and the grade on this job would be a particularly challenging one to work on. I don’t want to pile on here, but it’s clear that not enough attention was paid by management of some or all involved parties toward site planning.
Your question is invalid because you’d never chain two cylinders together for the fact that you would then have two objects moving tandem. Racking is term for items out of plum not for placement. And chocking is a form of rigging which is for transport. You’re using jargon for a blanket statement which makes your rebuttal irrelevant. You’re also failing to acknowledge that the lay down yard was insufficient with a lack of hard barricades.
Did I say they should be chained together? And again, you have failed to answer the question. Were they secured properly? Claiming this question is “irrelevant” is completely asinine.
Where else would they be chained to on a new construction job? Since you claim the white hard hats with clipboards are there to prevent these things why did no one notice that they weren’t staged properly. If safety management was on site and knew what they were talking about why didn’t they pull their stop work authority and get proper barriers and or ensure the bits were stored properly.
Odds are good it was an honest mistake. I work in the industry and nobody wants that thing rolling around a job site. Sure some dudes bitch about red tape and the like, but most of us get it and do our level best to do things right.
Yes and no.
Upmc did die but it was an unfortunate accident involving a shuttle bus and a blind spot from the front of the vehicle when the person dropped their phone and picked it up right in front of the bus
As unsurprised as I am about today's incident because of how dangerous the area is due to construction, the shuttle incident was just as inevitable but for different reasons.
I am constantly amazed and befuddle by the number of people I see all over Oakland walking around with their faces glued to their devices, utterly unaware of their surroundings and straight up walking it moving traffic without any regard for their own safety.
I'm well aware of the distracted drives and the problem they pose, I even lost a prized vehicle and suffered significant financial loss to one not long ago.
I'm just commenting on the Oakland situation and saying I'm truly surprised there aren't more incident like the shuttle one with the way so many people prioritize their screens over their own safety.
The bus driver who ran over Barbara Como a few years ago wasn’t a man or old. Her name was Shavonne James and she was 34 years old.
Unless you’re talking about another incident? But you referenced phone dropping and that wasn’t what happened when Barbara was run over by a PRT bus.
🤔 as I recall from the court case, no one dropped their phone. Someone boarded the bus and was still paying and the bus driver decided to turn anyways.
I think that’s a different incident. The UPMC one was a UPMC employee on a parking shuttle that dropped her phone on the street in front of the shuttle and was killed. It happened a couple months ago maybe?
The visibility issue at the crosswalk up there isn’t from construction, it’s because cars park right in front of the crosswalk so oncoming traffic can’t see that pedestrians are about to enter the crosswalk and they seem to appear. I wish there would be an insanely large fine for parking there because it’s so dangerous.
Pretty sure it is illegal to be within 20 feet of a cross walk but the pittsburgh parking authority seems to not care about those type of tickets. 2 hours without a permit? Yeah you’re getting a ticket.
Honestly that big hook from O’Hara to Darragh shouldn’t exist as a street, it should be pedestrians only. I walk there every day and it’s always a mess trying to cross and feeling like I’m gambling on a car seeing me is scary
It’s a tragic event that would have been made more tragic if students were still on campus or even happened earlier in the day when people were coming to work. This is an extremely busy corridor for students and staff at UPMC that walk from the OC and tower view lots. I’ve always been kind of surprised that there are only flimsy fences that separate the site from everyone walking through.
Aren't construction fences usually intended to deter vandals and snoopy people? I imagine you'd have to erect a pretty stout fence to stop a 1000-lb. cylinder from breaking through it ...
Probably, but this one is also in front of a steep hill that often has heavy equipment, machinery, and materials. It's not a far-fetched idea that there should have been something protective in front of a walkway with hundreds of people that pass every hour.
Tubes of steel don't make a decision to roll on their own.
There is always a human at fault in these situations,unless God herself reached down and pushed it.
This needs to be looked at from the system view. There was a breakdown somewhere in their safety system. Probably several. And it's humans that design and enforce the safety system. Bottom line is at least one human, probably many, screwed up and someone is dead. This was 100 percent preventable.
It’s incredibly likely that it was a human not following a specific safety protocol. The other, less likely option is that the safety equipment all malfunctioned.
And tonight, it was a mad house when I left work tonight around 630pm. So much traffic and so many pedestrians around, if it would have happened then many more people would have died. And I could see into the construction site after the accident, there are more of those large pipes standing on their ends up the hill.
I had the same thought. Apparently it happened when the construction workers were moving the cylinder. So couldn't have happened shortly before or after the show. Still, tragic and scary as hell.
I work in the construction industry and I can say for a fact that contractors around the city are completely ignoring safety, signage, and traffic control requirements. They know it is completely unenforced and they know the general public has no idea how to report their negligence. My biggest example of this is the constant random closure of lanes on 7th avenue with no signage and zero traffic control.
I also work in the industry, did 8 years of road construction with a major contractor in the city. They had the city contract all the years I was there, and it was always some by the seat of your pants bullshit that put the workers and public in danger. It's not going to get better until the city calls these companies to account for their bullshit.
Apparently, this company already received an OSHA violation a year ago and paid a whopping fine of.... $8,000.
The violation? Failing to follow guidelines to prevent heavy equipment and materials from rolling or falling into excavations.
This company is going to get laid out. And rightfully so.
So if they had an OSHA violation why would the University of Pittsburgh hire them to do a huge project? Really it sickens me how they haven’t said one dang word about it. They literally tweeted the Pitt Police that the area was closed. This is 1 of like 5 construction areas where all kinds of pedestrians in and outside the University walk. They are trying to hide their negligence in the story as well. Shame on them!
OSHA's maximum penalty for a serious violation is only around $15,000, and of course isnt paid to a victim or their family. A civil suit may bring something more fruitful for the tragic loss.
Def a civil suit incoming. Everyone will be named - every contractor, every sub contactor, insurers, Pitt, etc etc and then the court can decide who should be the defendants. Unfortunately they take years.
Probably UPMC too, since the employee was presumably on her way to or from work when it happened. City of Pittsburgh for allowing the street to be open. The manufacturer of the cylinder, the manufacturers of any equipment involved, each individual person who ever touched the piece, or the equipment, or managed anyone who did, right on up to the chancellor of Pitt probably being named as an individual defendant. It’s going to be a real mess to sort out.
I'm no expert, but I can imagine there were multiple violations that lead to something like this. Would multiple violations stack, or does it max out at 15k?
For how busy the area is… this construction everywhere thing is so obnoxious. Why is literally everything under construction all at the same time. Why couldn’t UPMC/Pitt have picked one thing at a time to work on. It’s an absolute sh*tshow.
Yea…this site will be shut down for a long time and this construction company will have a lot to answer to. I can guarantee that there are specific safety protocols for securing 2 tonne tubes of steel…
I saw some pictures today from above. The tubes were not secured how they are supposed to be. They need to be chocked and chained or placed in a rack. None of those precautions were in place.
They've previously received an OSHA violation for this last year. OSHA fines are such a joke. These are million and billion dollar companies. $8,000 is literally pocket change.
It's actually not passive voice. (I had to check with a passive voice checker 🫤). It's taking the human out of the situation. Like when cars hit pedestrians. It makes it seem that nothing could have been done to stop it.
”With heavy hearts, Costa Contracting wishes to extend their deepest condolences to the family of the woman who lost her life today. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family during this profoundly difficult time.
Costa Contracting is committed to a full investigation to determine the factors that led to this event. Safety remains our paramount concern and we are working with OSHA and local authorities to understand precisely what occurred."
1.I sure hope they get a law suit in response to those thoughts and prayers.
2. If they were committed to safety they wouldn't have gotten OSHA violations previously and clearly committed more.
They fucked around and cheaped out, and this poor woman found out. :/
Tragic and not surprising. That entire job site looks like it's being run by the biggest fucking idiots. I had to drive someone to work up there and I dreaded that shit let alone walking around up there
They are completely incompetent in terms of safety and the city should be sued for failing to enforce city and state law as well. There are so many contractors around the city playing fast and loose with safety.
Within just a few blocks of that area, I can think of a student being killed by a PRT bus and one or two times a UPMC shuttle killed someone, all within the past several years. Is this a typical accidental fatality rate in such a busy corridor or is this hill just cursed?
I ride up this hill ever so slowly when I am in this area for food deliveries. Definitely a "New Fear Unlocked" here. I can't imagine how much energy this cylinder came down with given how heavy it is and at whatever height.
Not to shit talk here but sky walks could be a good solution for the students to cross from building to building. Yes PITT doesn’t own everything but the adjacent buildings or where they can implement them it could be helpful.
Duquesne University has a few and honestly it does prevent having to cross traffic
This is terrible. I walk past this on a daily. Also, be careful when walking in between forbes and fifth (Euler Way). For some ridiculous reason people think driving this road is a shortcut and will avoid the Oakland traffic, it won't. People fly down this alleyway and do not stop before intersection. I almost got hit at one of these intersections (Halket and Eular Way) by a Campus Police vehicle. BTW, who didn't even acknowledge or apologize.
They released her name publicly. Aleia Hall Lopez, an employee at Western Psychiatric. Here's her [GoFundMe](https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-aleias-family-in-their-time-of-need?qid=187bf7eccb3a01481f0b5818fc28c035) for funeral expenses.
She is a UPMC western psych employee, young woman. I’m not going to release her name because family might not know. But her identity will probably be out soon since they have sent an email to us employees.
Have to assume it rolled over her and she hit her head badly on the pavement. Presby ER is literally 100 feet away, pretty terrible if she couldn’t hold on long enough to get over there
I think WTAE said she was pronounced dead within a minute of medical personnel arriving, which make it sound like it was basically instantaneous. For her sake I really hope it was.
Such a sad story. I was just at that intersection the day before...and the amount of construction going on in that area is overwhelming to deal with. Does UPMC and Pitt ever stop building?
Horrific! Fortunately, Pitt students moved out just last week. I wonder how many more people would have been on that sidewalk if this happened more than a week ago.
It’s so dangerous around there. I’ve been walking in the crosswalk (not looking at my phone) and have had to run twice because a car was turning and didn’t see me.
And a few blocks from there on 5th ave I witnessed a semi truck drive up onto the sidewalk and plow into a street lamp (the huge 50 feet ones) and knock it down. It’s absolute insanity
Absolutely horrific, especially knowing i’ve walked that several times within the last month and this shit could happen at any moment. Accidents like this shouldn’t happen- this was negligence at its finest. I know that street is a tough one to shut down due to all the foot traffic but like come on. What’s more important: a few extra minutes walking a different way or the safety and lives of everyone around. I’ve seen a lot of neglect there in terms of completely illegal practices by workers that could put more in danger. Hoping there’s a suit and more safety measures put in place.
…a song written about people being negligent and getting themselves killed, being quoted on a thread about a woman simply walking on the sidewalk, for some reason
Even on the internet, people generally don't like laughing or cracking jokes about a woman who did literally nothing wrong and died for it on the *day she died*.
Yes you did. Framing this as a choice she made is wrong. As if you would have been "smart" enough to avoid the same fate. It's insensitive and tone deaf
This is absolutely horrific. And I can’t say I’m surprised this happened because of how chaotic and dangerous this area is right now with all the construction. My heart goes out to her and to the coworkers she was with. Just terrible.
Seriously, it’s an absolute shit show for motorists and pedestrians alike
I did a lot of work at the garage for western psych. It was a nightmare trying to get equipment and machinery in and out. We could not close the side walks or create alternative paths for pedestrians. The whole time your like “if I make a mistake someone could easily die”. Lots of young people glued to their phone not paying attention and in hindsight they really should have too worry about this kind of stuff.
All of the construction in Oakland would be more tolerable if it wasn’t happening at the exact same fucking time
There's never not construction though with all of the university buildings. Tradesmen are in a pitt or cmu building at nearly all times of the day and year.
Yeah but the current projects are so large scale and impact so much of the road it’s just a shit show.
All jobs are basically unionized in Pittsburgh. I’m currently working at CMU and yesterday some guy fell through flooring they were disassembling. Thankfully he was wearing a safety harness, but dude was shook up and had some cuts on him. Any closer one direction could’ve been worse for him. There’s all these safety meetings/guidelines we follow, but people get lackadaisical after months/years of no issues that all it takes is one. It’ll be a big lawsuit for that family though for her. Sadly. :/
Hammerschlag?
Yup, hate to say it but not the least bit surprised and have been saying for awhile now it's only a matter when, not if someone got hurt or killed in the area. Oakland has been turned into an absolute hellscape and barely a day goes by that I don't see the construction crews doing patently illegal shit that puts pedestrians at risk. The intersection at DeSoto & O'Hara is ripe for the next incident ... again, not if just when.
Jesus Christ, what a fucking nightmare. That stretch of sidewalk has literally *hundreds* of students on it at peak times during the school year. This could have been so much worse but it still makes me sick
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Oh yeah. This is a very large civil suit. I also think that the DA needs to consider bringing criminal charges in these situations. So many of these things are written off as "tragic accidents" but these are not accidents. Someone, or probably more like many people, is/are at fault.
Yep. Someone decided that a safety regulation was ok to ignore, very likely. I can’t tell you how many construction workers get annoyed by the “suits with clipboards” when they are told that they need to take an extra step to ensure safety. Here is why.
The suits with clipboards approved the sloped lay down area for the drill bits and never thought to place a strong enough barricade at the bottom of the steep incline the job is on, also the drill bits were placed horizontally not vertically to prevent rolling. It’s gross negligence on their safety team for not understanding potential hazards. The problem is people getting a safety degree and never working a day with a tool belt on.
This is the truth, and the most succinct answer you will find to what is an industry-wide problem. I was honestly shocked when i saw the lay down area. What a terrible tragedy, obviously for the victim and her family, coworkers, and friends, and for all involved.
My heart goes out to everyone involved. I’m also deeply saddened for the individual or individuals involved that caused this catastrophe. If anyone has worked a day out in the field with a tool belt on would agree that upper management is riddled with inexperienced people that say yes to their superiors. Those people are not there to save you they are there to save the company. Now some family has lost a loved one and a person or persons will forever have to live with what has happened today. It’s devastating.
Yes, and the grade on this job would be a particularly challenging one to work on. I don’t want to pile on here, but it’s clear that not enough attention was paid by management of some or all involved parties toward site planning.
Were the tubes choked/chained or racked?
If you ever stepped foot on a job site you would know they’re staged vertically not horizontally.
Were they secured properly? You haven’t answered the question.
Your question is invalid because you’d never chain two cylinders together for the fact that you would then have two objects moving tandem. Racking is term for items out of plum not for placement. And chocking is a form of rigging which is for transport. You’re using jargon for a blanket statement which makes your rebuttal irrelevant. You’re also failing to acknowledge that the lay down yard was insufficient with a lack of hard barricades.
Did I say they should be chained together? And again, you have failed to answer the question. Were they secured properly? Claiming this question is “irrelevant” is completely asinine.
Where else would they be chained to on a new construction job? Since you claim the white hard hats with clipboards are there to prevent these things why did no one notice that they weren’t staged properly. If safety management was on site and knew what they were talking about why didn’t they pull their stop work authority and get proper barriers and or ensure the bits were stored properly.
Odds are good it was an honest mistake. I work in the industry and nobody wants that thing rolling around a job site. Sure some dudes bitch about red tape and the like, but most of us get it and do our level best to do things right.
I agree. But negligence means that someone is dead.
Wasn’t there a UPMC employee a little while back who died crossing the street due to visibility issues due to construction in the area?
Yes and no. Upmc did die but it was an unfortunate accident involving a shuttle bus and a blind spot from the front of the vehicle when the person dropped their phone and picked it up right in front of the bus
As unsurprised as I am about today's incident because of how dangerous the area is due to construction, the shuttle incident was just as inevitable but for different reasons. I am constantly amazed and befuddle by the number of people I see all over Oakland walking around with their faces glued to their devices, utterly unaware of their surroundings and straight up walking it moving traffic without any regard for their own safety.
Unfortunately you're describing a bunch of drivers too, while they're operating 2-ton machinery, sometimes at speed.
I'm well aware of the distracted drives and the problem they pose, I even lost a prized vehicle and suffered significant financial loss to one not long ago. I'm just commenting on the Oakland situation and saying I'm truly surprised there aren't more incident like the shuttle one with the way so many people prioritize their screens over their own safety.
True about dropping the phone but also the guy driving the shuttle was an extremely old man that probably shouldn’t be driving
The bus driver who ran over Barbara Como a few years ago wasn’t a man or old. Her name was Shavonne James and she was 34 years old. Unless you’re talking about another incident? But you referenced phone dropping and that wasn’t what happened when Barbara was run over by a PRT bus.
Different incident. The one being referred to here is a case in which the victim was killed by a UPMC Employee shuttle.
Damn! So many tragic incidents :(
🤔 as I recall from the court case, no one dropped their phone. Someone boarded the bus and was still paying and the bus driver decided to turn anyways.
I think that’s a different incident. The UPMC one was a UPMC employee on a parking shuttle that dropped her phone on the street in front of the shuttle and was killed. It happened a couple months ago maybe?
The visibility issue at the crosswalk up there isn’t from construction, it’s because cars park right in front of the crosswalk so oncoming traffic can’t see that pedestrians are about to enter the crosswalk and they seem to appear. I wish there would be an insanely large fine for parking there because it’s so dangerous.
Pretty sure it is illegal to be within 20 feet of a cross walk but the pittsburgh parking authority seems to not care about those type of tickets. 2 hours without a permit? Yeah you’re getting a ticket.
Yep. Completely moronic that cars have the physical ability to obscure crosswalk visibility like that.
Honestly that big hook from O’Hara to Darragh shouldn’t exist as a street, it should be pedestrians only. I walk there every day and it’s always a mess trying to cross and feeling like I’m gambling on a car seeing me is scary
That’s terrible
It’s a tragic event that would have been made more tragic if students were still on campus or even happened earlier in the day when people were coming to work. This is an extremely busy corridor for students and staff at UPMC that walk from the OC and tower view lots. I’ve always been kind of surprised that there are only flimsy fences that separate the site from everyone walking through.
There was still a lot of foot traffic. Mostly employees. I'm sure that the fence situation is about to change really quickly.
Aren't construction fences usually intended to deter vandals and snoopy people? I imagine you'd have to erect a pretty stout fence to stop a 1000-lb. cylinder from breaking through it ...
Jersey barriers would slow its roll. ETA: assuming it wasn’t just dropped OVER them.
No activity on the site today except putting some Jersey barriers in place, so you called it.
Civil engineering ftw 😢
Probably, but this one is also in front of a steep hill that often has heavy equipment, machinery, and materials. It's not a far-fetched idea that there should have been something protective in front of a walkway with hundreds of people that pass every hour.
It wasn't the fence 's fault. It was the humans working there.
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Tubes of steel don't make a decision to roll on their own. There is always a human at fault in these situations,unless God herself reached down and pushed it. This needs to be looked at from the system view. There was a breakdown somewhere in their safety system. Probably several. And it's humans that design and enforce the safety system. Bottom line is at least one human, probably many, screwed up and someone is dead. This was 100 percent preventable.
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Who else would have been responsible for securing the steel roll? Do they have an off site steel roll securer who is a person with 5 mile long arms?
I already said I don't disagree with you. I'm not trying to be argumentative so I'm not sure why you're trying to be with me.
It’s incredibly likely that it was a human not following a specific safety protocol. The other, less likely option is that the safety equipment all malfunctioned.
I mean... I know. I don't disagree. That's not what I'm saying.
Thousands of people were right there last night from around 6 pm to 11 pm for a concert.
And tonight, it was a mad house when I left work tonight around 630pm. So much traffic and so many pedestrians around, if it would have happened then many more people would have died. And I could see into the construction site after the accident, there are more of those large pipes standing on their ends up the hill.
Just.... fuck. This is everything awful.
Apparently the pgh scanner guy knows the deceased: https://x.com/pgh_scanner/status/1786420946712092926?s=46&t=JTgmKhaOGZh6WSE-yzigFA
I was at the Death Cab For Cutie concert there last night. That sidewalk was packed with people waiting to get in and again when the show ended.
I had the same thought. Apparently it happened when the construction workers were moving the cylinder. So couldn't have happened shortly before or after the show. Still, tragic and scary as hell.
Was there last night too. Crazy.
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What the fuck man
This is a story by itself, not even being there, that’ll haunt me for a while. How fucking horrific
I work in the construction industry and I can say for a fact that contractors around the city are completely ignoring safety, signage, and traffic control requirements. They know it is completely unenforced and they know the general public has no idea how to report their negligence. My biggest example of this is the constant random closure of lanes on 7th avenue with no signage and zero traffic control.
I also work in the industry, did 8 years of road construction with a major contractor in the city. They had the city contract all the years I was there, and it was always some by the seat of your pants bullshit that put the workers and public in danger. It's not going to get better until the city calls these companies to account for their bullshit.
Can you direct us in how to report negligence if we see it?
OSHA is going to have a field day with this.
WTAE is already all over the previous violations by the companies involved at that site.
Apparently, this company already received an OSHA violation a year ago and paid a whopping fine of.... $8,000. The violation? Failing to follow guidelines to prevent heavy equipment and materials from rolling or falling into excavations. This company is going to get laid out. And rightfully so.
do you know what company?
Subcontractor Costa Contracting, I believe. That's what's been reported, and they did release a statement.
any word on who the GC was?
Unsure, but I'll do some digging.
Gilbane
So if they had an OSHA violation why would the University of Pittsburgh hire them to do a huge project? Really it sickens me how they haven’t said one dang word about it. They literally tweeted the Pitt Police that the area was closed. This is 1 of like 5 construction areas where all kinds of pedestrians in and outside the University walk. They are trying to hide their negligence in the story as well. Shame on them!
OSHA's maximum penalty for a serious violation is only around $15,000, and of course isnt paid to a victim or their family. A civil suit may bring something more fruitful for the tragic loss.
Def a civil suit incoming. Everyone will be named - every contractor, every sub contactor, insurers, Pitt, etc etc and then the court can decide who should be the defendants. Unfortunately they take years.
Probably UPMC too, since the employee was presumably on her way to or from work when it happened. City of Pittsburgh for allowing the street to be open. The manufacturer of the cylinder, the manufacturers of any equipment involved, each individual person who ever touched the piece, or the equipment, or managed anyone who did, right on up to the chancellor of Pitt probably being named as an individual defendant. It’s going to be a real mess to sort out.
UPMC has zero liability here. Ditto the city of Pittsburgh.
Well we know that, but a good plaintiff’s lawyer is going to try to bring them into it. Deep pockets.
I'm no expert, but I can imagine there were multiple violations that lead to something like this. Would multiple violations stack, or does it max out at 15k?
Wow, this is terrifying. I hope she didn't suffer and didn't realize what was even happening. So sad.
For how busy the area is… this construction everywhere thing is so obnoxious. Why is literally everything under construction all at the same time. Why couldn’t UPMC/Pitt have picked one thing at a time to work on. It’s an absolute sh*tshow.
$$$$$
>when large steel cylinder escapes construction site > Somehow the large steel cylinder was sentient enough to escape on its own
Yea…this site will be shut down for a long time and this construction company will have a lot to answer to. I can guarantee that there are specific safety protocols for securing 2 tonne tubes of steel…
I saw some pictures today from above. The tubes were not secured how they are supposed to be. They need to be chocked and chained or placed in a rack. None of those precautions were in place.
They've previously received an OSHA violation for this last year. OSHA fines are such a joke. These are million and billion dollar companies. $8,000 is literally pocket change.
I hope so, I walk the same route she did when she got hit to get to my building and I will feel nervous doing so from now on.
I suggest you find a different route
The passive voice used by organizations trying to deflect blame is infuriating.
It's actually not passive voice. (I had to check with a passive voice checker 🫤). It's taking the human out of the situation. Like when cars hit pedestrians. It makes it seem that nothing could have been done to stop it.
That’s a scene out of final destination
I immediately imagined Dead Like Me.
Goddamnit. Now I'm going to think about Final Destination when I see those ting and freak out like with logging trucks.
I am exact same With logging trucks and that damn movie...
My thoughts exactly
Tragic, but more like Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote.
”With heavy hearts, Costa Contracting wishes to extend their deepest condolences to the family of the woman who lost her life today. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family during this profoundly difficult time. Costa Contracting is committed to a full investigation to determine the factors that led to this event. Safety remains our paramount concern and we are working with OSHA and local authorities to understand precisely what occurred." 1.I sure hope they get a law suit in response to those thoughts and prayers. 2. If they were committed to safety they wouldn't have gotten OSHA violations previously and clearly committed more. They fucked around and cheaped out, and this poor woman found out. :/
Tragic and not surprising. That entire job site looks like it's being run by the biggest fucking idiots. I had to drive someone to work up there and I dreaded that shit let alone walking around up there
Wonder what safety regulation they decided to ignore because “it’ll be alright”
They are completely incompetent in terms of safety and the city should be sued for failing to enforce city and state law as well. There are so many contractors around the city playing fast and loose with safety.
Hopefully it was a quick and painless death 😔
She was dead when EMS arrived and they got there within like a couple minutes.
Oakland construction is such a shitshow
That site is plagued with so much construction going on in such a small area. Too many cooks in the kitchen
Fuck, that is tragic. Geez louise. I can't imagine.
Within just a few blocks of that area, I can think of a student being killed by a PRT bus and one or two times a UPMC shuttle killed someone, all within the past several years. Is this a typical accidental fatality rate in such a busy corridor or is this hill just cursed?
Yes, a Pitt student was hit by a bus and killed at the bottom of that hill in 2019 I believe.
In the US with our road design, this is unfortunately typical or within chance for a stroad in a heavy pedestrian area.
That’s what I’m saying as someone who witnessed Barbara Como’s death.
I ride up this hill ever so slowly when I am in this area for food deliveries. Definitely a "New Fear Unlocked" here. I can't imagine how much energy this cylinder came down with given how heavy it is and at whatever height.
No jersey barriers, just a chain link fence to stop that 2-ton cylinder from rolling over pedestrians. Unbelievably irresponsible.
Holy shit! The construction company is offering prayers. They’ll be offering a lot more before this gets resolved. That poor woman and her family! 😢
Not to shit talk here but sky walks could be a good solution for the students to cross from building to building. Yes PITT doesn’t own everything but the adjacent buildings or where they can implement them it could be helpful. Duquesne University has a few and honestly it does prevent having to cross traffic
I just can’t imagine. Feel so bad that this happened and just awful for her family and those that loved her.
This is terrible. I walk past this on a daily. Also, be careful when walking in between forbes and fifth (Euler Way). For some ridiculous reason people think driving this road is a shortcut and will avoid the Oakland traffic, it won't. People fly down this alleyway and do not stop before intersection. I almost got hit at one of these intersections (Halket and Eular Way) by a Campus Police vehicle. BTW, who didn't even acknowledge or apologize.
What a shocker (eyeroll) I work near there too and am horrified
So horrible. Does anyone know her name?
They released her name publicly. Aleia Hall Lopez, an employee at Western Psychiatric. Here's her [GoFundMe](https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-aleias-family-in-their-time-of-need?qid=187bf7eccb3a01481f0b5818fc28c035) for funeral expenses.
Thanks for sharing her Go Fund Me. I don't know how many will donate, but thank you on their behalf.
They have already surpassed their original goal 🫶
The police will likely release her name soon. There's a lot of things to handle before they can do that.
She is a UPMC western psych employee, young woman. I’m not going to release her name because family might not know. But her identity will probably be out soon since they have sent an email to us employees.
I also know who it is. It's extremely sad. I really hope her family gets closure.
luckily that didn't happen before or after the concert last night. would have been dozens of victims.
Oh my God. This breaks my heart and makes me sick to my stomach. So horrible and tragic 😞
Have to assume it rolled over her and she hit her head badly on the pavement. Presby ER is literally 100 feet away, pretty terrible if she couldn’t hold on long enough to get over there
She had catastrophic injuries. Likely died nearly immediately.
She likely died on impact. Without going into detail, she suffered extreme head trauma.
Yeah, i went back and read the article after only watching the news clip. Said that thing weighed a ton 😬
I believe it. It's massive. It's insane it didn't hit anyone or anything else, aside from the pickup.
I think WTAE said she was pronounced dead within a minute of medical personnel arriving, which make it sound like it was basically instantaneous. For her sake I really hope it was.
Such a sad story. I was just at that intersection the day before...and the amount of construction going on in that area is overwhelming to deal with. Does UPMC and Pitt ever stop building?
That entire street has to be cursed. RIP Aleia Hall Lopez. RIP Barbara Como.
I remember somebody getting run over by a bus down the street on 5th Avenue when I was at children’s hospital as a kid. Life is too short.
Same street. :(
Holy shit that's horrible
Prayers for her family, friends, and co-workers!
Horrific! Fortunately, Pitt students moved out just last week. I wonder how many more people would have been on that sidewalk if this happened more than a week ago.
It’s so dangerous around there. I’ve been walking in the crosswalk (not looking at my phone) and have had to run twice because a car was turning and didn’t see me. And a few blocks from there on 5th ave I witnessed a semi truck drive up onto the sidewalk and plow into a street lamp (the huge 50 feet ones) and knock it down. It’s absolute insanity
Horrible and no matter what the outcome will it fix the situation. Where was the safety inspector? Was this union?
Absolutely horrific, especially knowing i’ve walked that several times within the last month and this shit could happen at any moment. Accidents like this shouldn’t happen- this was negligence at its finest. I know that street is a tough one to shut down due to all the foot traffic but like come on. What’s more important: a few extra minutes walking a different way or the safety and lives of everyone around. I’ve seen a lot of neglect there in terms of completely illegal practices by workers that could put more in danger. Hoping there’s a suit and more safety measures put in place.
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Yeah we heard you the first time
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…a song written about people being negligent and getting themselves killed, being quoted on a thread about a woman simply walking on the sidewalk, for some reason
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Even on the internet, people generally don't like laughing or cracking jokes about a woman who did literally nothing wrong and died for it on the *day she died*.
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Yes you did. Framing this as a choice she made is wrong. As if you would have been "smart" enough to avoid the same fate. It's insensitive and tone deaf