Widow files lawsuit over Big Dig's 'Ginsu guardrails'
The widow of Brian Hicks of Salem, who was killed in an accident that hurled him into Big Dig tunnel handrails in March, has filed suit in Suffolk Superior Court against the railings' contractors, asking for $2 million in compensatory damage and an unspecified amount of punitive damages.
Hicks was the eighth motorist since 2005 who was killed after striking the handrails, given the grim nickname "Ginsu guardrails" by public safety workers who responded to the grisly accidents. Most involved fatal dismemberment, though one person lost an arm and survived.
"I don't know how those involved in planning and building [the Big Dig] sleep at night," said attorney Barry A. Feinstein of Peabody, who represents Brian Hicks's widow, Donna Hicks.
State transportation officials said last month that thousands of feet of the railings throughout the Big Dig tunnel system would be removed and other sections would be covered with a chain link mesh fence to help protect
motorists. The cost was unclear. The handrails are to keep workers in the tunnels from falling into traffic.
Last year, safety experts contacted by the Globe criticized the design of the railings, saying the edges of the vertical posts had sharp edges and the spaces between the horizontal bars were too wide, so motorcyclist or a
person in a car who was thrust outside the window could become entangled in the railings and get killed. Many other vertical railings around the state use cylindrical posts that have no edges.
Hicks died after his pickup exited Sumner Tunnel and struck a Jersey barrier. The union electrician and father of one was thrown from his truck. He was driving at a high rate of speed and was not wearing a seat belt. Many of those others killed were also driving fast and were not wearing seat belts or were on motorcycles. He died in almost exactly the same spot as another of the victims. The suit was filed Monday.
The family of state trooper Vincent Cila, who was killed in a motorcycle crash into the railings in 2005, last year was awarded $9 million, in a settlement with the state and contractors. During Big Dig construction, federal officials had urged crash-testing the handrails, but the idea was rejected by project officials.
The contractors named in the suit are: Becthtel Corp., Parsons Brinckerhoff Americas, Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, GMT Architects Inc., Tuttle Aluminum & Bronze Inc., McCourt Construction Co. Inc., Obayashi Corp., and McCourt/Obayashi.
