Local attorney still fighting for answers 2 years after Fern Hollow Bridge collapse
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Pittsburgh was in the spotlight two years ago Sunday after the dramatic Fern Hollow Bridge collapse.
The fight for answers into why this happened and what exactly caused it continues.
After facing months of pushback for documents, attorney Pete Giglione says this fight is far from over two years after the bridge's collapse.
For two years, Giglione has been fighting for transparency that could show what the City of Pittsburgh knew about before the 447-foot Fern Hollow Bridge collapsed. Five vehicles, including a PRT bus, plunged 100 feet into the ravine below.
Ten people were hurt, some of them seriously.
Giglione says his client, bus driver Daryl Luciania, can't drive anymore thanks to the accident.
"He's still a [PRT] employee, but he can no longer drive a bus, so he is doing other jobs that don't require that type of physical stress. He's still in pain and having issues with sleep, dreams, nightmares about this," Giglione said.
Last week, court records show Giglione and other lawyers for the people injured added three defendants, engineering firms Larson Design Group Inc., Gannett Fleming Inc., and CDM Smith Inc., days before the deadline to file a civil suit after a passenger on the bus filed a notice of suit against the City of Pittsburgh.
Giglione says he plans to file soon as well.
"I'm very confident that we are getting there, and we will have our complaint filed pretty soon. I think a lot of the other stuff is going to come out, and we are going to flush that out through the course of the litigation in the case."
Giglione and others battled for documents. The city pushed back, arguing it couldn't because of the National Transportation Safety Board's investigation. The NTSB released thousands of pages of documents earlier this month, but still no final report.
"They (NTSB) seem to be forthcoming now, although I am a little disappointed their final report is not out," Giglione said.
After the collapse, reports showed the bridge was labeled 'structurally deficient,' with a D+ rating by civil engineers in 2018.
Giglione says, based on everything he's seen, he believes there is culpability.
"What I can tell you, though, is just from the documents and information that I've seen, there is no legitimate excuse for that bridge coming down. There is no legitimate reason for it. There were a lot of failures, and I think that is going to come out during the course of this case."
Above all else, Giglione says his biggest concern concerns the safety of other bridges in our area.
"There are a lot of other bridges in the City of Pittsburgh [that] the documents point out were in very bad shape. I think what we need to be looking at now is has the city stepped in or has anyone else stepped in to repair those other bridges. We need to take a lesson from this. This could have been much worse. There could have been 100 people on that bridge, and there could have been fatalities."
KDKA-TV reached out to the NTSB about the final report. There has been no response as of Sunday night.