Records show troubles for Cowboys facility builder
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The Associated Press
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mayıs 08, 2009 00:00
Dallas - The company that built the collapsed Dallas Cowboys' training facility also manufactured at least three other buildings that have fallen in heavy weather since 2002, according to court records.
The other tentlike facilities manufactured by Allentown, Pennsylvania-based Summit Structures LLC or its related company, Cover-All Building Systems, were warehouse-type buildings in Philadelphia and upstate New York and an indoor arena for horse competition in Oregon. All the buildings fell in conditions that included heavy snow, according to records and interviews. A Summit spokeswoman didn't immediately return a call or e-mail seeking comment on Wednesday.
The collapse of the Cowboys' facility in heavy winds on Saturday left 12 people injured, including a 33-year-old staff member who is paralyzed from the waist down. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has opened an investigation into the incident.
Beth Hungiville, executive director of the Lightweight Structures Association, said four of the membrane-style buildings collapsing in seven years was far from normal. "You would not usually find that many failures in that short a time," she said.
Hungiville said her organization, an industry group, was aware of the Philadelphia collapse, which occurred just four months before work began on the Cowboys' facility, but did not know about the others until the last few days. The other accidents likely didn't attract widespread attention before the failure of the Cowboys' structure because they didn't involve injuries, she said. The collapse of the Cowboys facility has focused attention on Summit as well as Cover-All, based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Summit sells and sometimes installs structures fabricated by Cover-All, according to court testimony from Nathan Stobbe, Summit's president.
When a Summit structure covering freight for the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority collapsed in February 2003, it spawned a lengthy court battle that ended with a jury awarding the port more than $3.4 million. Another lawsuit, which has yet to be resolved, centers on the collapse of a building for storing ice-melting chemicals in Fort Plain, New York. The suit, filed by the insurance carrier for the company that owned the building, states that Cover-All's negligence caused the building to fall when its membrane was ripped during a snowstorm in February 2007.
The Oregon case arose after a rancher had a Cover-All facility built on his property for dressage competition. The 15,840-square-foot building collapsed in January 2002 under the weight of snow that was "substantially" less than the capacity to which the structure was built.
The collapse of the Cowboys' facility in heavy winds on Saturday left 12 people injured, including a 33-year-old staff member who is paralyzed from the waist down. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has opened an investigation into the incident.
Beth Hungiville, executive director of the Lightweight Structures Association, said four of the membrane-style buildings collapsing in seven years was far from normal. "You would not usually find that many failures in that short a time," she said.
Hungiville said her organization, an industry group, was aware of the Philadelphia collapse, which occurred just four months before work began on the Cowboys' facility, but did not know about the others until the last few days. The other accidents likely didn't attract widespread attention before the failure of the Cowboys' structure because they didn't involve injuries, she said. The collapse of the Cowboys facility has focused attention on Summit as well as Cover-All, based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Summit sells and sometimes installs structures fabricated by Cover-All, according to court testimony from Nathan Stobbe, Summit's president.
When a Summit structure covering freight for the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority collapsed in February 2003, it spawned a lengthy court battle that ended with a jury awarding the port more than $3.4 million. Another lawsuit, which has yet to be resolved, centers on the collapse of a building for storing ice-melting chemicals in Fort Plain, New York. The suit, filed by the insurance carrier for the company that owned the building, states that Cover-All's negligence caused the building to fall when its membrane was ripped during a snowstorm in February 2007.
The Oregon case arose after a rancher had a Cover-All facility built on his property for dressage competition. The 15,840-square-foot building collapsed in January 2002 under the weight of snow that was "substantially" less than the capacity to which the structure was built.