The incident, which happened July 10, last year, has resulted to the death of Milena Del Valle, 39, who was crushed by the concrete panels from the ceiling that subsequently shatter and broke down. Yet, her husband was able to crawl out of the ruins and sustained only minor injuries.

Los Angeles, California – August 10, 2007 – Attorney General Martha Coakley has announced that Powers Fasteners Inc. was formally indicted in court with one count of involuntary manslaughter. Allegedly, the adhesives company, which was based in Brewster, N.Y., was charged by the Suffolk County grand jury because of the said intentional supply of such poor products.

In a report that was released, the state asserted that company has brought in a sub-standard mixture, “Power-Fast Fast Set”, rather than the “Power-Fast Standard Set” that hardens longer but can hold up the ceiling of the tunnel. Coakley said that if only the standard variety was used, this accident would not have taken place. However, further investigations are still on going to establish the lawsuit, she added.

Meanwhile, the president of the indicted adhesives company, Jeffrey Powers, declared that his firm was being judged unfairly. The company denied the allegation and said that they never knew that the “fast-set” had been applied. They also reiterated that their project managers hindered the company engineer to determine why the tunnel ceiling was tripping.

Powers also expressed that the only reason the company was sued was that "unlike others implicated in this tragedy, we don't have enough money to buy our way out''

On the other hand, it is said that Powers has independently supplied the entire amount of epoxy for the project worth $1,287.60. Hence, if they were able to convict the company, it would have to pay a fine of not more than $1,000, which is the set penalty for a company culpable of manslaughter in Massachusetts, AG Martha Coakley stated.

This particular case does not involve any person but Coakley admitted that the doors for possible indictments against individuals might be filed in the future. She further affirmed that Big Dig project manager Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff along with the other companies engaged in the project might still be prosecuted.

Likewise, the victims’ daughter, Racquel Ibarra Mora, commended the decision to indict Powers. She then acclaimed the efforts of AG Coakley in prosecuting the parties liable for the death of their mother. She is also hopeful that the indictment was the start of obtaining justice.

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