Seattle leaders are starting to talk about what comes next after a fatal crane collapse over the weekend, but there seems to be a long road ahead.
Saturday's collapse in the city's South Lake Union neighborhood killed four people and injured four others. The crane fell while it was being dismantled. The collapse is being investigated by the state Department of Labor and Industries.
City Council members heard from the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections on Wednesday. It was a regularly scheduled briefing, but planning committee chair and newly appointed Council member Abel Pacheco invited SCDI Director Nathan Torgelson to speak about the collapse.
Torgelson began by acknowledging Alan Justad, a former official in the Seattle planning department who was one of the four people killed in the crane collapse.
"It's just a tragic irony," Torgelson said. Employees in his department and the Office of Planning and Community Development "are really grieving through this loss," he added.
The following discussion was short — less than 10 minutes out of SCDI's half-hour briefing. But it was enough time for council members Pacheco and Lisa Herbold to bring up the idea of potential action by the city to prevent such a tragedy in the future.
Torgelson said SDCI doesn't have regulatory authority over tower cranes. Most of that is up to Labor and Industries.
Herbold asked if the city was pre-empted in excercising any authority. She suggested stricter rules about crane dismantling or requirements for street flaggers as examples.
Torgelson said he wasn't sure about the city's authority, and he cautioned leaders to wait to find out what actually caused the collapse.
"I would sort of recommend finding out what happened there before the city looks at additional regulations," he said.
The Labor and Industries investigation is expected to take several months. Torgelson said his office is working closely with the developer and contractors on the path forward for the building.
