Miller Park question

[Lil Bunny]

*waves*

Ok so I work for a Heavy Equip Op union training program. We're on the home stretch with new apprentice classes and they were talking about cranes. Big push from the class is to watch the Big Blue video.

Knowing now what I know about equipment, I was amazed and devastated by what happened. I can't even imagine what you guys who live near by had to go through.

It's also rather frustrating to find so little information out there that isn't a repeat of the Discovery Channel. Are there any personal accounts of the people involved? What about the guy fired for doing the right thing that day? What about the poor guy who was thrown from it?

I have so many questions, anyone from Milwaukee wanna help a girl out? (And the class...none of the operators want to fup.

Thanks!

[derangedperson]

As a Wisconsinite, I can tell you this much:

The day that they were lifting that piece of the roof, it was very windy. If I remember correctly, there was about a 25-30 mph wind speed on the ground, but at the altitude they were lifting at, I'd guess around 40-50 mph. Needless to say, the piece of the roof added more wind resistance, and the wind speed along with the weight of the roof snapped the support pillars anchoring Big Blue to the ground in half and knocked it over.

Three workers died in the accident and are honored with a statue in Miller Park's forecourt. The widows of the three men sued and won a multi-million dollar settlement with Mitsubishi and the city of Milwaukee.

The Brewers were supposed to move into Miller Park following the 1999 season, but the opening date was pushed back a year due to the accident.

One of the men involved that day has said that he'll never visit the park--the accident occurred right alongside the first base line, and he says that every time he looks at home plate, he thinks of the guys who lost their lives.

Then the roof started leakin', but that's another story.

[Becks]

I tried looking up the info, because I know that at one time there was A LOT available.

I can't find a lot that I deem useful.

The only thing I can think of is to maybe try the archives at jsonline.com