$28-million settlement for family of woman crushed in Big Dig accident

Finally, some closure to this horrible tragedy to an innocent bystander.

However, I take exception to the "sue everybody" strategy when these tragedies happen. Powers and Newman Associates get blamed for something that just is not their fault. Powers manufactured the epoxy and Newman supplied the bolts. Yes, the bolts and epoxy were the prime cause of the failure, but it was the application of these pieces rather than the pieces themselves, and that is the responsibility of the contractor. It's like suing a car manufacturer because you took a 90-degree turn at 100 mph and crashed. You used it in a manner that was not intended. Martha Coakley wanted to score some points, so she goes after these little guys that are remotely related to the collapse.

This is similar to what has happened in one of the worst tragedies in our area, the Station fire. The Globe recently had an article that showed all the defendants in that case, a lot of which really had nothing to do with the actual fire. For example, the local beer distributor and Anheuser Busch were named in the case. The only reason they were sued was because the people truly at fault (bar owners, band members) had relatively little money, so they went after the big pockets. The big pockets settle only because it would be a public relations nightmare to fight the case.

Whenever someone takes a position like this that sounds like it's against the victim, it sounds cold, and that's not my intention. The Big Dig is/was a mess, someone needlessly died, and those at fault should be punished. But, I take exception when lawyers take advantage of the situation and are overzealous in the blame game.