Wrongful Death Suit Coming In UChicago Fall That Killed Oak Forest Man

CHICAGO, IL — Attorneys have already filed one lawsuit and soon will file a second, following the death of an Oak Forest man and injuries to another worker after a fall from scaffolding at a UChicago construction site last week.

A wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of the family of Oak Forest man David O’Donnell, 27, a Local 130 technical engineer who died after falling 100 feet from scaffolding at the hospital's new cancer center, is expected to be filed this week.

A lawsuit was already filed on June 10 on behalf of Jeffrey A. Spyrka, 36, the Local 1 ironworker who also fell and was injured, GWC Injury Lawyers announced earlier this week.

The current lawsuit names two construction entities responsible for this tragic incident, the law firm stated. The first named defendant is Turner Construction Company.

The suit claims that "the general contractor failed to take appropriate safety measures to ensure that the massive scaffold system that surrounded all sides of the core of a new building under construction was safely and properly erected," according to the statement. It also alleges that the company allowed scaffold work to continue, despite high winds that day.

The second party named is concrete contractor Adjustable Forms, Inc. The company allegedly, "failed to properly build the scaffold so that the corners of the structure could not separate, resulting in movement of the scaffold under any conditions, including in high wind conditions."

The company assured workers the scaffold was safe to work on despite high winds. O'Donnell was the last to step on the scaffold, the suit alleges.

"Within a minute or two, a gust of wind caused the SW corner of the scaffold to separate and the southerly scaffold section swung violently away from the wall, throwing Spyrka and O’Connell over 8 stories to the ground," the lawsuit states.

Spyrka is a husband and father of three, the firm states.

Lifelong Oak Forest resident O'Donnell is survived by his parents and three brothers.

"The O’Donnell’s have lost a beautiful son who was only 27 years old," states Louis C. Cairo, Managing Partner at GWC Injury Lawyers. "He was taken from his loving family and this world way too early. Jeff Spyrka’s injuries are unimaginable. First of all, the fact that he survived the fall is simply a miracle. But he has a long battle ahead.

"... Neither of these families should have to go through this. These workers should have never been working on what turned out to be an unsafe, dangerous scaffold perched over 100 feet in the air.

"This was an absolutely callous act of negligence and misconduct by major construction companies who viewed progress on the job as their priority rather than the safety of the workers on the job. The evidence will prove that this was a totally preventable catastrophe."