Workers who sued over collapse of Seattle’s Pier 58 settle for $2.5M

Workers who sued Seattle over the injuries they suffered when Pier 58 collapsed in 2020 — plunging them into Elliott Bay amid slabs of concrete debris and heavy machinery — have settled their case for $2.5 million.

Three demolition workers accused the city and its contractors of neglecting the deteriorating downtown pier for years, rushing to raze the wood and concrete structure unsafely as it started to fail and sending them “almost like sacrificial lambs” into danger. They agreed to drop their lawsuit last month in an agreement where the city and contractors admit no liability.

The contractors’ insurance companies have paid to defend the city from the 2023 suit and are paying the settlement money to the workers, Tim Robinson, a spokesperson for the Seattle city attorney’s office, said last week. Robinson declined to comment on the outcome of the case.

William H.P. Fuld, an attorney for the workers, said they’re still dealing with injuries and post-traumatic stress, five years after the September 2020 collapse.

”We resolved the case because they wanted to try as best they can to just move forward with their lives,” the attorney said Monday.

The scary collapse of the timber-decked pier once known as Waterfront Park was a long time coming. In 2006, inspectors said Pier 58’s steel-wrapped concrete support piles were corroding, leading the city to impose load restrictions. In 2011 and 2016, inspectors again raised concerns.

The pier’s replacement was penciled in for 2017 as part of Seattle’s $800 million downtown waterfront makeover and then was rescheduled for 2022. A city rule mandated “row-through” inspections under the pier and inspectors recommended annual load tests; those didn’t happen leading up to 2020.

By August 2020, some piles were broken and the pier started pulling away from the seawall. In response, the city closed the pier and used an emergency policy to hire a demolition contractor without its normal bidding process.

A rival company asked the city about installing temporary supports and expressed concern about the pier “toppling like a house of cards” during demolition, The Seattle Times found. But Seattle’s contractor chose only digital “movement monitoring” as a safety measure, relying on an automatic alarm to warn workers about a potential collapse.

The three workers were employed by a subcontractor to saw away the pier’s concrete terrace. They said they were given life jackets, a quick safety briefing and were told, “If you hear the horn, run like hell” off the pier.

Lead plaintiff David Grosl said he doesn’t recall hearing the alarm until he was plummeting into a whirlpool with debris crashing all around. He and another of the plaintiffs landed in the water, while a third barely escaped.

“I went down to the bottom,” Grosl said in 2023. “It was pitch black and I was just telling my wife and kids, ‘I love you guys.’ I thought I was done.”

Grosl was struck in the head, neck and back. He was hauled out with a sheared scalp, fractured vertebrae, nerve damage and psychological scars, he said. Then 30 years old, he had to stop working as a concrete cutter, despite the birth of his fifth child soon after the collapse. The other worker who fell also has not been able to return to his job, said Fuld, their attorney.

“Their lives are never really going to be the same,” Fuld said.

The workers’ lawsuit sought damages for medical bills, lost wages, lost benefits, lost earning capacity, pain, suffering and permanent impairment. Immediately after the incident, Seattle’s officials called it a “traumatic experience” for the workers and said they were lucky to avoid worse injuries.

The city denied neglecting the pier and attributed its collapse to rapidly accelerating deterioration, rather than inadequate inspections and the contractor’s demolition plan. A 2021 review of the incident by the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries found no violations.

A rebuilt Pier 58 opened in July. The new space includes a playground with a jellyfish-inspired climbing tower, a plaza for concerts and an elevated lawn.

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