SPRINGFIELD, Mo.—The family of Steve Lemay, who died as a result of a TV tower collapse in Fordland, Mo., in 2018, has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the owners of the tower, Missouri State University Board of Governors (MSU), and Tower Consultants Inc., who was contracted to retrofit the tower as part of the FCC repack.

Lemay and his crew were attempting to reinforce the 1,891-foot TV tower, which broadcasts KOZK Ozarks Public Television, on April 19, 2018. The lawsuit claims that the tower made a strange noise and shortly after collapsed, with Lemay within the tower frame at that time, killing him. No other employees were seriously injured.

The lawsuit is claiming that MSU is liable for maintaining a “dangerous condition” on its property that led to Lemay’s death and is seeking damages to compensate them for Lemay’s pain and suffering, as well as medical, funeral and burial expenses.

Doug Sampson, who the lawsuit says was the project manager, is also being sued.

The lawsuit is primarily relying upon the OHSA investigation report of the collapse, which had two key findings: 1) TCI’s suggested diagonal replacement procedure was flawed in that it compromised the effectiveness of the integrated surrounding braces and the load bearing capacity of the tower legs; and 2) the cause of the communication tower collapse was the weakening of the compressive strength of the tower legs by removing the bolts at the connection of the diagonals to the horizontal redundant.

However, the report also mentions other points that could be used by the defendants in the lawsuit, including that Lemay used an undersized come-a-long while removing the diagonal braces and that he failed to provide the design of the required temporary frame for diagonal replacement above or below a guy level.

More information on the lawsuit is available here. 

A year ago, the National Association of Broadcasters released a video explaining the implications of the channel repack that nearly 1,000 U.S. TV broadcasters are undergoing after the spectrum auctions. The video was designed to inform the public about a complex, dangerous project and how difficult it would be to complete within the 39 months provided by the FCC. In addition to the financial burdens, it emphasized the technical and logistical challenges faced by tower companies.

“There’s no easy template for this work,” a spokesman in the video said. “It’s hard, expensive and dangerous. There are only a handful of companies in America that can do it safely, and there are nearly 1,000 stations to be moved. Unfortunately the math doesn’t add up. Stations are being forced to move without the time and money to do it successfully.”

We are now seeing some potentially tragic results that could come with a deadline that many warned was unreasonable. Last month, Steve Lemay, owner of a Washington-based tower company was killed and three of his crew members were injured when the 1,980-foot tower for Ozarks Public Television station KOZK-TV in Fordland, Mo., collapsed. TV Technology extends our condolences to Lemay’s family and colleagues over this terrible accident.

[Read: Missouri TV Tower Collapses]

Lemay was working on a $3.4 million project to repack KOZK’s channel from 23 to 16. Lemay and his crew were only 100 feet up the tower, attempting to reinforce the structure when the accident occurred. At press time, the station has returned to cable and satellite and is broadcasting on a limited temporary site.

Lemay is the fourth tower worker to lose his life working on a broadcast tower since channel repack work commenced a year ago. In September, three members of a tower crew lost their lives while working on a 1,250-foot TV tower in Miami Gardens, Fla. It has since been confirmed that both the Miami Gardens and Fordland accidents were a result of work done on the repack. To put this into perspective, there were eight tower deaths in 2017 (three which resulted from repack work), and two so far in 2018 (one from repack work), while in 2016, there were seven overall, according to wirelessestimator.com.

Lemay was considered a consummate professional by his peers and had 25 years’ experience in the tower business; the accident is under investigation so we don’t yet know what was the cause. However, what we do know is that despite tower crews taking all the necessary safety precautions, four deaths have occurred in less than a year due to this work and it may be time for the FCC to reconsider its timeline. We may never be able to say directly that a rushed repack schedule played a role in these tragedies; but any responsible observer could conclude that it’s possible — and that taking more time in this process in the interest of safety is the prudent course. Although some funding has been added to the repack budget earlier this year, the commission should also look into extending the deadline to allow for more flexibility in scheduling tower work before more workers get injured or lose their lives.

“The concern a lot of people have about the repack is that the timeframe is based on everything going right,” Iowa Public Television Director of Engineering and TV Technology contributor Bill Hayes told Current. “The fact is, there are so few crews that are capable of doing this work safely and they’re going to be stretched thin. Something has to give and the hope is that what’s going to give is the timeline.”

Hayes added that without extensions to the schedule, “you can be gambling at best with the reliability of your station’s service, and at worst you’re gambling with people’s lives.”

We couldn’t agree more. OSHA ranks tower work as “the most dangerous job in America.” It’s up to the FCC to consider that fact and reevaluate its repack deadlines.

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