Helen Furuya suing construction company in death of Brad Zawislak
The widow of an office worker who tragically lost his life in a crane collapse in downtown Kelowna, British Columbia, almost two years ago, has taken legal action against the construction company, alleging negligence led to her husband’s death.
Helen Furuya, devastated by the loss of her husband Brad Zawislak, has filed a lawsuit stating the construction company's actions led to the catastrophic crane collapse on July 12, 2021.
The statement of claim was filed in B.C. Supreme Court on Wednesday, according to CBC News. It declares, "as a result of the aforementioned accident, Brad Zawislak was killed, whereby his wife was deprived of his love, guidance, care, services, training, and financial support."
This unfortunate incident occurred on the construction site of the Brooklyn at Bernard Block condo tower, resulting in the deaths of five individuals.
While awaiting answers from ongoing criminal and workplace investigations, this lawsuit marks the first claim made by the victims' families.
According to the lawsuit, the 43-year-old worked as a senior technologist for Protech Consulting at the time of the accident. His office, located adjacent to the construction site, became the target of the crane's destructive path.
The impact of the crane crashing into his building buried Zawislak beneath the rubble. It took a specialized search-and-rescue team almost two days to recover his lifeless body.
Protech Consulting paid tribute to Zawislak saying, "with a personality larger than life, Brad perfectly embodied all the traits that Protech strives to uphold in everything we do. His friendly, hardworking, do-it-all mentality is irreplaceable. Brad had an inspiring ability to balance his work with his family life and constantly left everyone he met with a motivation to be a better person. Brad will always be remembered and will always be a part of the Protech Team."
At the time of the incident, the RCMP revealed the crane was undergoing dismantlement when a "catastrophic" event occurred around 10:45 a.m.
Both the RCMP and WorkSafeBC initiated separate investigations into the matter, but little information has been made public thus far.
In a joint update provided earlier this spring, the RCMP indicated investigators are still determining if any crimes were committed. The statement emphasized officers are meticulously reviewing "thousands of pieces of evidence" and refrained from disclosing further information to safeguard the integrity of the ongoing investigation.
WorkSafeBC has completed its investigation; however, the agency has not released its findings publicly due to an agreement with the police. The decision has been heavily criticized.
Among those who tragically lost their lives in the collapse were construction workers Cailen Vilness and Jared Zook, along with brothers Eric and Patrick Stemmer. The Stemmer brothers were employed by their family-owned business, Stemmer Construction, which held the contract for operating the ill-fated crane.
In Furuya's lawsuit, Stemmer Construction is the only defendant named explicitly. As of now, the company has yet to respond to the lawsuit filed against them in court.
