At Marina City on June 19, 1962, using a material hoist to lift personnel was costly as seven workers fell ten stories when a gear shaft holding the hoist broke.
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The two workers injured most seriously in the fall, Harry Epps, age 36, and Edward Torba, age 41, suffered spinal injuries. Epps was partially paralyzed. William Higgins, age 29, and Frank LaBruno, age 28, a salesperson for a company called Speed Fast, each sustained a spinal fracture and leg injuries. Harry Johnson, the 49-year-old operator of the hoist, received leg and chest injuries. Edward Reilly, age 38, suffered leg and internal injuries.
(Left) A worker looks at tangled cables of a hoist that fell at Marina City on June 19, 1962. |
The deputy city building commissioner said using the hoist to carry passengers violated city code. Sidney Smith conceded, however, it was the only practical way of getting workers to upper levels, and installing temporary elevators “would make construction costs more exorbitant than they already are.”
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A permit had been issued for a temporary material hoist at Marina City, but it was specified the hoist would not be used to carry passengers. When use of the hoist in both towers was halted, workers had to be driven up the garage ramp to the 19th floor. They walked the rest of the way, sometimes as far as the 42nd floor.
The next week, a permanent passenger elevator was in service. (Right) News photo, looking down an elevator shaft from the eighth floor of the east tower, following an accident at Marina City on June 19, 1962. |
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Harry Johnson was the first victim to file a lawsuit, less than a month later, asking for $500,000 from James McHugh Construction Company. Eventually, Marina City Building Corporation, Bertrand Goldberg Associates, Brighton Construction Company, and three other contractors were named as defendants. After months of negotiation, a settlement was reached out-of-court on November 30, 1964, for $637,500 (equal to $6.4 million in 2024), one of the largest out-of-court settlements in Chicago at the time.
On August 6, 1962, a new city ordinance took effect, permitting use of temporary passenger elevators in high-rise apartment buildings during construction. This was intended to discourage the use of material hoists to transport workers. Building Commissioner George Ramsey said his department would report to police any such use of material hoists.
Ramsey was out-voted by Mayor Daley, who announced three days before the ordinance took effect that the city would not be enforcing the ban on workers riding construction hoists. Instead, the hoists would be inspected twice each day and each project’s insurance company would certify to the city that the hoist is safe. Daley made this decision after meeting with officials of the Builders Association of Chicago, who said the ban would shut down construction on 52 high-rise buildings.
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Another worker falls
The fourth construction worker to die while building Marina City was William Jones. He was a 44-year-old plasterer for McGurn Brothers and had been working at Marina City for about five months. He was married and had two children. (Left) A worker stands at the foot of a wooden ramp near the east tower. When he fell on September 24, 1962, plasterer William Jones landed about in the center of the incline. |
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On September 24, 1962, trying to jump from one balcony to another, which was not a long distance and common among the fearless construction workers, Jones slipped on sand and fell 40 stories off the east tower. He landed on a ramp leading down to State Street.
(Right) A photograph of Marina City construction in the early 1960s by architectural photographer/historical preservationist Richard Nickel shows the hazard of loose material near the edges of balconies. This is on the 42nd floor of the east tower. The Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson & Burnham Archives. |
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