A southwest suburban dad died on a job site earlier this month when he was hit with a piece of steel while working near the Joliet and Plainfield border.

His son is now suing the construction companies, fighting for new safety measures.

A wrongful death lawsuit says Tom Kircher was working on a mixed-use development project known as The Boulevard Place near Interstate 55 and Route 30 on Dec. 15, when an accident cost him his life.

For the last week, Alex Kircher has been driving his dad's Jeep Wrangler as a way to keep his memory alive.

Inside is a set of tools Tom brought to job sites as an ironworker and member of the Ironworkers Local 444 labor union.

"There wasn't a road in the areas that he worked that he could go down where he wouldn't point out things that he built that he was extremely proud of," Alex said.

His son said he was vocal about job  site safety, but was killed when a piece of steel fell on him as he was working on The Boulevard Place construction site.

"Job sites do strangely enough feel like home to me sometimes and it clashes now because this was his final site," Alex said.

Tom also had a 7-year-old son named Joey, who Alex said just beat cancer a couple years ago.

Illinois state Rep. Harry Benton (D-Plainfield) was friends with Tom when they met on job sites as ironworkers 17 years ago.

"We always try to think about safety, no matter what we're doing," Benton said.

In Springfield, Benton said he focuses on workplace safety and protections on a regular basis, but what happened at the construction site where Tom lost his life reinvigorates a need to keep pushing.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the accident.

"The reality of today is OSHA standards have come so much further that we don't hear about this as often. So, when it does hit, it hits really close to home," Benton said.

Alex has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against four companies involved in the construction project – CBRE, Inc., Vequity Construction, LLC, Nick's Metal Fabricating & Sons, Inc., and Novak Construction Co. The complaint claims a reasonable inspection was not done, there was no warning of dangerous conditions, and steel was installed "in such a manner that it could break loose and fall onto workers."

"If there is anybody accountable for the possible mistake, then it needs to happen," Alex said.

The four companies involved in the lawsuit did not respond to requests for comment.

A court date for the case is not scheduled until April.