Cowboys Employees Sue Over Canopy Collapse
Two Dallas Cowboys employees seriously injured when the team's indoor practice facility collapsed in May have filed lawsuits against the companies that built the structure.
Scouting assistant Rich Behm and special teams coach Joe DeCamillis filed separate lawsuits Tuesday in state district court in Dallas against Summit Structures LLC, a subsidiary of a Saskatoon-based firm called Cover-All Building Systems, and others involved in building the steel and fabric facility.
The suits, which seek unspecified damages, charge the companies with gross negligence.
Behm was paralyzed from the waist down when the building collapsed in a wind storm on May 2. The 33-year-old Behm was among a dozen people hurt in the accident.
DeCamillis, 43, the team's new special teams coach, sustained a fracture of one of his cervical vertebrae without paralysis.
Assistant athletic trainer Greg Gaither, 35, had surgery to repair a fracture to the tibia and fibula in his right leg.
"To the Behm family we extend our love, comfort, and the full support of every person and resource within the organization," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said in a statement following the collapse. "Rich is a courageous member of our family and someone for whom we care deeply. We ask for all friends and fans of the Dallas Cowboys to join us in embracing him and his family with their thoughts and prayers at this very difficult time."
Bret Kelly is a sports photographer for CBS affiliate KTVT, and was inside the building when the storm hit. He shot some amazing footage, and spoke with Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith about it following the accident, calling the scene "chaotic":
About 70 people, including 27 players attending a rookie minicamp, were in the structure when the storm hit. Wind in the area around that time was clocked at 64 mph, a single mph shy of the threshold for a weak tornado.
National Weather Service officials said a "microburst" may have pushed the wind beyond 70 mph at the top of the structure that was built in 2003.
Most of the 27 players taking part in the minicamp were drafted the previous weekend or signed as undrafted rookies. None of the team's veterans were involved. Coaches, support staff and media were also in the structure.
Behm, DeCamillis and Gaither were standing on the field when the $4 million structure gave way, sending debris such as the framework and lights crashing to the ground.
The no-frills building was pretty much a 100-yard football field with a few more yards of clearance all the way around. The roof was 80 feet high, the equivalent of an eight-story building.
Calls to Summit Structures LLC, one of the companies involved in building the $4 million facility, were not returned to The Associated Press on Sunday.
A Pennsylvania court ruled in December 2006 that Summit was negligent in the design and construction of a membrane-covered building that collapsed in 2003 after a major snowstorm in Philadelphia. The building was constructed for the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority.