Family of Worker Killed At Northwestern Suing Schaumburg Company

The son of an Indiana man killed on May 16 when a beam fell on him at a construction site on Northwestern University is suing the project’s general contractor, Schaumberg-based Power Construction Company, Evanston Review reported. 

Michael Kerr, 57, was working on a construction site at Northwestern University’s new Bienen School of Music around 7:15 a.m. Thursday when a crane knocked a beam off the sixth floor of the building, according to Evanston police. The beam struck him in his head and his chest, causing severe injuries. He was transported to the hospital, where he died, police said. 

Kerr’s 21-year-old son, also named Michael Kerr, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court Monday, claiming a lack of “adequate safeguards”—such as “reasonable inspection” of the worksite and that construction materials on upper floors were improperly secured to the building—contributed to his father’s death, Evanston Review reported. 

A neighbor who knew Kerr said he enjoyed fishing and hoped to retire in Florida at the end of the year, "He worked this job for so long and he was so close to retirement," she told the Northwest Indiana Times. "It feels so unfair." 

Earlier

• Construction Worker Killed Identified; OSHA Investigating
• Construction Worker Killed by Falling Beam at Northwestern