Update: Big Dig Gluemaker is So Screwed (maybe?)

Powers Fasteners, a New York based glue company, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of Milena Del Valle. Del Valle was killed in the Big Dig's I-90 Connector Tunnel's collapse last year.

The bad news for us is that if under Massachusetts law, Power Fasteners, if found guilty, cannot be fined more than $1,000 (geez - we thought was a typo when we read the paper this morning).

Though the tiny fine (so aptly described by a commenter as something a college senior could charge to her Visa) seems like a slap on the wrist, the part about the manslaughter charge is really bad news for Power Fasteners. A conviction would open the door for Del Valle's family and the Commonwealth to sue the freaking pants off them in a civil suit.

Power Fasteners claims that the company is innocent, and that it repeatedly told Big Dig officials that their "quick-drying" type of glue (as opposed to their "standard" kind) was not safe for affixing ceiling panels to tunnels. With a heavy heart, we admit that their claim sounds reasonable.

Attorney General Coakley countered that the Power Fasteners packaging and promotional literature did not make that point clear. Hm.

So, to us - just Joe Laypeople - it sounds as though all glues should be clearly labeled to specify their unsafe uses. Consider yourself warned, civil engineers: Do not use Glue-Stik, Elmer's Glue or Fun-Tak to affix huge steel panels to the ceiling of a tunnel. It is not safe.