By Michael Corcoran
Boston Globe
BROOKLINE, Mass. — The dugout at Parsons Field was replaced long ago, but the fallout from a 2002 accident has only recently been resolved.
The case involves injuries caused by a helicopter-landing drill to prepare for a visit by President Bush. In a settlement reached in late July in US District Court in Boston, the Town of Brookline and four of its firefighters were awarded $3.8 million from several defendants, including the US Government and Northeastern University.
Michael E. Mone, the attorney who represented the firefighters, said the firefighters and some of their spouses will split about $3 million, while the town will receive $800,000 to cover losses associated with the accident.
Two of the firefighters retired due to injuries from the accident. A 57-year-old senior captain suffered numerous fractures, and a 50-year old firefighter sustained a cervical fracture and a ruptured tendon in his knee. Two other firefighters both missed several months of work for less serious injuries.
Brookline officials said they had reservations about using the field for this particular exercise. “The government should have known that they should not have made a landing of this scope with this aircraft at Parsons Field,” said Joslin Murphy, an associate town counsel for Brookline.
Despite the town’s worries, the US Marine Corps proceeded with the drill and landed Chinook-47 helicopters, which are much larger than what town officials had anticipated, said Murphy.
The “down wash” from the helicopter was so strong that pellets and dust from the field’s artificial turf were pushed into the air, forcing the four firefighters to take cover behind a wooden dugout on the first-base side of the baseball diamond. The force from the helicopters’ rotors then knocked over the dugout, which landed on the firefighters. Emergency personnel were on the scene, and the firefighters were rushed to the hospital.
Bush did not use Parsons Field when he visited on Jan. 8 for a speech at Boston Latin School.
Norman D. Ham, a professor emeritus at MIT who specializes in helicopter aviation, assisted the town pro bono on this case. In an interview with the Globe, he said the accident was the result of “poor preparation on the part of the government, and poor construction from those who were responsible for securing the dugout.”
“It’s a real tragedy. I am sure [the Marines] land helicopters in fields like this all the time,” said Ham. “They probably didn’t really even think about the dugout. Maybe they will now.”
Michael Connelly, who represented the US Justice Department in this case, could not be reached for comment.
In accordance with state law, the firefighters continued to receive pay for lost wages and medical expenses, totaling more than $670,000, from Brookline after the accident.
Murphy, who called the $800,000 “a huge recovery for this town,” said she expects the money to be wired very soon.
Northeastern University was included in the lawsuit because the dugout had not been properly secured, according to a settlement report of the case obtained by the Globe.
“Discovery revealed that, in the course of moving the first-base dugout from one location to another, rebars installed in the new concrete foundation did not fit into the holes drilled into the bottom of the dugout, and therefore the dugout could not be lowered onto the slab foundation and secured according to plan,” said the report.
Companies that were involved in the renovation of Parsons Field in 2002 were also included in the lawsuit. The dugout was replaced in 2002, and today, there are no signs of damage from the incident.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.