Susan Hopkins spent most of Wednesday morning in her backyard in North Carolina while her husband listened to federal officials lay blame for the deaths of her daughter and her daughter’s family at the feet of Colorado contractors and the state department of transportation.
She said nothing was discussed that she didn’t already know.
“It all comes down to incompetency and ‘get the job done cheap and sloppy,”‘ she said. “I am sickened that our families have lost two generations of our family. We lost them to complete negligence and incompetence of the contractors involved.”
Hopkins’ pregnant daughter, Anita Post, her husband, William Post, and their daughter, Koby, were killed instantly two years ago when a poorly secured bridge girder over Interstate 70 fell onto their car as they drove under it.
On Wednesday, the National Transportation Safety Board issued the conclusions of its investigation as well as a series of recommendations to make highway construction regulations more consistent.
Investigators said the 40-ton girder had been installed hastily and off kilter. When bolts used to secure the beam did not fit, workers tried to beat them into concrete with sledgehammers – bending the bolts and further weakening the bracing.
Colorado Department of Transportation inspectors allowed workers to leave the girder in place for days before it fell.
“The whole sequence of events cannot be anything other than sloppy,” said Mark V. Rosenker, acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. “It disgusts me that a family was wiped out because of the sloppiness of this project.”
Both Hopkins and William Post’s mother, Mary Ann Post, said they could not bring themselves to watch the hearing but that sloppiness is part of what has haunted them. Their children were nothing if not competent.
“Billy was an engineer,” Hopkins said. “I’ve heard him on the cellphone all night to make sure he got a job done – during Thanksgiving. Anita (an accountant) went into work three weeks after having a cesarean. … If everybody would do a good job and have a good work ethic, this tragedy would not have happened.”
Hopkins said it was good to hear that the NTSB recommended better safety oversight, but she believes someone should be held criminally negligent.
“Granted, I’m happy they are going to do something that might save somebody else’s family,” she said. “But nobody has taken responsibility for the four Post deaths.”
Staff writer George Merritt can be reached at 720-929-0893 or gmerritt@denverpost.com.
