Construction worker speaks out about 410 deadly accident



BONNEY LAKE, Wash. – It’s been nearly two months since a piece of concrete fell and crushed a young family inside their truck at a Bonney Lake construction site. One of the crew members, who was working on that site is now sharing her account with what happened with Q13.

Her name is Carla Vandiver, and for the last fifteen years, she says she has been a traffic control supervisor. However, on April 13, 2015, she claims she was assigned a different job, and she believes it may have been the difference between life or death for one family.

It's a scene on State Route 410 and Angeline Road that Carla Vandiver said she replays in her head when a concrete barrier falling on top of a truck, with the Hudson family inside.

“It was the worst day of my life,” said Vandiver. “Three people died that day, one of them an 8-month old baby. How can you not be emotional?”

It’s a tragedy she said has stayed with her, not only was she standing feet away but she believes it could have all been prevented.

“There were lots of mistakes made that day,” said Vandiver.

Vandiver said instead of her usual role as a traffic control supervisor, she claims the project's superintendent with W.H.H. Nisqually instead gave her the task of controlling traffic below the overpass.

“Had I been able to be up there, see things and watch things move, or if I had been able to put myself up on that bridge, it could have had a different outcome,” said Vandiver.

As a flagger, she said she has to wait for the cue to stop traffic from a supervisor, but on that day on Angeline Road, she said the cue never came, which is a claim consistent with statements she gave in a police report.

The City of Bonney Lake also released a taped police interview with Ralph Stuhr, another worker on the project, who gave his account of what happened.

“I was standing about a foot away in the center of the bridge when it happened,” Stuhr told police. “I saw the cut. I stood away, and I heard a great big thunder.”

Vandiver no longer works for W.H.H. Nisqually. She said it wasn't because of this incident, but because her job role had changed.

The superintendent on the project didn't wish to comment on the matter.

W.H.H. Nisqually has said to Q13 FOX in the past that the company will not comment on the cause of the accident until the investigation is complete.