CINCINNATI — A year has passed since a ramp overpass at Hopple Street collapsed onto Interstate 75, shutting down the interstate for hours and killing 35-year-old construction worker Brandon Carl.
Carl’s father, Charles, said nothing about the tragedy has gotten any easier.
Charles Carl (Jason Law/WCPO)
“I never even watch nothing on the television after he died,” Charles told WCPO Monday. “I don’t want to see it.”
Charles said he sometimes lays awake at night, wondering what his son was thinking in the moments before he died.
“Buried under a bunch of rocks, and all that,” Charles said. “That’s a horrible way to die. I think about that, if he suffered. [Did he] know what was going on?
“I think about that all the time,” he said.
Last summer, the federal government cited and fined construction company Kokosing, which was overseeing the dismantling of the bridge before it collapsed. Investigators concluded that engineers made mistakes while taking down the overpass.
The company issued a public apology for Brandon’s death, but Charles said no one has apologized to him.
“I got nothing,” he said. “It’s just hard to take.”
There are at least two attorneys representing Brandon’s family, including his fiancé, Kendra Blair. Blair’s attorney, Mark Hayden, told WCPO there are civil lawsuits pending in court against two Kokosing engineers and the Ohio Department of Transportation.
For now, though, Charles is left still working to pick up the pieces.Family
“He helped me on the farm a lot,” Charles said. “We farmed, me and him, had cattle together. He loved to show steers.”
Brandon also left behind four children.
“Those kids sure miss him. I miss him. His mom misses him.
"I sure do miss him."
