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Employer of missing bridge workers vows to help their families. “They were wonderful people,” exec says.
With six workers who went missing after the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge now presumed dead, attention is turning to helping their families.
An executive with Brawner Builders, a general contractor in Hunt Valley, Maryland, told CBS MoneyWatch the workers had company-sponsored life insurance, while declining to disclose details regarding the policies. Separately, a GoFundMe campaign is aiming to raise $60,000 to help their survivors.
“The company is doing everything possible to support the families and to counsel the families and to be with the families,” Brawner Builders executive vice president Jeffrey Pritzker said.
The six men were filling potholes on the center span of the bridge when a massive cargo ship struck the bridge early Tuesday morning. Originally from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, the Maryland men were living with their families in Dundalk and Highlandtown, according to WJZ media partner The Baltimore Banner.
So far, three of the missing workers have been identified:
- Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval, originally from Honduras and who has been living in the U.S. for 20 years
- Miguel Luna, originally from El Salvador
- Dorlian Castillo Cabrera, originally from Guatemala
Sandoval, 38, was the youngest of eight siblings from Azacualpa, a rural mountainous area in northwestern Honduras. He had worked as an industrial technician in Honduras, repairing equipment in the large assembly plants, but the pay was too low to get ahead, one of his brothers, Martín Suazo Sandoval, told the Associated Press Wednesday.
“He always dreamed of having his own business,” he said.
Another brother, Carlos Suazo Sandoval, said Maynor hoped to retire one day back in Guatamala.
“He was the baby for all of us, the youngest. He was someone who was always happy, was always thinking about the future. He was a visionary,” he told the AP by phone Wednesday from Dundalk, Maryland, near the site of the bridge collapse.
Brawner intends to offer financial assistance to the missing workers’ families as they cope with the sudden loss of income, Pritzker said, without providing additional details on the company’s plans.
“They had families, spouses and children, and they were wonderful people who now are lost,” he said, describing the contractor as a tight-knit business where other employees were “very close” to the missing workers.
“The company is broken,” Pritzker added.
In a statement on Brawner’s website, company owner Jack Murphy wrote that highway construction work is one of the most dangerous occupations in the U.S.
Construction workers “go out every day on our highways to make things better for everyone,” he said. “Unfortunately, this tragic event was completely unforeseen and was not something that we could imagine would happen.”
When performing highway work, Brawner always uses employees, rather than contractors, Pritzker said. But the company sometimes works on other projects, such as building schools, that require it to hire subcontractors.
The GoFundMe campaign for the missing workers’ families was organized by the Latino Racial Justice Circle, an advocacy group that fights racial injustice, and had raised more than $58,000 as of Wednesday afternoon. Brawner Builders is linking to the GoFundMe on its website, directing people who wish to support the families to the fundraising effort.
“There’s a great deal of other benefits that will be flowing to the families as a result of this tragedy,” Pritzker said, without providing further details. “Of course that can’t replace the lost of their loved ones.”
—The Associated Press contributed to this report
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Long before comic book characters dominated movie screens, actor Christopher Reeve made the world believes in superheroes with the 1978 classic “Superman.”
Reeve died in 2004, nearly a decade after an accident re-shaped his life. “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” is using interviews with family and friends and never-before-seen home videos to explore his real-life heroism.
Reeve started his career on the stage, studying at the prestigious Juilliard School and living with comedian Robin Williams. The pair had a friendship that was “more like a brotherhood,” said Reeve’s son Matthew. Reeve was in awe of Williams’ energy and versatility, Matthew Reeve said, but audiences quickly clued into Reeve’s own star power when he took on the role of the Man of Steel.
Warner Bros. Pictures / Getty Images
To his children, though, he “was just dad,” Matthew Reeve said. The documentary explores how Matthew Reeve and his sister Alexandra Reeve Givens grew up watching their dad take the stage as Superman. “Super/Man” also reveals their heartbreak over their parents’ breakup and the joy they found when Reeve re-married. He tied the knot with Dana Reeve in 1992, and the pair welcomed another child, William Reeve, later that year.
“Dana was sunshine,” Alexandra Reeve Givens recalled. “She just brought joy with her wherever she was and could find it even in the darkest moments.”
Those dark moments came suddenly, when in 1995, a near-fatal horseback riding accident left Reeve paralyzed from the neck down. The documentary allows viewers to see, for the first time, what went on out of the public’s view. Reeve can be heard talking about how he “ruined (his) life and everybody else’s,” but in a touching moment, old friend Robin Williams is seen visiting him in the hospital.
“Robin showed him ‘Hey, you’re still you,'” Alexandra Reeve Givens said. “‘You still have this foundation of friendship and people around you, who adore you. And you’re going to find those fun moments in life again.'”
That support from friends and family re-ignited Reeve’s legacy of activism. He made appearances at the Democratic National Convention and the 68th Academy Awards in 1996, about a year after the accident. Matthew Reeve said watching his father address his industry peers at the Oscars was “one of (his) most proud moments.”
“It was just a production for him to get out of bed every morning, let alone get across the country and go out in public for the first time,” Matthew Reeve said. “It was a big deal. It was a big deal to him, but it was also a big deal to the entire disability community. We stayed up in London till like three in the morning to watch that live. It’s a fond memory.”
Vince Bucci/AFP via Getty Images
Reeve also went on to launch what would become the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, which is dedicated to advancing research into spiral cord injury and help individuals and families impacted by paralysis. It was his dad’s mission to find a cure, Matthew Reeve said, while his stepmother wanted to focus on improving the lives of paralyzed people and their families. The foundation and Reeve’s platform helped bring unprecedented attention and funding to spinal cord injury research.
Reeve even kept acting and realized his lifelong dream of directing with the 1997 HBO movie “In the Gloaming.” Reeve died in 2004 from heart failure at 52.
“There is a huge amount of great actors and actresses out there, where their filmography might be amazing and what they achieve on a cultural level might be amazing, but have they actually achieved anything really as a human that moves the needle for our society?” said filmmaker Ian Bonhote, who made the documentary with Peter Ettedgui. “And Chris has done both things.”
“Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” will open in theaters on Friday, Oct. 11.
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