The building, a 14-story facility intended for future use as a dormitory and campus center, has been under construction for two years and was scheduled to open for the fall semester. At 1:20 p.m, witnesses heard a loud rumble followed by an explosive crash as pieces of scaffolding tumbled from the building and into the midday traffic on Boylston Street below. Dan Rofsky, a freshman at Emerson, had a vivid recollection of the incident. "I had just walked through the spot where it fell when I heard this roar," he said. "To turn around, after hearing this crash 30 feet away, I just saw this cloud of dust and smoke."
In addition to the two construction workers killed by the collapse, the driver of a passing Honda was crushed by an eight- to 10-foot chunk of machinery, according to a witness. Debris also struck and injured two pedestrians. "It was ghoulish and awful," said James Carney, an educational consultant who witnessed the tragedy. "It was just a terrible, terrible day."
Boston resident John Hynes, who was driving his BMW in the opposite direction of the Honda on Boylston Street at the time of the accident, recalled the incident even more precisely. "You could see it coming down and then I started rolling forward. It started to hit my car, and then I sped up," he remembered. Although the roof and rear window of his vehicle were severely damaged, Hynes escaped injury.
Macomber Builders, the company hired by Emerson complete the job is still investigating the cause of the collapse.