Since the accident last month that killed Jianguo Shen at his construction site in Elmhurst, Yong Fa Cai, manager of U.S.A. Heng Tai Inc., had remained silent. Recently, he agreed to talk publicly about the accident. On July 4, he gave his side of the story.

According to Cai, all the work on the site followed engineer’s plans and abided by the law throughout the entire construction process. In addition, Cai said he purchased $1 million of insurance from the New York State Insurance Fund for coverage from Nov. 5, 2003 to Nov. 5, 2004 for his workers.

Cai said as soon as he learned about the accident and the death of Jianguo Shen, he notified the insurance company. He hoped to speak to Shen’s family directly. Cai spoke on the phone to Tian Shin Chen, another worker who was the injured in the accident, and expressed his wish to visit him. “I still owe him a day’s wage and would like to give it to him,” Cai said. But Chen does not wish to disclose his address.

Cai expressed sadness about Shen’s death, but he emphasized that “it was completely unpredictable.” He said that because Shen didn’t have experience working on a construction site, he did not hire him initially. But Shen called him several times, saying that he could find no other job and really wanted to do it. “You can tell that Shen was very adaptable,” Cai said, so he finally hired him.

Recalling his near-death experience, Chen said that he was standing right beside Shen before the accident happened. Then the food delivery man came and he went up to get it. The site collapsed right after he left. “If the delivery man had come one minute later, I would have been buried alive with Shen,” Chen’s voice trailed off.

“Everybody knows it is important to be ‘safe,’ but how can you be sure?” Cai said resignedly, the job was all done according to the plans. But Cai said, even the plans weren’t clear on the safety measures that needed to be taken. “There was sand beneath. Maybe that’s what caused the collapse,” Cai speculated. “It might had been ok if it had been soil underneath.”

The construction has stopped since the accident. Cai said that he is uncertain about his future. “It is in the hands of the judge and the bank,” he said.

If Shen’s family files a civil suit against Cai, and he does not have the wherewithal to settle, “I will have to file for bankruptcy,” Cai said. “Even if they don’t sue me, I may still go bankrupt if the bank decides to take back the land,” he added.

Cai speculated that after the accident, the site will not be worth much. He has yet to decide whether to continue developing the land or to sell it.

Cai said that he signed a contract with a company called “Modern,” which is supposed to clean up the site. But when Modern took most of the money and disappeared without getting the job done, he had to do it himself. “If Shen’s family decides to sue me, I may have to sue Modern to recover my loss.”

Cai himself started from scratch. He worked as a laborer for eight years after he came to the United States in 1993. He finally got a green card and was able to start his own business. “Back then, I was often so exhausted after a whole day’s work that my hands shook when holding chopsticks,” he recalled. “Who could have foreseen this would happen right after I finally had some money to build up a business?”

If he goes bankrupt, Cai said he will go back to China. “There is nothing left for me here in the United States. I am just happy that my life was spared.”

Besides dealing with the accident’s problems, he now spends most of his time accompanying his wife who is in the last stages of lung cancer. Before ending his talk, Cai reiterated that if anyone can tell him how to reach the Shen family, he is more than willing to talk to them directly.