Big Dig Accident

Last night, a big slab of ceiling fell inside the Boston "Big Dig" tunnel and killed a woman driving through. This follows a string of fraud charges and controversy about the $14.6 Billion dollar project.

Matthew J. Amorello, the chairman of the controlling authority is quoted in today's Boston Globe:

“We are going to do everything we can to assure these are safe tunnels,” said Amorello, flanked by police and state and local transportation officials. “These are safe tunnels. This was a horrible, horrible event. It is an anomaly, and we will get to the bottom of what happened.”

This statement has two possible meanings, depending on the definition of the word "assure".

1) "We are going to do everything possible to make these tunnels safe. These tunnels are safe."

or

2) "We are going to do everything possible to convince people that these tunnels are safe. Let's start: these tunnels are safe."

Note that the first meaning doesn't really hold water. Kind of like the Big Dig.