People living in the Kansas City area in the summer of 1981 can recall the harrowing collapse of two overhead walkways inside the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Those platforms were full of partygoers attending an evening dance in the lobby below.

The tragedy killed 114 people and injured more than 200. On the 40th anniversary of the collapse, Rick Serrano, who shares a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on the disaster, chronicles in a new book the suffering of people touched by the event and brings new focus to what went wrong, how it could have been avoided, and what lessons carry forward.