Collapse

[haynewp]

Greek court finds engineer guilty in apartment collapse case
An appeals court in Athens, Greece has upheld the conviction of a civil engineer charged with negligence and manslaughter in connection with the deaths of two people who died during a 1999 earthquake.

Constantinos Brebos, the designer of the apartment building
where the two victims died, was blamed for the tragedy because investigators determined that shabby construction led to the structure’s collapse during the 5.9-magnitude temblor.

The engineer’s 32-month sentence was suspended, so he will not serve any jail time.

 

[Bbird]

I am not familiar with the Greek law. If the prosecutor found shabby construction and blamed the designer then the designer would have been involved or responsible for the supervision.

In many countries the client does not always retain the structural designer to carry out the site supervision.

A collapse can be due to design errors or construction defects or a combination of both.

Deisgn errors should be evident in the calculation. In the absence of it one can still prove the inadequacy from the construction drawing.

Shabby workmanship should be apparent from the structure's finishes, dimensional accuracy and quality of the work. Substandard materials may have to be sample tested in laboratories.