At the risk of jumping the gun based on just this article; what an idiot! If you're going to be a dirty engineer then at least be smart about it. If you're looking to file a false report about someones garden retaining wall you're probably going to get away with it and not kill anyone. If you're hired to look at a brick facade of a multi story building over a highly traveled public sidewalk WHY WOULD YOU THINK YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH THAT WITHOUT SOMEONE GETTING HURT?!
Gah! Glad they arrested and charged him, this should be a great example to hold up to persuade any other engineers thinking about cheating the system to play by the rules the rest of us follow.
Professional and Structural Engineer (ME, NH)
American Concrete Industries
If the engineer truly didn't visit the building and simply manufactured his report then that is certainly a bad deal - and an arrest sounds appropriate.
But it made me wonder about the city officials. They were also warned about nasty cracks and didn't respond and yet they are not arrested.
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I'd actually side with the bureaucracy for once on this one. It sounds a lot like they're heavily overworked and that the law drafted in the 70's requiring these reports and the system they use to handle it needs to be overhauled to stop these things from falling through the cracks. Obviously it's a shame that a kid had to die for this to come to light but, in the end, sometimes that's what it takes to fix the system. I'd say they're certainly going to need to be required to fix their end of the system but, in the end, the engineer assumed the liability and got burned because he didn't supposedly do the job. It should stop there otherwise we would need to spend way too much money getting permits if the government was held liable for another persons screw-ups.
Professional and Structural Engineer (ME, NH)
American Concrete Industries
While it's pretty obvious that writing an inspection report to certify something you've never seen is a pretty bad idea ...
... it seems rather likely that regardless of what that 2011 inspection report said, the condition of the building could very well have deteriorated in the subsequent three years to the time of the unfortunate accident.
Saying that something is "safe", without any qualifying statements, is a dangerous statement to make.
Even governmental immunity has its limits. If it can be shown that there was negligence involved in the government's actions, the immunity can be revoked.
coloeng - I think you are correct but I'm not sure of the fine legal arguments and precedents involved. I'm sure there are some cases where gov't employees have lost their immunity for gross negligence or other very bad behavior. In this case with a lack of follow through on a warning sent in to them I'm not sure how exposed they might be to prosecution or civil lawsuits.
If I was the parent of the little girl who was killed I'd certainly want two things - the truly responsible parties held, well, responsible and second, some changes in the system to avoid other little girls getting killed by bricks.
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Local and city officials supposedly do not have any sovereign immunity, hence, the myriad civil lawsuits involving police misconduct. Only the US government and the states are immune.
TTFN
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
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I wish that it would be criminal to use other people's stamps or falsely claim to be a PE. That is one of the most common violations I see aside from not keeping up to date on firm registration or PHD hours when I go through the boards newsletters. Most of the time they just get hit with a few thousand dollar penalty and a cease and desist. The fine is hardly a deterrent for anything just due to how much it would have cost them to actually have a PE on staff. There was a pretty decent sized electrical company in Dallas that got busted recently for the president falsely stamping fifteen projects. The fine was $45,000 which was way more than normal but I don't think you can find a PE that will work for 6 months for that much money.
Completely agree Hamburger, I wonder why we don't see much more of it. The penalties are so low that it might actually make more sense then hiring an engineer for many companies. Super unethical and will eventually turn and bite you, but if a business was already in the red I could see them considering it worth it. I bet the only reason we don't see more of it is people don't actually know how small the penalty is.
Professional and Structural Engineer (ME, NH)
American Concrete Industries
A lawyer in a civil suit, e.g. the parents of the child who was killed, will sue anyone with money or good insurance. So I think the city would be a more attractive target than an disgraced engineer.
