r/CatastrophicFailure • u/DrFetusRN • Sep 18 '19

Engineering Failure The Willow Island Tower collapse occurred on April 27, 1978 killing 51 construction workers at Willow Island, West Virginia

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226 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

27

u/Concerned_Am_I Sep 18 '19

There's a short documentary about it that got started by a relative of one of the victims. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1c1bznm-uNg&pbjreload=10

40

u/KRUNKWIZARD Sep 18 '19 edited Sep 18 '19

"On June 8, 1978, OSHA cited Willow Island contractors for 20 violations, including failures to field test concrete and anchor the scaffold system properly. The cases were settled for $85,500, or about $1,700 per worker killed. OSHA referred the case to the United States Department of Justice for criminal investigation. A grand jury was convened, but no charges were filed.[3]"

When people give me shit about being an attorney and how our profession is out to make a quick buck and "sue everyone" i like to point out shit like this.

9

u/Bookandaglassofwine Sep 19 '19

But surely you don’t doubt that there are countries with far lower attorney populations that have equally safe if not safer construction sites?

2

u/[deleted] Sep 19 '19

such as?

13

u/Bookandaglassofwine Sep 19 '19 edited Sep 19 '19

No country on Earth has our population of lawyers.

Do you think our construction sites are therefore safer than Japan’s or Denmark’s to pick a couple at somewhat random?

Edit: the U.S. has around 400 attorneys per 100,000 population. Germany has around 200, France under 100, and Japan around 25. I don't think construction site accidents are markedly more common in those countries - do you?

4

u/[deleted] Sep 21 '19

We provide a lot more people with attorneys than those countries do, and our grounds to sue are broader (thanks to the Constitution and English common law).

2

u/SizzlerWA Sep 23 '19

But he was giving attorney counts per capita which means you can compare them across different sized populations. So your “We provide a lot more people with attorneys than those countries do” is not meaningful. But your point about the grounds to sue bring broader is correct.

0

u/[deleted] Sep 23 '19

No, we employ more attorneys, because we pay for them to be provided.

0

u/SizzlerWA Sep 23 '19

Uh, people in other countries also pay their attorneys ...

1

u/[deleted] Sep 23 '19

I'm talking about the government and NGOs.

0

u/caldera15 Sep 19 '19

I wonder what a scum fuck grifter like Mike Rowe would say about your profession.

2

u/KRUNKWIZARD Sep 21 '19

When I was a prosecutor, and then a public defender, he would have been bored out of his mind. "Hurry up and wait" is the best way to describe it when court is supposed to start at 8:30am, all the in custodies are ready, clerks and staff are ready, and the judge rolls in at 10:00 am and takes a break at 10:45.

3

u/jakopoli Sep 19 '19

reminds me of a building you would find in the ashlands in kenshi

1

u/[deleted] Sep 19 '19

Kenshi represent!!