Where once it looked like the entire blame for a fatal mall roof section collapse in northern Ontario last June would rest on the shoulders of a single engineer and his employer, testimony given in Toronto at a special provincial inquiry about the accident now shows a series of missteps and sloppy practices that may have contributed to the disaster.
见证了5月14日,第43天,the Ontario Ministry of Labor has heard witnesses, offered some of the most telling details.
The 2012 accident, in which the parking deck rooftop slab of the Algo Centre Mall in Elliot Lake, collapsed onto a retail concourse below. Two women employed in the mall were killed in the accident.
Witnesses testifying in Elliot Lake, located 375 miles northwest of Toronto, described cursory inspections, overlooked rust on structural members and insufficient fixes on the leaking concrete roof slab.
在之前的会议上，目击者证明了建筑物的各个方面和崩溃。
This includes the original structural designer talking about whether the building was constructed as designed, and Ontario's provincial engineer answering questions about why he was not involved in the matter when the province’s Ministry of Labor was investigating the mall’s leaking roof.
Under the rules of the proceedings, attorneys for all the various parties involved in the accident are able to question witnesses,which accounts for the great length and volumes of testimony produced so far.
A separate criminal case has also begun. In March, the provincial police, which is conducing the criminal probe, released a 130-page forensic engineering report on the collapse by NORR Ltd., Toronto. The police hired the firm.
The labor ministry announced on April 22 that it had charged Robert Wood—a licensed engineer who had been president of M.R. Wright & Associates Inc., based in Sault St. Marie—with endangering a worker as a result of providing negligent advice and “working in a manner that may endanger a worker.”
伍德和该公司的前工程经理 - 格雷格里·桑德斯（Regregory Saunders），他在事故发生前几周就在购物中心的检查报告上签署了一封信，这是给购物中心经理的一封信，说该设施在结构上是合理的，尽管他们指出了诸如Rust之类的问题在结构钢的成员中，并从停车场泄漏。
Attorneys for Wood did not return requests for comment, but the engineer is set to appear in court in Elliot Lake on June 4, according to a local published report.
He was charged with two violations, and faces a fine of up to $50,000 and 24 months in jail. In previous published reports in Canada, Wood's attorneys had said he would plead not guilty.
民事诉讼也正在进行中。
The families of Doloris Perizzolo, 74, and Lucie Aylwin, 37, filed suit Oct. 1 in Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Sault Ste. Marie for about $5 million against M.R. Wright, the city of Elliot Lake, and developer Robert Nazarian and his company, Eastwood Mall Inc., an owner of the Algo Centre Mall.
赖特（M.R. Wright）已被总部位于安大略省的Tulloch Engineering收购。
不寻常的购物中心修复方法
在证词中，目击者指出，纳扎里安（Nazarian）对购物中心屋顶的不寻常方法。
纳扎里安（Nazarian）的IT顾问亚历山大·塞内特（Alexander Sennett）说，纳扎里安（Nazarian）雇用了他对购物中心的摄像头安全系统进行升级。后来他的角色扩大了，因此他成为了与政府官员和其他人打交道的联络人。
Sennett even incorporated Empire Roofing and Restoration Inc. to get financing for roof repairs for the mall.
Empire担任总承包商，并向购物中心账单建设管理服务。
During a 2008 roof repair at the mall, the contractor and a consulting architect relied on a nine-year-old report about the roof’s condition, witnesses testified.
目击者称，该项目由Peak Restoration演出，由咨询建筑师约翰·克林克特（John Clinckett）监督。
The project team selected a fix involving a waterproof membrane, asphalt topping and caulking/sealant, witnesses testified.
根据证词，由于Peak和Clinckett显然依赖于1999年的报告，因此膜和浇头的负载公差可能没有考虑到工作中。
包括纳扎里安（Nazarian）雇员在内的目击者作证说，购物中心所有者从未继续安装膜。
During testimony and examination of Clinckett, attorneys at the commission describe an email from an engineer to Sennett, about the loads imposed on the building’s frame by the roof project:
“鲍勃，我已经审查了……与原始的coreslab商店图纸和设计桌一起在艾略特湖屋顶板上装载的要求……在我们进行了评论和讨论之后，CoreSlab和Kleinfeldt均为人们认为，现有的结构无法承载拟议的防水膜和沥青覆盖的额外负载。”
Lawyer Joe Bisceglia, representing engineer Greg Saunders (who was granted status allowing him to ask questions at the hearing), drove the point home in his examination of Clinckett: "Is it your evidence under oath that the Ontario Building Code permits you to ignore the snow load requirement for a structure?"
Clinckett: "Not on a roof."
"So with respect to the Algo Mall, you would agree with me that [whoever] designed it would have to make an allowance for the snow load. And in addition to that you have the live load, and you can't ignore these two calculations on those two weights, is that fair?"
克林克特：“他们都是活负荷，是的。”
More light may be shed on the complex train of decisions if and when Wood testifies as scheduled early next month.
