For structural engineer Glenn Bell, the collapse on July 17, 1981, of a pedestrian bridge inside the Hyatt Regency Kansas City Hotel—which killed 114 people and injured more than 200—stands out as a defining event. The tragedy changed Bell’s career trajectory away from structural design and toward forensic engineering.
After the fiasco, Bell—six years out of school—became part of a team investigating the causes. The “gravity of it all and the responsibility of engineers for public safety really hit me,” says Bell, a retired senior principal of Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, where he spent his career, rising to CEO.
The Hyatt fiasco motivated Bell’s lifelong commitment to professional service, with the aim of improving practice. Bell’s latest campaign is a volunteer initiative, launched in July and designed to offer lessons about bridge- and building-related accidents, failures and near-failures.
Bell’s pet project—Confidential Reporting on Structural Safety-United States (CROSS-US)—is modeled after CROSS-UK, which started in 2005. CROSS-UK, in turn, was modeled after NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System.
贝尔说，直到2010年，Cross-UK才真正滚动。他补充说：“人们需要对机密性和反弹的关注。”贝尔（Bell）是Cross-US的联合导演，以及安迪·赫尔曼（Andy Herrmann），桥梁工程师Hardesty＆Hanover的名誉合伙人Andy Herrmann。
2010年，Cross-UK启动了Cross International，该国际公司拥有一个免费的数据库，可用于所有机密报告。成员除了交叉美国外，还有跨越南部的非洲和跨澳大利亚。德国十字架可能很快就会加入。
Since 2005, CROSS has received more than 900 reports, which it strips of identifying factors. “We look for precursors to publicize and improve safety of all stages of the process—design, construction and in-service life,” says Alastair Soane, director of Structural-Safety, home to CROSS.
多亏了贝尔，Cross-US由美国土木工程师学会的结构工程研究所赞助。赫尔曼说：“格伦（Glenn）发挥了重要作用，很高兴能吸引所有人。”他补充说，Cross-US还将包括有关备受瞩目的失败的公开报告的评论，例如佛罗里达国际大学桥梁崩溃。
Persuading ASCE/SEI to sponsor CROSS-US took skill and patience, says Soane. Though discussions began at ASCE/SEI in 2011, nothing much happened until Bell took up the charge in 2016. “His abilities, knowledge, contacts and, above all, enthusiasm, are immense,” Soane adds.
他说：“随着时间的流逝，随着无名报告的概念被接受，并且确实成为美国结构和土木工程的规范，”Soane希望Cross-US引发其他地区的兴趣。
To date, CROSS-US has processed 12 reports, which include reviews by a panel of volunteers, research into relevant standards of practice, outreach to specialty experts, legal reviews and more. The first newsletter, containing five reports, is expected out in February, says Bell, who calls CROSS-US a “dream come true.”
