On Ethics and Engineering Disasters

Sometimes the best engineers are over ruled by bean counters.

Example:The Titanic.

The engineer originally designed the water tight doors and compartment walls to go all the way to the ceiling, but an accountant decided it would cost too much, so he forced the engineer to stop them a few feet short of the top."The water will never get that deep!".

We all know what happened.

The engineer was on board when it sank, and made no attempt to board a lifeboat, as he considered the sinking to be his fault.

Moral of the story is easy to decipher.

'nuff said.

John Maxwell wrote a book called "Business Ethics" and in it stated that there shouldn't be anything such as "ethics" relegated to business. Ethics and integrity should be to all parts of our lives. If not, the lines blur and the result is a poor product whether it be intellectual or material based.

We are called to a high standard of thinking and behavior based upon principles, not whether something or a factor is expedient to save money, cut corners, to treat someone badly or if pressure is brought to bear by a "superior" who doesn't have a high level of integrity.

When we have done things to the best of our abilities and the resources we have access to, the product or plan can be moved on to the next level of inspection, testing or implementation.

The level of risk in the use of the product/s also determines the level of thoroughness in the planning and excecution of the plan.

In full agreement with all that's been said thus far.

Re: "Ethics and integrity should be to all parts of our lives. If not, the lines blur and the result is a poor product whether it be intellectual or material based" ... OR, a product might turn-out to be great, but at WHAT cost...? (i.e., suicides at iPhone phactory (sic), children losing childhood in Nike sweatshops, etc).

On a much LIGHTER note :

Who , in REAL life , could compete with the *great* Dan Aykroyd (as "Irwin Mainway"), extolling the virtues of and defending the safety of his "Bag-o-Glass" toy...!

. . . .

These clever pronunciations from the ivory towers turn my stomach. I am a retired, licensed professional engineer.

In the case of people not knowing enough; it's true, it does happen. The problem is that these people don't know that they don't know enough, if they did, then their knowledge would not be deficient, would it now?

There are cases where the state of the art does not know enough at the time of the design. If the Gothic cathedrals of Europe are examined, it will be seen that some of the buttresses have been modified, several times, that is because they were pushing the envelope, they were state of the art and you can see the state of the art progressing with experience of failure. In these cases the failures were found before the result was tragedy.

Who had heard of metal fatigue until the de Havilland Comet crashed into the Mediterranean?

The scaffolding/work platform for a cooling tower stripped off, killing 51 construction workers. The platform moved up as the walls grew. the concrete bucket was pulled up on a wire rope. The crew was familiar with the scaffolding and didn't need the drawings. They found a way to run the bucket up at much higher speed so, of course the did so. They replaced some worn bolts with new ones, but the new ones were regular strength and the old were high strength. In theory this was preventable, but given the standard operating procedure, I don't see how. If they asked the original design engineer about either of these changes, he would have said no. But they never ask, they think the design guys are too conservative, besides, he might not work there any more.

After the collapse of the Hyatt Regency Hotel walkway, many wanted state laws changed to require the EOR to be involved, to have say over the project to completion. The construction companies "persuaded" the politicians to not make the changes to the state laws.

Following on that thread, it's still distressing to me that the fault for the collapse of the I-95 bridge was placed on the original design engineers who did the design some 50 years prior, according to the Codes in force at that time. (It was designed for a 50-year life.) However, the (bureaucrats and bean-counters) who allowed the construction contractor to conveniently store construction materials on the bridge, and then leave it there. And then, (they) allowed even more material to be stored on top of materials already there, thereby accelerating the fatigue even more. (The bridge did reach it's 50-year design life, but just barely...). The bureaucrat(s) got off without so much as a wrist-slap and the engineer(s) were made to (take the fall) because they weren't still alive 50 years later to defend themselves... It was a real (triumph of accountability)...

Clarification: ''It was a real (triumph of accountability)...'' is intended to be read with extreme sarcasm...

Good comments, passingontogreen,

In the case of people not knowing enough; it's true, it does happen. The problem is that these people don't know that they don't know enough, if they did, then their knowledge would not be deficient, would it now? There are cases where the state of the art does not know enough at the time of the design.

That's why there are different layers of oversight from different specialties and also an understanding that we know what we know and no more. That is the area where character and integrity come into play. One with high integrity will take all the necessary steps available in order to provide a product or service that is the best possible.

Even with the best of intentions failures will still occur because there are many variables in the design, production and use of products. At that point personal responsibility and accountability comes into play, rather than looking for someone with deep pockets to suck dry and destroy.