Crash Boom Blame
A large piece of scaffolding fell from a building in Boston on Monday, killing three. And, like clockwork, the usual cast of suspects is out in full force today, calling for more government intervention and oversight of the construction industry, and in true Bay State fashion, passing the "blame buck" around.
This Boston Herald article quotes Boston Mayor Tom Menino and Massachusetts State Senator Jarrett Barrios on the subject. Say no more.
Six of one, 1/24th of a gross of another.
Aaaah...nothing like invoking the memory of the dead to get your agenda moved forward. Classic Barrios.
Senator, if you were at all sincere about preventing lives from being "needlessly lost", you'd draft, sponsor, and pass legislation calling for mandatory lengthy prison sentences for repeat violent offenders in the Commonwealth.
We've got kids walking the streets shooting other kids at will after serving pathetically short prison terms, many with multiple prior convictions for violent offenses.
I'm sure Governor Romney would be eager to sign such a bill. What's the hold-up? Afraid of giving Mitt a good photo op, as he embarks on his presidential campaign? I can only imagine the volume of "tough talk" anti-crime legislation (read: more gun control masquerading as "common-sense" crime fighting measures) you'll be flooding the governor's desk with should one of "your guys" ever take over the corner office.
Would that have made a difference, Tom? Did the scaffolding cause this tragedy? If a guy falls off a ladder on a jobsite, or smacks his thumb with a hammer while putting up siding, do we blame the tools or the user for not following common-sense safety procedures?
Are you trying to lay the blame on the inanimate object involved here? Because, that would sound more than a little familiar.
A drunk can wrap a brand new car around an oak tree, but we don't fault the car. Note: the state will require you to pay to get an inspection sticker on that brand new car. Lot of good that state "inspection" does when the car is used in a reckless manner like that.
Scaffolding is a tool. Use it properly, and it will serve you well. Use it irresponsibly, with no regard for the manufacturer's safety recommendations, and bad things will happen. Again...sound familiar?
What neither of them, Menino or Barrios, recognize is that no amount of government intervention or oversight can prevent tragedies like this where human error is most likely the cause. Based on everything I've read on this story, it appears the workers who were in the process of dismantling this platform were not been properly trained to do that work.
Rules and regulations already exist for ensuring that potentially dangerous procedures are performed only by qualified personnel. If a contractor is willing to ignore these rules, either in the interest of cutting costs or just due to ignorance or plain laziness, no amount of additional governmental oversight will change that.
The existing laws just need to be more strictly enforced. Shit, I should have just named this post "Sound Familiar?". If the contractor is found to be at fault for allowing non-qualified personnel to be working on that scaffolding, he should be held liable and punished as harshly as the law will allow.
We don't need our "well-intentioned" politicians throwing more taxpayers dollars at imaginary problems and writing new laws where none are needed.
This Boston Herald article quotes Boston Mayor Tom Menino and Massachusetts State Senator Jarrett Barrios on the subject. Say no more.
Lawmakers are launching a probe into a deadly construction accident that killed three people on Boylston Street, while federal, state and city officials dodged responsibility for oversight of the tragic scene.
State officials say lift platforms such as the one that crashed 13 stories Monday afternoon, killing a doctor and two laborers, were inspected by Massachusetts officials until a 1994 court decision put such equipment under the authority of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Six of one, 1/24th of a gross of another.
The bureaucratic finger-pointing erupted as the city shut down construction on the new Emerson College dormitory where the tragedy unfolded and slapped the contractor, Macomber Builders, with a building code violation. A hearing into the deadly mishap has been set for Tuesday on Beacon Hill.
"In my opinion, this slipped through the federal and state agencies' cracks," said state Sen. Jarrett Barrios. "Shame on us and for these lives to have been needlessly lost."
Aaaah...nothing like invoking the memory of the dead to get your agenda moved forward. Classic Barrios.
Senator, if you were at all sincere about preventing lives from being "needlessly lost", you'd draft, sponsor, and pass legislation calling for mandatory lengthy prison sentences for repeat violent offenders in the Commonwealth.
We've got kids walking the streets shooting other kids at will after serving pathetically short prison terms, many with multiple prior convictions for violent offenses.
I'm sure Governor Romney would be eager to sign such a bill. What's the hold-up? Afraid of giving Mitt a good photo op, as he embarks on his presidential campaign? I can only imagine the volume of "tough talk" anti-crime legislation (read: more gun control masquerading as "common-sense" crime fighting measures) you'll be flooding the governor's desk with should one of "your guys" ever take over the corner office.
"We don't have any jurisdiction of the scaffolding and the crane at all," said Mayor Thomas M. Menino. He also criticized the state, scoffing at the claim that Massachusetts officials are prohibited from scaffold inspections.
Would that have made a difference, Tom? Did the scaffolding cause this tragedy? If a guy falls off a ladder on a jobsite, or smacks his thumb with a hammer while putting up siding, do we blame the tools or the user for not following common-sense safety procedures?
Are you trying to lay the blame on the inanimate object involved here? Because, that would sound more than a little familiar.
A drunk can wrap a brand new car around an oak tree, but we don't fault the car. Note: the state will require you to pay to get an inspection sticker on that brand new car. Lot of good that state "inspection" does when the car is used in a reckless manner like that.
Scaffolding is a tool. Use it properly, and it will serve you well. Use it irresponsibly, with no regard for the manufacturer's safety recommendations, and bad things will happen. Again...sound familiar?
What neither of them, Menino or Barrios, recognize is that no amount of government intervention or oversight can prevent tragedies like this where human error is most likely the cause. Based on everything I've read on this story, it appears the workers who were in the process of dismantling this platform were not been properly trained to do that work.
Rules and regulations already exist for ensuring that potentially dangerous procedures are performed only by qualified personnel. If a contractor is willing to ignore these rules, either in the interest of cutting costs or just due to ignorance or plain laziness, no amount of additional governmental oversight will change that.
The existing laws just need to be more strictly enforced. Shit, I should have just named this post "Sound Familiar?". If the contractor is found to be at fault for allowing non-qualified personnel to be working on that scaffolding, he should be held liable and punished as harshly as the law will allow.
We don't need our "well-intentioned" politicians throwing more taxpayers dollars at imaginary problems and writing new laws where none are needed.
