Playing the Blame Game in the Fatal Philadelphia Building Collapse | DENENA | POINTS

Playing the Blame Game in the Fatal Philadelphia Building Collapse

Weeks after a building undergoing demolition collapsed through the roof of the neighboring Salvation Army Thrift Store and killed 6 people, only one person, the operator of a piece of excavating equipment, has been clearly tasked with responsibility for the deadly building collapse accident. Our building collapse injury attorneys note that this man was being held without bail in jail. And an inspector who signed off on the building’s demolition order was found dead of a gunshot wound to the chest.

But the building owner, the contractor in charge of the demolition, and city officials who let construction and demolition projects proceed in Philadelphia under an apparently lax hand: all seem to be escaping blame in the deadly building collapse accident.

The Philadelphia City Solicitor has already declared that the City will be free of liability in the incident under the doctrine of sovereign immunity. (Source: Mike Dunn, CBS Philadelphia, 6/19/13) But if cities and other government entities freely escape liability when they neglect public safety, what means exist to help the citizens avoid the deadly effects of runaway corruption, graft, and neglect?

The building collapse injury attorneys at Denena Points, PC mention that demolition contractor Griffin Campbell is trying to deflect the blame onto the Salvation Army Thrift Store, whose shoppers and employees suffered so much harm in the deadly building collapse accident. He’s saying he couldn’t get permission to erect scaffolding on the building’s roof, or get access to the roof. (Source: Jared Shelly, Philadelphia Business Journal, 6/17/13)

Our building collapse injury attorneys are not sure how the presence of scaffolding would have helped avert the fatal consequences of the shoddy demolition practices that brought the building caving through the Salvation Army roof. Taking out the roof altogether is definitely not the right way to gain access.

Philadelphia city officials have an opportunity to step up and correct the lax practices and procedures and the oversights that led to the fatal Philadelphia building collapse. Our building collapse injury attorneys suggest that they should take the problems of poor construction and demolition practices in hand and use the opportunity to correct them for the sake of all the citizens of their city.

Click the link to read about the blame game going on in relation to a high profile deck collapse in Florida that occurred during a Miami Heat game.