Balcony collapse injury attorneys mention that in Beaufort County, South Carolina, county administrators are under fire for hiring building inspectors without adequately checking their backgrounds and credentials. 61-year-old Larry Fields and 66-year-old Harold Cosby, stand accused of felony charges of “offering, soliciting, giving, or receiving” something of value “to influence action of a public employee, official, or member.” (In other words, they stand accused on bribery-related charges.)
And Chuck Atkinson, hired to work in Beaufort County, was linked to a balcony collapse at Jefferson Commons in Port Royal several years before the Beaufort County controversyarose. Our balcony collapse injury attorneys point out that the balcony failed in a structure inspected by Atkinson and injured a 72-year-old man. The balcony failure led to the revocation of Atkinson’s boss’s state-issued license and to at least 2 lawsuits.
Atkinson understandably did not list his Port Royal job on his resume when he applied for the Beaufort County job. Investigations of the specific chain of events and multiple inspections prior to the Jefferson Commons balcony collapse concluded that Atkinson wasn’t at fault. His inspections occurred while the structure was incomplete. His boss, Lemieux, bore the brunt of the investigation’s fault findings, for failing to make a thorough final inspection of the structure.
But some people in both Port Royal and Beaufort County contend that hiring Atkinson might have been a mistake. Yet County Administrator Kubic stands behind the hiring and the lack of fault findings relating to Atkinson in the Jefferson Commons incident.
Still, the controversy brings to light the critical role of qualified inspectors and thorough building inspections in ensuring your safety in any structure. You can learn more about some of the factors leading to dangerous building collapses in our balcony collapse injury attorneys’ post discussing the topic here.