Re: To Engineer is Human

From: <Christopher>
Date: Sat May 26 2001 - 21:38:00 EDT

>Thus all the details dont get out in the open. Its like that in Australia
anyway.
>So we dont get to learn by other peoples mistakes. Is that the case in the
USA?
Sort of. Most of the important stuff makes it into print ove way or another. Frequently the agreements have more to to with court findings and monetary details than the technical issues. Spectacular failures like the Hyatt-Regency skyway collapse attract a lot of media attention. And of course, the event itself is usually discussed in detail in the print media. Reports written in support of expert testimony will be public record if the episode comes to trial, but that's usually a matter of a year or more.

>Our law reform commission is looking at making disclosure mandatory and
>having expert witnesses as servants of the court rather than the hired guns
>acting for each side. Perhaps then we shall have *true* understanding of
failures.
I think this is a helluva good idea. It won't keep the hired guns away, because lawyers need technical opinion to know whqat questions to ask, but it will help keep the court itself from having to sort out conflicting testimony with no knowledgeable help.

>If you think piping engineering failures take a while to get sorted have you
>thought how long it would take the lawyers to get their heads around a
>failure involving a sophisticated process control system with supervisory
>computers/software/operator intervention etc involved.
Plenty of experts in this area willing to testify. And lawyers tend to grab hold of the very simplest issues to be sure a jury doesn;t get bogged down in techspeak.

Christopher Wright P.E. |"They couldn't hit an elephant from <a href="/group/PipingDesign/post?postID=zQHXkfCNPmHSgN9h9rQUZnNgwqvYOpzWhDV7G1wHph2U33BP0pZeRx4PfTNtzBb2W5g6Y_aZEisX9g7WVwY">chrisw@skypoint.com</a> | this distance" (last words of Gen.

___________________________| John Sedgwick, Spotsylvania 1864)

<a href="http://www.skypoint.com/~chrisw">http://www.skypoint.com/~chrisw</a> Received on Sat May 26 21:38:00 2001