On Sunday 14 people died when a cable car in Italy crashed to the ground just a few feet from its destination. But why? One of the primary cables snapped, but the emergency brake should have held the car in place. Why didn't it?
Service had resumed on 25 April as Italy eased coronavirus lockdown restrictions. Technical checks were done, including a check on 3 May to “remedy inefficiencies”, but they had not been “decisive” in resolving issues, investigators said.
In order to avoid delays to the service, a device that deactivates the emergency brakes was kept in place. Had the emergency brakes activated, they would have held the cabin steady after the cable snapped. The move was made “in the belief that a cable breakage could never have happened”.
Unbelievable.
Unbelievable? Really? This seems very typical organizational behavior to me. It takes a strong man to say "We can't open this ride until it passes all the safety checks!" When your boss, your boss's boss, and all your co-workers are staring at you because you're gumming up the works.
When I was young, my dad managed a men’s membership health club. The club had a rear fire door that wouldn’t close properly and some people snuck in through it. My dad’s boss ordered him to nail it shut. My dad refused and told his boss he would call the fire marshall if it was done. So they had to spring for the extra money to fix the door.
Looks like somebody remembered the lessons of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. Our building codes are written in blood.
Agree completely. The space shuttle Challenger comes immediately to mind.
The lifeboats and the davits on the Titanic were designed to be lowered safely with a full load of passengers. But none of the officers had read the manuals, so the boats were lowered partly full. About 500 people died who could have been saved.
Space Shuttle with Ronnie watching.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster
Yes, but NASA's decision to launch on a record frigidly cold day had nothing to do with White House pressure. Honest. Nothing to do at all.
She's been dead for 35 years, but the #OurRevolution Virginia Commonwealth Auxiliary would rather see Christa Mc Auliffe win the Democrat gubernatorial program there than Terry Mc Auliffe.
Do you have any evidence for White House pressure? The thing was studied to death. NASA wanted to launch, no indication that Ronnie really cared.
DNFTEC
Exactly.
At most, you consider your duty done when you flagged the issue and forced those above you to being aware and thus responsible...
To be fair, when the boss's boss's ass is on the line, he (often a he) tends to get religion about safety/compliance... Not always, he got bosses too but...
This is what happens when you start removing slices from your Swiss cheese model.
Brake and break. Maybe a translation problem?
Well, what are the corresponding Italian words?
Freno in Spanish...freno in Italian.
That's why in the manufacturing world I worked in for 30 years disabling a safety mechanism is grounds for immediate termination.
In the electric-power generating plants I’ve been in, the same. Severe consequences for violations of lockout/tag out procedures also. Safety culture is a multi-faceted thing; policies, administration, training, engineered safeguards, human factors (my specialty), and constant review and improvement.
Unbelievable considering Italy suffered an infamous cable car accident when a US military jet flying too low cut the cable.
A bad decision, but I try not to pay attention to stories like that one. I used to care about everything, but then a blogger I read posted "Can We Please Leave Local Outrages to the Locals?" and now I try not to overreact to non-local events.
Touche.
you actually think that Kevin considers an incident that killed 14 people and led to 3 arrests because of willful negligence the same as a yearbook photo touch-up scandal?
14 people dead vs. yearbook? The same to you? A local story to you?
I suspect Giljit meant it as gallows humor. In the end, most stories are "local" stories. Everything has to happen somewhere.
In terms of how it effects both the US and the world as a whole.... yes.
Equating 14 dead with censoring a teen’s cleavage? Peculiar value system.
Yes. You have managed to comprehend the exact message that the comment was intended to convey.
Huh???
These are sad realities. Let's take a counterfactual.
Someone makes a stink and says "This system should be shut down until proper repairs are made. Under no circumstances should we turn off the failsafes."
Result: 14 people don't die in an accident, but because the accident did NOT happen, no one knows that disaster was averted. Thus, noisemaker who prevented 14 deaths gets fired for complaining about "nothing" and losing the company money.
That IS how it works. (sigh)
Somewhere -- prolly a landfill -- Hugh Everett III is smiling.
(I know he kind of hates his dad, but how Mark "E" Everett hasn't written a rock opera under his eels brand about his dad's postmortem adventures as garbage pile cremains (working title: "Three Junkyards & a Cloud of Cremation Dust"?) is beyond me.)
DAYYUM! Whatever you're smoking, gimmie some of that!
Surely the Italians have a regulation or three stipulating the emergency brakes may not be disabled?
They do. As noted in the article, three people have been arrested and will be charged with involuntary manslaughter.
No reader of Donna Leon's Brunetti mysteries will be surprised in the least -- even if the whole thing is traced back to Opus Dei.
Put Aurelio Zen on the case. His boss will threaten to transfer him to Sicily if he doesn't find the right culprit, but he will find a way.