E – 1772 Engineering Ethics: “Hold Safety Paramount” to Prevent Loss of Life

In modern times, by using government-mandated standard codes and specifications in the design of engineered structures, machines, and systems, engineers have been able to create safe and yet economical products. However, in relatively rare but tragic cases, the structures and machines designed by engineers have failed, resulting in the death and injuries to the unsuspecting public. The question is why, even after following the governing design and construction codes and standards, such failures occur? In most of these failure cases, if not in all of them, the cause is the violations of the Code of Ethics, especially its first canon that states: engineers should “Hold Safety Paramount.”

This course presents a summary of the Code of Ethics for Engineers focusing on safety-related provisions, followed by a discussion of how engineers and managers can work together to hold safety paramount in every step of the project. Then the webinar discusses the tools that are available to engineers, including whistleblowing, to prevent safety-related disasters.

The tragic collapse of the World Trade Center (2001) and the Florida Pedestrian Bridge (2018) will be used to show how not “holding safety paramount” in the design and construction resulted in their tragic collapse and loss of lives.

Professor Astaneh will present the results of his extensive failure analysis of both WTC towers and the Florida Pedestrian Bridge. The structural analyses showed that in both cases the root engineering cause of the tragic collapses was the decision of the design engineers “not to hold safety paramount.”