Philly Building Collapse Update

The Pennsylvania state legislature is now getting involved in the building collapse case in Philadelphia. Two state house committees will be holding hearings on the accident to evaluate how building codes impact demolition work and whether changes to the code can prevent the type of accidents that occurred in this instance. Both the Labor & Industry and Urban Affairs Committees will hold hearings on Tuesday at 1:00 at the Seaport Museum in Philadelphia.

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Those meetings, which took place at the end of June, took testimony from numerous City employees and industry professionals and addressed a number of questions about the accident. The debate in the hearing before City Council seems to have centered on whether more rules are required or whether more effort and resources should be dedicated to enforcing rules already in place.

Every company and individual involved in the construction industry wants workers to be safe. With multiple governmental bodies now involved in the discussion though, it will be difficult to keep politics and other unrelated influences out of the process. Those making the rules and passing the laws should make a candid assessment of whether the rules in place are sufficient to prevent accidents like this in the future – if they are properly enforced – before passing new rules that will do nothing more for safety if they are not enforced.

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