Prosecutors have charged a construction company owner with negligent homicide for alleged flaws in a building that partially collapsed in a major earthquake in Hualien County last year, leading to a person's death.
The Uranus building was found to have multiple construction and design deficiencies, including poor seismic resistance, which caused its first-floor columns to give way during the magnitude 7.2 quake on April 3 last year, the Hualien District Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement today.
A resident surnamed Kang (康) first made it out safely, but was trapped when she returned to the building minutes later to fetch her cat as an aftershock caused the building to shift. Debris collapsed on her, crushing her chest and causing fatal traumatic asphyxiation.
Photo courtesy of the Hualien District Prosecutors’ Office
The construction company owner, surnamed Chen (陳), selected a plot of land in Hualien City in 1984 on which to build a nine-story building with a basement, prosecutors said.
He then hired an architect, surnamed Tsao (曹), to serve as the project's designer and supervisor, and a civil engineer, also surnamed Chen, to carry out the structural calculations, which Tsao then certified, they said.
Those calculations significantly underestimated the building's weight and earthquake resistance, leaving the first-floor beams and columns inadequately reinforced and the building vulnerable to a major earthquake, prosecutors said.
The construction firm owner failed to properly supervise construction and inspect the site, and as a result, the column stirrups were spaced too far apart and the main reinforcement beams were too short, prosecutors said.
Those oversights reduced the effective strength of the rebar used in the building by about 30 percent, weakening the building's structure and earthquake resistance, they said.
The three involved, and the construction firm's manager, Hsieh (謝), were all found responsible for the building's oversight, the prosecutors' office said.
However, only the company owner was indicted, as Hsieh and the civil engineer have since died, and Tsao is still wanted by the authorities.
Chen, as the head of the construction firm, neglected his duties in managing the company's building operations, resulting in major construction defects, prosecutors said, adding that his failures also undermined safety oversight mechanisms, leading to the death of the victim and leaving hundreds of residents homeless.
Prosecutors said that he denied wrongdoing after the incident and blamed the now-deceased manager, Hsieh, and others for the incident, showing no remorse, so they recommend that the court hand him a heavy sentence when it reviews the case.
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