Wind Engineering: Assessing Causation & Damages - Expert Webinar [VIDEO]

Many forensic cases involve objects that fell from an elevated position and were affected, in some part, by the wind. Whether the end result was injury or property damage, there is frequently some dispute over the direction, force, and path of the falling object.

In this article, structural engineer Mark Duckett provides insight on the process of reconstructing these incidents through the lens of a particular incident.

Construction guardrails used around elevated work surfaces are relatively simple systems, but are critical to worker safety on the job site. In this webinar, Structural Engineer, Mark Duckett, P.E. reviews the anatomy of a typical construction guardrail, the standards relevant to their construction, and some of the failure modes that are known to occur.

This presentation is intended for attorneys and insurance professionals involved in personal injury matters, to broaden their understanding of relevant safety standards and gain insight on the process for determining failure causation.

Failed structure investigations take many forms: from conventional examples such as buildings and bridges to the less obvious such as traffic signs, tents, trees, and chairs. From a lay perspective, the unifying theme is that something became unstable or collapsed; but from an engineering perspective there was a system failure that caused the structure to not support the loads it was exposed to, and perhaps was intended to support. Structures can fail in different ways and do not always collapse; this article focuses on structures that collapse.

Structural Engineer Anthony Volonnino P.E. sets the stage for looking at the world from the perspective of a structural engineer. For lawyers and insurance professionals, the article attempts to provide a framework for understanding causation, notice, standard of care, and ultimately liability in a broad range of cases where buildings, products, and natural systems fail or collapse.