Minneapolis bridge collapse update 2

An interim NTSB report was issued today whereupon blame was placed on the "gusset plates", suggesting they were 50 percent too thin to hold the steel structure together. Chairman Mark Rosenker said:

The Minneapolis bridge was a steel-deck truss bridge that opened in 1967. Rosenker said it wasn't clear how the design flaw made it into the bridge because investigators couldn't find the design calculations.

Which sounds rather amazing. The design flaw theory does seem to eliminate a lot of parties from the threat of litigation, though.

This accident resembles several recent aviation accidents since 1996, all catastrophic, no-warning failures. The TWA800 crash in 1996 was blamed on a spark inside a fuel tank that caused it to just blow up midflight, and in 2001 American Airlines flight 587 was flying along and the tail basically just fell off, later blamed on excessive use of the flight controls. A terrorist or sabotage explanation would be much preferable than a world where important stuff just falls off at inopportune moments, but I guess that's the world.

Perhaps the only worthwhile reason to post on this was the reaction at HuffPo. Remember, this bridge collapse was Bush's fault but if it was a design flaw that meme becomes crippled. As a result, some of the commenters are in quite a tiff:

Maybe somewhere in this "investigation" which was probably censored by bush cronies, they say who the designers were. If there is a design flaw, there are designers. Find them and sue them.
Reply | posted 06:35 pm on 01/15/2008
NEW expand collapse hootie1fan (See profile | I'm a fan of hootie1fan)

Like that's ever going to happen
Reply | Parent | posted 06:57 pm on 01/15/2008
NEW expand collapse Quantumystic (See profile | I'm a fan of Quantumystic)

Blah Blah Blah

...and Iraq had nuclear weapons. BS. There's not one single federal institution whose integrity hasn't been compromised by Bush appointments to leadership positions. The credibility of EVERY U.S. government agency has been irreparably tainted for the duration of this admin, and I for one utterly refuse to believe a single word they say.

The damage Bush-Cheney have done to America surpasses a dozen 9/11s. IMPEACH and CONVICT!
Reply | posted 06:05 pm on 01/15/2008
expand collapse wadenelson1 (See profile | I'm a fan of wadenelson1)

Apparently they don't realize that the federal government declared the bridge "structurally deficient" in 1990. So aside from Bush 41 it would seem the lion's share of blame would have to go to the Clintons for not fixing it when they had power back in the golden decade of sweetness and light known as the 90s. If one were prone to thinking in such ways, that is.