1 Shoddy Building Killed 115 in NZ Quake

Two-thirds of deaths were in building that should never have gone up: report
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 10, 2012 1:27 AM CST
Shoddy Design Blamed for NZ Quake Deaths
In this Thursday, Feb. 24, 2011 photo, search and rescue personnel work at the destroyed CTV building in Christchurch.   (AP Photo/Rob Griffith, File)

Almost two-thirds of the deaths in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake happened in a building that should never have been approved, according to a New Zealand government-ordered report. The collapse of the CTV building killed 115 of the quake's 185 victims, and the report found that the engineer who designed it was working "beyond his competence" and created a design "deficient in a number of respects" that should never have received a building permit, the BBC reports.

The report also found that the designer's overseer failed to review his work, and that the construction manager failed to spend enough time on site as the building, which crumbled in less than 20 seconds, was constructed in 1986. Prime Minister John Key said building failures were responsible for all but 10 of the 185 deaths. "We owed it to them, their loved ones left behind, and those people badly injured in the earthquake, to find answers as to why some buildings failed so severely," he said. (More Christchurch earthquake stories.)

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