Declarations

Avoidable Tragedy

“It wasn’t just talking, it was screaming at them. Yet no one was listening.”

— National Transportation Safety (NTSB) Board Chairman Robert Sumwalt said in a report on the Florida International University bridge collapse that killed six people in March of 2018. The report blamed significant design errors and a lack of oversight by government agencies for the collapse, which dropped a 174-foot-long span onto eight cars. Sumwalt said contractors and the university should have closed the road days before the collapse when cracking was observed.

Priceless Works

“These are, in many instances, priceless works that represent the culture and history of the countries from which they were stolen.”

— Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said in an interview regarding an art dealer and seven others who were charged with trafficking more than $140 million in stolen antiquities. Authorities described the case as one of the largest of its kind, saying the conspiracy began more than three decades ago and involved more than 2,600 recovered artifacts.

Unacceptable

“We must do better, and we will. This is unacceptable.”

— Airbnb’s CEO Brian Chesky said the San Francisco-based company is expanding manual screening of high risk reservations and will remove guests who fail to comply with policies banning parties at rental homes in the wake of a deadly shooting at a Halloween party held at an Airbnb rental in California.

No Alarms

“ITC personnel were unaware of the naphtha product release before the fire erupted.”

— A report by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board says Intercontinental Terminals Company, which owns a Houston-area petrochemical storage facility that burned in March didn’t have an alert system in place to warn of chemical releases. When a tank began to release naphtha, a flammable liquid typically used in gasoline production, no alarms were activated because the “tank farm was not equipped with a fixed gas detection system,” the report said.

Wake-Up Call

“I sincerely believe the jury’s decision to award this verdict was a wake-up call to the department and its leadership that they have to be mindful of what is said and how it’s said and to be mindful of their conduct when engaging with their subordinates, their peers and the public for that matter,”

— Roland Corvington, former chairman of a St. Louis County, Missouri, police board announced his resignation after a jury awarded a police sergeant nearly $20 million, finding he was discriminated against because he’s gay. Corvington said the county has “not always done a good job” of addressing the unique challenges in the workplace for women, people of color and LGBT people.