How Trust Leads to Tragedy

The indictment of an engineer accused of lying about substandard alterations made in a Bronx building where two firefighters died after the floor collapsed puts a spotlight on the city's dubious practice of allowing property owners to self-certify structural alterations.

The policy was implemented more than a dozen years ago during the administration of Rudy Giuliani in the name of spurring business development. Self-certifying saves time by allowing construction to be completed without a sign-off by city engineers, and keeps the city's payroll down.

There's at least as good a likelihood, however, that Mr. Giuliani made the change because it figured to ingratiate him with builders, who tend to show their appreciation with campaign contributions. Since then, there have been numerous cases in which building collapses were caused by unsafe practices; the Bronx case has merely attracted more attention because of the deaths of the two firefighters, Lieut. Howard Carpluk Jr. and Firefighter Michael Reilly.

The willingness of some developers to cut corners if they are not under city scrutiny led Uniformed Fire Officers' Association President John McDonnell to say last week that self-certification "is a failure because it potentially places money ahead of public safety."

It's time Mayor Bloomberg acted to ensure that those who violate safety standards won't escape detection until there's a tragedy.