Previously, I wrote about the accident at the Costco store in London, Ontario, Canada and the death of six year-old Addison Hall. Coverage by the press has been heavy, and when I was interviewed I was able to speak pretty plainly because I had already seen and read so much about the accident.
I was notified of the publication of the interview and I found that the coverage in which it appeared was excellent. First I noted that the article is tagged "No Rules Exist for Parking Bollards." And then I was impressed by the headline: "Installing the storefront bollards between a parking area and a building is left to the owner’s discretion."
This tragic accident was totally preventable. Installing bollards but installing them too far apart is like building two wings for an airplane -- and putting them both on one side. This type of case, where a large corporation who should do so much better continues to put employees and customers at risk, is exactly the reason that Mark Wright and I started the Storefront Safety Council. And the lack of local codes and ordinances is exactly why so much time and effort has gone into the new ASTM test standard WK13074 for safety barriers and bollards.
More will be coming out about this story over the next weeks -- how did the car get moving backwards at high speed, what were the causes, who has the legal liability. All of that is important of course.
But not as important as Addie Hall.
I have pasted the article (without the video) below. To see the video and get links to other articles and video clips, click HERE
News Woodstock & Region
DEADLY COSTCO CRASH
Installing the storefront bollards between a parking area and a building is left to the owner’s discretion
By Jennifer Bieman, The London Free Press
Tuesday, July 29, 2014 2:15:20 EDT PM
Ontario has no rules governing placement of storefront barriers like the ones a car reversed through last week at a London big-box store, a crash that led to a six-year-old girl’s death.
Common at giant retailers and fast-food drive-thrus, the post-like barriers, or bollards, are meant to protect buildings and pedestrians from being hit by vehicles.
But Ontario has no rules on where the posts should go, or how far apart, nor does the city of London.
One American expert says it’s time that changed — that too many vehicles are slamming into buildings, sometimes — as in the London case — with tragic results.
“(The collisions) are way more common than people might think,” Rob Reiter, a storefront collision expert in California and co-founder of the Storefront Safety Council in the U.S., said Monday.
Reiter, who’s testified as an expert witness on building safety in many court cases, said parking barriers such as the ones at the south-end Costco where last Friday’s crash occurred should be no more than 1.5 metres (five feet) apart to be effective.
The bollards at the Costco, which wrap around the angled entranceway of the giant warehouse-style store, are 3.7 m (12 ft.) apart.
Why and how the car reversed into the entrance way, striking a family from behind and sending six people to hospital, remains unclear. Police are still trying to figure that out.
“This is going to be a lengthy investigation,” said London police Const. Ken Steeves.
“We would love the answers overnight,” he said, “but an examination has to be done on the vehicle. We don’t have a lot of the answers yet.”
In Ontario, installing the concrete and steel posts — often the only barrier between a parking area or a lane of traffic and a building — is left to the owner’s discretion.
“There’s nothing in the Ontario Building Code that requires bollards to be installed,” said Peter Kokkoros, London’s deputy chief building official.
“A bollard is an item that protects the building. The building code doesn’t get into that.” Kokkoros said/
The bollards at the Costco would have done the job had the car not got between them, said Gary Bryant of Toronto-based Ontario Bollards Inc., which distributes and installs the barriers.
Bryant reviewed images from the scene and pegged the ground-embedded posts at about 20 cm in diameter.
“If the car had hit one of those red bollards, it would have stopped the vehicle.”
Over the weekend, a Costco spokesperson said it was premature to comment on a safety review of the store in London on Wellington Rd., south of Hwy. 401.
Calls to Costco for comment Monday at its head office were not returned.
Reiter said it’s not difficult to buy or put up the post-like barriers, but many businesses opt out as a cost-cutting measure.
“They don’t realize that over time they’re going to spend more in costs and (potential legal) settlements than they would have spent doing it right the first time.”
Outside major retailers, he said, bollards can be staggered to both protect against traffic and still allow customers pushing carts or large purchases to get through to parking areas.
Two years ago, a California appeal court ruled against Costco, upholding partial liability, after a car reversed into an outdoor food court at a Burbank, Ca., store in April 2007, injuring three people.
The court held the crash was “not categorically unforeseeable,” citing factors such as driver medical problems or intoxication and mechanical failure, and the food court wasn’t adequately protected by barriers.
On average, Reiter said, there are more than 60 vehicle-building collisions a day in the U.S.
He said retailers are slowly making their facilities safer for pedestrians.
“Wal-Mart and Target, most of the time now, put their bollards close enough together.”
jennifer.bieman@sunmedia.ca
twitter.com/BiemanatLFPress
- - -
ONTARIO BUILDING COLLISONS
2011: 165 vehicles struck buildings
32: Resulted in injuries
133: Damaged property
0: Deaths
Source: Ontario Ministry of Transportation
I was notified of the publication of the interview and I found that the coverage in which it appeared was excellent. First I noted that the article is tagged "No Rules Exist for Parking Bollards." And then I was impressed by the headline: "Installing the storefront bollards between a parking area and a building is left to the owner’s discretion."
This tragic accident was totally preventable. Installing bollards but installing them too far apart is like building two wings for an airplane -- and putting them both on one side. This type of case, where a large corporation who should do so much better continues to put employees and customers at risk, is exactly the reason that Mark Wright and I started the Storefront Safety Council. And the lack of local codes and ordinances is exactly why so much time and effort has gone into the new ASTM test standard WK13074 for safety barriers and bollards.
More will be coming out about this story over the next weeks -- how did the car get moving backwards at high speed, what were the causes, who has the legal liability. All of that is important of course.
But not as important as Addie Hall.
I have pasted the article (without the video) below. To see the video and get links to other articles and video clips, click HERE
News Woodstock & Region
DEADLY COSTCO CRASH
Installing the storefront bollards between a parking area and a building is left to the owner’s discretion
By Jennifer Bieman, The London Free Press
Tuesday, July 29, 2014 2:15:20 EDT PM
Ontario has no rules governing placement of storefront barriers like the ones a car reversed through last week at a London big-box store, a crash that led to a six-year-old girl’s death.
Common at giant retailers and fast-food drive-thrus, the post-like barriers, or bollards, are meant to protect buildings and pedestrians from being hit by vehicles.
But Ontario has no rules on where the posts should go, or how far apart, nor does the city of London.
One American expert says it’s time that changed — that too many vehicles are slamming into buildings, sometimes — as in the London case — with tragic results.
“(The collisions) are way more common than people might think,” Rob Reiter, a storefront collision expert in California and co-founder of the Storefront Safety Council in the U.S., said Monday.
Reiter, who’s testified as an expert witness on building safety in many court cases, said parking barriers such as the ones at the south-end Costco where last Friday’s crash occurred should be no more than 1.5 metres (five feet) apart to be effective.
The bollards at the Costco, which wrap around the angled entranceway of the giant warehouse-style store, are 3.7 m (12 ft.) apart.
Why and how the car reversed into the entrance way, striking a family from behind and sending six people to hospital, remains unclear. Police are still trying to figure that out.
“This is going to be a lengthy investigation,” said London police Const. Ken Steeves.
“We would love the answers overnight,” he said, “but an examination has to be done on the vehicle. We don’t have a lot of the answers yet.”
In Ontario, installing the concrete and steel posts — often the only barrier between a parking area or a lane of traffic and a building — is left to the owner’s discretion.
“There’s nothing in the Ontario Building Code that requires bollards to be installed,” said Peter Kokkoros, London’s deputy chief building official.
“A bollard is an item that protects the building. The building code doesn’t get into that.” Kokkoros said/
The bollards at the Costco would have done the job had the car not got between them, said Gary Bryant of Toronto-based Ontario Bollards Inc., which distributes and installs the barriers.
Bryant reviewed images from the scene and pegged the ground-embedded posts at about 20 cm in diameter.
“If the car had hit one of those red bollards, it would have stopped the vehicle.”
Over the weekend, a Costco spokesperson said it was premature to comment on a safety review of the store in London on Wellington Rd., south of Hwy. 401.
Calls to Costco for comment Monday at its head office were not returned.
Reiter said it’s not difficult to buy or put up the post-like barriers, but many businesses opt out as a cost-cutting measure.
“They don’t realize that over time they’re going to spend more in costs and (potential legal) settlements than they would have spent doing it right the first time.”
Outside major retailers, he said, bollards can be staggered to both protect against traffic and still allow customers pushing carts or large purchases to get through to parking areas.
Two years ago, a California appeal court ruled against Costco, upholding partial liability, after a car reversed into an outdoor food court at a Burbank, Ca., store in April 2007, injuring three people.
The court held the crash was “not categorically unforeseeable,” citing factors such as driver medical problems or intoxication and mechanical failure, and the food court wasn’t adequately protected by barriers.
On average, Reiter said, there are more than 60 vehicle-building collisions a day in the U.S.
He said retailers are slowly making their facilities safer for pedestrians.
“Wal-Mart and Target, most of the time now, put their bollards close enough together.”
jennifer.bieman@sunmedia.ca
twitter.com/BiemanatLFPress
- - -
ONTARIO BUILDING COLLISONS
2011: 165 vehicles struck buildings
32: Resulted in injuries
133: Damaged property
0: Deaths
Source: Ontario Ministry of Transportation
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