Collapse Of The I-35W Bridge Essay

Thirteen deaths and a mass of injuries resulted from the collapse of the I-35W Bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota during rush hour on August 1, 2007. A rating system was used by MDOT to grade the bridge. This particular bridge had recently received a grade of 4 (out of 9) which meant it was considered to be “structurally deficient”. “Structurally deficient” means there are aspects of the bridge that need to be checked and/or repaired but does not signify that it is likely to collapse or is unsafe (U.S. Department of Transportation). What can engineers do to facilitate safe bridges that will not collapse and therefore prevent catastrophic disasters before it is too late? After all, the engineering profession has a duty and an inherent social contract with the public to …show more content…
Utilitarianism states that the right action is one which produces the most good for the most people. Instead the exact opposite occurred in this case as much more bad happened than good. People were killed, injured, and severe infrastructure damage occurred from the collapse of the I-35W Bridge. Morality in engineering depends much on preventing harms to individuals. Utilitarianism also states that the rightness or wrongness of an action is judged by its eventual consequences. Even if no one had been killed or injured it still would have been a failure of ethics. Engineers and engineering societies need to play a more prominent role to inform the public about the state of U.S. bridges. How can they accomplish this goal? First, we must recognize that an engineer is a moral agent or simply an autonomous being acting with the intention and held responsible for his or her actions. One example is they can focus on the failures and learn from these errors so the same mistakes do not occur in the future. This view is called negative or preventive