re: Schlitterbahn co-owner to face murder charge in water slide death

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Wouldn't this be similar to.. let's say a bridge collapsing? If a bridge collapses and someone or multiple people are killed, can the owner of the engineering company and the civil engineers who designed it be charged with murder?

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If they knew there was a real chance the bridge would collapse, yes, they can be charged with murder.

When I was a prosecutor, there was a case where a contractor installed a steel staircase in a stair hall. He cut corners by not installing a safety load bearing board that helped distribute the weight of the staircase. He did so because the board wasn’t delivered when it was supposed to be and he was under time constraints to get the job completed. He talked to a couple workers on site and they said the rebar should carry the weight fine, that the board was just an additional safety feature. So he told them to install the staircase.

A few weeks later, the staircase comes crashing down and kills a poor maintenance man working at the bottom.

The contractor was charged with murder. He violated the safety protocol. He did it to save money. He knew what he was doing and did so willfully. Asking a couple laborers about it and getting them to give him the answer that he wants isn’t good enough and doesn’t absolve him of responsibility. HE is the general contractor, not a couple of laborers. He is the expert, he is the one ultimately responsible for making the decision. And he chose the wrong one. And he chose it for purely economical reasons and chose to knowingly put people’s lives in danger by not following established safety and then trying to cover it up. When all that failed, he tried to blame others.

He should have shut down work until the board arrived. Maybe he has to recoup any losses from the sub. Maybe he has to sue them. Maybe he has to eat the loss. Sucks but that’s what you may have to do sometime.

He reached a plea agreement for manslaughter.