[SystemSafety] Aberfan 50 years on

[paul_e.bennett at topmail.co.uk]

On 17/10/2016 at 1:18 PM, "Peter Bernard Ladkin" <ladkin at causalis.com> wrote:
>
>Friday is the 50th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster, when a tip 
>collapsed and overran a primary
>school in Aberfan, Wales.

[%X]

>I remember as a 15 year old being thoroughly shocked and deeply, 
>deeply saddened. All those kids,
>much younger than me, dead and gone. There must have been comments 
>doing the rounds that it was a
>"natural disaster", because I remember thinking "Rubbish. Someone 
>built that tip, right above a
>primary school. Or someone built that primary school right under 
>the tip. One or the other."
>
>It was far worse than that. Slides had happened before at Aberfan, 
>and elsewhere, and it was well
>known, locally and at the NCB, that the tip was build on top of 
>springs. The NCB had simply been
>ignoring the situation.
>
>It is astonishing how people in power, such as Robens at the NCB, 
>could get away with such a
>response as Greenslade and Edwards describe. It bears thinking 
>about. It is such past situations
>that have led to the HSE and to the crime of corporate 
>manslaughter. We have people such as Lord
>Cullen to thank for all that.

Peter, As a younger person than you (but not by much) I also remember 
that incident and how I felt that it was the unthinking folly of the NCB that
was the root cause. I had, by that time, seen other man-made 
embankments collapse under the influence heavy rain. Fortunately, the 
ones I witnessed caused no loss of life.

Regards

Paul E. Bennett IEng MIET
Systems Engineer

-- 
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Paul E. Bennett IEng MIET.....<email://Paul_E.Bennett@topmail.co.uk>
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