This is an interesting story, and while not exactly the “Peter Principal”, as its quite a bit worse:
The building collapsed in the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, with only the north shear wall that included the lift shaft left still standing. One survivor was quoted as running out of the ground floor during the shaking. When she had reached the other side of the 14 meter wide road, she looked back and “the building was down.” Within minutes, a fire broke out. Most of the deaths were caused by the collapse, but it is assumed that some of the victims burned to death, and some may have even drowned during the efforts of putting the fire out….The people killed (115) comprised 16 Canterbury Television employees on Levels 1 & 2; 79 King’s Education staff (4), teachers (5) and foreign students (70) on Level 4; 19 medical centre staff (13), patients (5) and one patient’s friend on Level 5; and an Administrator for Relationship Services on Level 6. The bodies of four victims in the CTV building could not be identified because the high temperature of the building fire had destroyed any traces of DNA. The inquest into the CTV building deaths which was adjourned in September 2011 is to resume in October 2012, with the object of having a final session in December. It is to pay particular attention to six CTV building victims, who were alive for some time but could not be rescued….The commission’s findings were released on 10 December 2012. The report found the building’s design was deficient and should not have been approved. The building’s engineer, David Harding, of Alan Reay Consultants Ltd, was found to have no experience in designing multi-story buildings and was “working beyond his competence.” His supervisor, Alan Reay, left Harding unsupervised then pressured city officials to approve the building design even though several members had reservations about the design.
Essentially a major business and residential building was constructed on an island nation with frequent earthquakes that didn’t meet earthquake safety standards. because of this 115 people were killed, and while technically the Earthquake killed them, they likely would have survived if the building hadn’t collapsed.
Crazy story, but not a “Gun Death” story!
h/t Wallphone
From Wikipedia:
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What is generally accepted as the first building code was in the Code of Hammurabi which specified:[4]
229. If a builder builds a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built falls in and kills its owner, then that builder shall be put to death.
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or, as Nassem Talib puts it, the architect needs to have skin in the game if he is to be trusted to do a good job.