Engineer charged in mall cave-in
A discredited engineer who declared a leaking northern Ontario mall structurally sound just weeks before its roof-deck garage collapsed was charged Friday in what police described as a “challenging investigation.”
Two women were killed and several others were injured in the June 2012 cavein at the Algo Centre Mall in Elliot Lake.
Ontario Provincial Police said 64-year-old Robert Wood was charged with two counts of criminal negligence causing death and one count of criminal negligence causing bodily harm.
“This was a unique, complex and challenging investigation which took considerable time to process evidence and being precise in the application of criminal law,” said Det.-Supt. Dave Truax.
Adding to the intricacy of the case was the “multitude of various specialists” brought in to help police in the case. Truax wouldn’t say if charges against others were pending but emphasized that the criminal investigation was ongoing.
Doloris Perizzolo, 74, and Lucie Aylwin, 37 were killed in the collapse, which triggered an intensive rescue operation involving heavyduty machinery and a specialized rescue team.
A judicial inquiry into the collapse concluded last October after hearing from 125 witnesses over 117 days. A report from those proceedings is due before Oct. 31 this year.
The inquiry heard the rooftop garage of the poorly designed structure leaked from the beginning, and decades of water and salt penetration caused severe rusting of its steel support structure.
Ultimately, a weld that was subject to years of corrosion snapped, sending one vehicle and concrete crashing into the mall below.
Yet, the inquiry heard, Wood declared the centre structurally sound just weeks before it collapsed.
In a 2011 conversation relayed to the inquest, Wood was cited telling a prospective buyer it would cost $1.5 million to fix the mall’s roof and reportedly warned the structure had to be fixed or the roof would cave in.
However, Wood told the inquiry he could barely recall any such conversation.
Subsequently, in May 2012, Wood told the mall’s owner that steel supports at the shopping centre showed surface rusting, but were otherwise “structurally sound,” the inquiry heard.
Wood later ad m itted changing his final May 3, 2012, inspection report after he and his partner signed off on it.
The changes included removing photographs he had taken in a mall store showing yellow tarps strung up to collect water leaking from the roof and a corroded steel beam. He also removed a reference to “ongoing” leakage.
Wood was stripped of his professional engineering licence in November 2011 after admitting to misconduct unrelated to the mall.
He continued to practise as a “graduate” engineer and owner of M.R. Wright based out of Sault Ste, Marie, Ont., with restrictions on what he could do. His 40-year career ended shortly after the mall roof collapse.