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Letter: Hold contractor accountable

By Craig Dewey, Vancouver
Published: January 23, 2019, 6:00am

A contractor sent a rock through a family’s roof in Washougal (“Rock falls into Washougal family’s home,” Jan. 18, The Columbian). Where are the code enforcement people and other regulators? And why, after committing such a dangerous, irresponsible act, is this contractor still being allowed to blast on the construction site?

Shut them down until a thorough investigation by Washougal Code Enforcement, Labor and Industries, and all other agencies that have jurisdiction have determined that the contractor has taken all actions necessary to show that they can responsibly and safely proceed with their work.

There is all likelihood that, after having this claim on their record, their insurance company will no longer underwrite their work actions. A responsible contractor would shut down their own operations while they conducted their own investigation to determine what went wrong, took responsible action to make whole those whose property and lives were endangered (including therapy for the victims), and evaluated and redesigned their excavation plan and procedures to ensure that they can safely perform the work.

Given the proximity of the work to all of these families, it is questionable — just from a noise perspective — that blasting is the appropriate method for accomplishing this work.

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