Civil Engineer Found Guilty in Ice-Rink Deaths
November 18, 2008
After a trial lasting ten months, the Traunstein state court reached its verdict of negligent homicide on Tuesday, Nov. 18, handing the engineer an 18-month suspended sentence for his role in the accident that occurred on Jan. 2, 2006 when the roof of an ice skating rink in Bad Reichenhall collapsed.
Most of the victims were children.
The 68-year-old engineer was identified only as Walter G., as is customary in German proceedings.
He had admitted miscalculating the load-carrying capacity of the roof that collapsed under heavy, wet snow.
The ice rink was built in 1972. While many of the team members involved in the building's construction have already died, the case saw another engineer who had given the building in the Bavarian town of Bad Reichenhall a clean bill of health in 2003 acquitted of the same charges, as was the building's architect, who also supervised some of the construction work.