SANTO DOMINGO - Regarding the collapse of the roof of the Jet Set nightclub, which has so far left 184 dead and 155 people transferred to health centers, engineer Carmen Veloz, a risk management specialist, suggested yesterday that buildings that have been built for a long time should be evaluated periodically to verify their condition.
He recommended that public institutions should strengthen oversight, especially in places where large numbers of people gather at specific times, to prevent regrettable incidents in the future, such as the one that recently occurred in the country.
“For example, nightclubs, because of the sound and vibration issues. There are simulation studies that can be done to verify the condition of the structure and see how it can be reinforced,” the specialist explained in an interview on the program El Día, on Telesistema.
Engineer Carmen Veloz. (Video capture).
He explained that sound at a certain level can affect the structure. “High decibel sound produces vibrations, and when that vibration encounters a slightly weakened structure, it can cause fatigue in the materials and potentially lead to the structure breaking,” he stated.
The risk can be reduced
Veloz argued that private institutions can manage, work on and reduce risk by implementing plans that have already been designed by state institutions.
He added that these programs are already complete and fully standardized, and that all that needs to be done is to adapt them to the particular situation of each company.
“As a company and also in public institutions, we have to strengthen the oversight of certain places, of certain companies where there is a large accumulation of people at specific times in order to avoid in the future situations as tragic as those that occurred yesterday.”.
