Four guests at a house-warming party (pendaison de cremaillere) in Angers this weekend were killed and 14 seriously injured when the balcony of the apartment gave way. The apartment block was built about 12 years ago and experts are investigating the cause of the collapse.
Apparently the current norms have a 60% overload margin built in (ie a structure designed to support 1000 kgs should support 1600 kgs) so the fact that the balcony was crowded should not of itself have caused the accident. More likely is that it was not properly constructed, or that the steel reinforcement has corroded. It is concerning that such a recent structure should fail so catastrophically despite stringent safety rules.
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