Structural Failures from Safety Investigation's Point of View
Kai Valonen, Finland
Chief Safety Investigator, Safety Investigation Authority of Finland
Kai Valonen has worked as an accident investigator since 1998. This work has recently been named safety investigation due to the fact that the work is done solely to improve safety. Kai’s organisation, Safety Investigation Authority of Finland, investigates accidents in four modes i.e. aviation, railway, marine and the other accidents. Kai has been in charge of the department of other accidents since 2006, but has worked in various cases already before that. Many of the cases have been failures of structures, fires, explosions, industrial accidents, serious road accidents and some special individual cases. The first roof collapse Kai was investigating was a failure of a laminated beam in the roof of a swimming hall in 2000. After that there has been involved in 25 investigations concerning damages of structures. Most of the investigations focus on only one single accident, but some others cover several cases. Kai has graduated from Helsinki University of Technology, Finland.
