Scientists on trial for manslaughter in Italy for failure to warn residents about quake

ROME —

Seven scientists and other experts went on trial on manslaughter charges Tuesday for allegedly failing to sufficiently warn residents before a devastating 2009 earthquake that killed more than 300 people in central Italy.

The case is being closely watched by seismologists around the globe who insist it’s impossible to predict earthquakes and dangerous to suggest otherwise, since seismologists will be discouraged from issuing any advice at all if they fear legal retaliation.

Last year, about 5,200 international researchers signed a petition supporting their Italian colleagues. The Seismological Society of America wrote to Italy’s president expressing concern about what it called an unprecedented legal attack on science.

The seven defendants are accused of giving “inexact, incomplete and contradictory information” about whether smaller tremors felt by L’Aquila residents in the six months before the April 6, 2009 quake should have constituted grounds for a quake warning.

more..
http://www.japantoday.com/category/world/view/scientists-on-trial-for-manslaughter-in-italy-for-failure-to-warn-residents-about-quake

On drugs over there??? This has to be one of the stupidest things I'ver read all year!! Morons.

ridiculously ironic... so they go after scientists to absolve the businessmen and politicians who are really responsible. But no... the elite is never responsible, they are certifiable irresponsible, sociopathic in nature and a danger to mankind.

So much fr my Italian vacation... :scared:

is man made.

This is a repost of my response to this article when it was posted in LBN:

The researchers and engineers made an extremely poor decision. The town had suffered a series of earthquakes. The townspeople were nervous. There had been discussions about evacuating the ancient, but unstable, stone buildings as a precaution.

The CORRECT answer for a scientist and engineer, when asked whether the town should be evacuated would have been: "We don't know. Earthquakes cannot be predicted. There is a danger, and statistically that danger is higher right now because of the recent earthquakes, but past events can't predict future earthquakes. There could be another tomorrow, or we might not have another for 100 years."

Instead, this was their answer: "There is no danger." He then went on to tell them to "relax and enjoy a glass of wine".

Apparently, this area gets a lot of earthquakes in swarms. The centuries-old tradition in the area is that, when a swarm starts, you leave the area, go camping, or stay in a country home. The researchers used their perceived authority to tell the townspeople what it wasn't necessary for them to evacuate the town, stating flat out that they were not in danger, This caused them to abandon their normal behavioral patterns. Had the scientists not intervened, the town would have been largely empty when the major quake hit several days later. Because they intervened, passed on SCIENTIFICALLY INCORRECT information, and they town wasn't emptied, 309 people died a few days later when the major quake struck.

If you are going to speak as a scientist using the authority of science to tell others what to do, you have a responsibility to ensure that the information you provide is as correct as possible. In this case, the scientists gave information that wasn't merely wrong, but was inaccurate even by scientific standards. That inaccurate information killed a lot of people.

"Italian justice".