Articles / May 27, 2025

Engineering the Future: Public Safety Is Paramount in All Aspects of Engineering

Nothing is more important than the core tenet of our profession’s ethics: protecting public health, safety and welfare. When we do not do our jobs right, people can die.

I remember a few years into my career, on Dec. 3, 1984, more than half a million people in Bhopal, India, were exposed to the highly toxic gas methyl isocyanate at the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant. It was the world’s worst industrial disaster, resulting in 2,259 immediate deaths and another 10,000 deaths through time. Almost 560,000 individuals had injuries related to the leak.

I also remember hearing that the American Medical Association, in the early 1900s, said it was the civil engineers who most impacted public health with their role in water and wastewater treatment. The adage was that doctors only have the potential to save one individual at a time, but, with engineers, it could be hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands.

The message is clear: the safety of our infrastructure has wide-reaching implications. Unfortunately, the processes necessary for securing long-term safety for American citizens, businesses and construction sites are being neglected.

Safety Isn’t Optional

This has been an eye-opening year for aviation safety, with the National Transportation Safety Board citing 250 incidents in the United States from Jan. 1-April 24, 2025; approximately 215 of those incidents were fatal. We need better training, more traffic controllers and a modern air-traffic control system, NextGen, yet we have historically failed to prioritize these protocols. Why can’t we get this done?

There were 39,345 traffic fatalities in 2024, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. While that number is down compared to previous years, consider that the current annual roadway fatality rate is roughly equivalent to a large commercial airplane crash every day and a half. One week of that would shut down the U.S. aviation system until we found the root cause with an appropriate fix. But because it happens all across our country, with just one or a few fatalities at a time, we accept those statistics. Again, there’s just not enough funding to get it done.

In 2024, approximately 900 people lost their lives in highway work zones, most due to distracted driving or speeding. As a former commissioner of public works in Erie County and executive director of the New York State Thruway Authority, I know firsthand that those days are the hardest days—when someone dies simply doing their job because of someone else’s reckless choices. This is totally unacceptable. I fully support work-zone safety cameras to send a clear message: safety is not optional.

In some states, the professional engineering license is under attack, dismissed as unnecessary. In my previous Informed Infrastructure column, I shared the Brook’s Law definition of engineering: a profession that requires advanced knowledge and is acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction, which certainly pertains to civil engineering. States trying to remove professional licensure in our field apparently don’t understand the basic definition of our profession. The reasoning seems to be a desire for less government and lower costs, but at what price?

Cutting Corners Comes With a Cost

On June 24, 2021, the Champlain Towers South, a 12-story beachfront condominium in the Miami suburb of Surfside, Fla., partially collapsed, causing the death of 98 people. The investigation still continues, but the collapse resulted in new laws such as SB 4-D, also known as the “Surfside safety bill,” which mandates inspections, reserve funding and stricter maintenance requirements for condo buildings. It requires milestone inspections and structural integrity reserve studies. However, there’s currently an initiative in Florida to remove the requirement for professional engineering licensure. Who will do the inspections and structural integrity studies? Are they qualified? We need to stand up for what we know is in the best interest of public safety.

The last statistic I’d like you to think about—and the most personal to me—is the number of pedestrian fatalities in 2024: 3,304. In 2000, I was hit by a car as a pedestrian while in a legal crosswalk, at a functioning signaled intersection, in a four-lane street with the car making a left turn from a one-way street. Speed, impatience and driver distraction were the causes. I saw it coming, in slow motion, and had the presence of mind to shield my head with my arms. I was hit, scooped onto the car and then thrown off when the driver stepped on the brakes. The result was a totally ripped ACL, torn MCL, major meniscus damage and two separated shoulders. The injuries required several surgeries, extended therapy and long-term impacts from arthritis. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger; hence my lifelong commitment to safety.

Health and safety are core values of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and it’s not just at the construction site. Health and safety are fundamental to the entire process, from planning to design to construction to maintenance. ASCE Standards provide technical guidelines for promoting safety reliability, productivity and efficiency in civil engineering.

I’m proud to say that GHD takes safety very seriously and considers it the cornerstone of our business: “Together with our clients, we create lasting community benefit.” Our people are united by the core values of Safety, Teamwork, Respect and Integrity. We live by these values to strengthen our relationships with our clients and within the communities we serve. They define who we are.

It’s imperative that we, as a profession, stand up for codes and standards that provide lifecycle safety to the public. This requires advocacy and funding.

About Maria Lehman

Maria Lehman, P.E., F.ASCE, ENV SP, is U.S. Infrastructure Lead for GHD. She is the past president of the ASCE and currently serves as vice chair of President Biden’s National Infrastructure Advisory Council; email: Maria.Lehman@ghd.com.