The Dallas Cowboys’ Irving, Texas, practice facility collapsed on May 2, 2009, injuring 12 people, because wind-load demands exceeded the structure’s capacity to resist a thunderstorm’s 55 mph to 65 mph gusts, which were well below the 90 mph wind-speed specifications set by ASCE 7-98 and ASCE 7-05 Standards for that location, according to a draft report released by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a nonregulatory agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
“Our investigation found that the facility collapsed under a wind load that a building of this type would be expected to withstand,” says NIST study leader John Gross in a written statement.