The death of a man inside a collapsed parking garage could have been avoided had the structure been properly maintained and inspected, says a coroner's report released Friday.

Coroner Catherine Rudel-Tessier says that construction defects, improper repairs and inadequate oversight caused part of the garage in St. Laurent borough to collapse on November 26, 2008.

Mahamat Saleh Khazali was pinned inside his car by a 60 by 80-foot piece of concrete and died by suffocation. Several parking garages across Montreal were subsequently shut down for inspections.

The coroner says concrete material had eroded at key points inside the garage on Deguire St., which was built around 1970.

"Construction and maintenance flaws, including inadequate repairs … were key factors … in the rupture and crushing (action) that caused the concrete slab to collapse," said the coroner.

"If inspections had been done … Mr. Saleh Khazali's death would have been avoided."

The CEO of Capreit, the company which owns the building, said he didn't think the structural integrity of the building had been damaged.

"We didn't see that there was a problem. That was the point; the problem was masked. The fact that there were a few bits of concrete or cracks were fallen off. That's normal in an underground lot of this age, and doesn't reflect the structural integrity of that garage," said Thomas Schwartz, CEO of Capreit.

Recommendations

The coroner wants Quebec's building watchdog, the Regie du batiment, to draft detailed inspection and repair guidelines for building owners. She's also urging the agency to step up awareness campaigns.

Rudel-Tessier said the issue is part of the bigger problem of a lack of systematic checks on buildings more than 20 years old.

Reaction

The Regie du batiment reacted immediately, saying it inspected more than 100 parking garages in the days and weeks following the tragedy.

The agency says it will follow the corner's recommendation to draft guidelines for people who own underground garages.

The construction board says it expects its new additions to the building code to come into effect sometime next year.

When they do, it says Quebec will have the most complete set of safety guidelines in Canada.

The Regie has also set up a toll-free hotline for citizens to report building defects.

That number is 1-888-271-1827.