Field Trip Of Horror (Cave Creek Disaster)
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- Опубліковано 10 вер 2024
- The in-depth story of the Cave Creek Platform Collapse Disaster 1995. A viewing platform hangs 130 feet over one of New Zealand's natural wonders, offering unparalleled canyon views.
But for a group of young, enthusiastic students, it’s the last thing they ever see.
How does a field trip turn into one of the country’s most notorious disasters?
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We reveal the world's darkest and greatest disasters all based on true stories.
This disaster documentary is inspired by the fantastic "Fascinating Horror".
"I felt the platform flexing. Didnt' seem right to me"
"Ok, I'll take a group of students out on it tomorrow."
Hey at least he didn't say "I'll look into it after the field trip" he was like "I don't care if there is a field trip going on, I'm checking this out for myself!" so... props for him actually not putting off the inspection? :D
I found that really odd and foolish. What is worse is the possibility that the presence of the official may have encouraged the students to believe it was ok. I cannot believe those dicks that deliberately tried to shake the foundation, and then it worked.
@@stylesrjbut he never inspected it did he?
Exactly it’s just stupid
@@skankhunt3624because he died before that could happen. He was on his way to do it lol. Tho, he should have done it before the kids were even there
It is terrifying to think how many other tourist sites could be potential death traps due to lack of maintenance or unqualified builders
Theres a saying that goes "you are responsible for your own safety, your next of kin is responsible for getting compensation"
Grand Canyon Walkway anyone?😥
lololololol
I just assume if it’s in another country it’s probably not safe 😂😅
Oh, tons! And the bad thing is ...this didn't happen in some 3rd world developing country. This happened in a country that has rigorous safety standards!..imagine the places that don't have tough safety standards and how dangerous they are!
Props to the student who ran 5 miles to get help.
We should name a race after them
5 km
@@tiyenin8 km
Tbh its very impressive almost 15 Minutes a mile or faster (since he said emergency services were called 1h later) Military expect roughly 10 minute miles or faster after all
@@NeuroSpicyBrain-At that age i could run a mile in just over 7 min...that's just 1 mile tho, i couldn't keep that same pace up for 5.
This kind of stuff is why I’m always hesitant about stepping on hanging platforms at parks or other places: my body just gets all heavy with the feeling I might fall or, if it’s flimsy, the whole thing might collapse.
My ex always ridiculed me for being the same. Turns out my instincts were right.
Chances are you won't get hurt. Dumb to forgo beautiful and unforgettable sights out of a outlandish fear something maybe could go wrong
See but usually you can tell when something is well built, apparently others had noticed about the bad quality. I went to a wooden platform that was on a cliff, you could tell it was solid and well built.
@@jackburton2680 When even everyday infrastructure, such as bridges and buildings are failing people, being nervous to step on something built by state departments that aren't heavily funded is far from being an outlandish concern. It's also perfectly fine if you see no problems with stepping on them, but it's a little crass to make fun of someone who doesn't want to. It's why, even though I'm not too nervous about flying on a Boeing, given air travel is one of the safest modes of travel, I hold no ill will against someone who is.
That might keep ya alive, if they noticed bowing they definitely should have stayed back or limited how many went on at a time... but thats hindsight for them
I just hate the fact that in all human history, it takes the loss of life before anybody learns anything and that is ridiculous
As they say, all OSHA guidelines are written in blood.
👉🏻 Government ☠️ Bureaucracy 👈🏻
@@nigel900 funnily its the government regulations that keeps the private contractors not build structures that are potential hazards left and right.
@@hydrogenpoint Exactly, so many disaster videos start with a company trying to skirt the rules and innocent people almost always pay.
We’re all in our bubble too much and don’t give a shit until we’re shocked or traumatized.
I don’t understand though why O’Dea took the group onto the platform when he’d been specifically warned that something was wrong and that he needed to inspect it
My only theory is that New Zealand is such a safe country (compared to Aus, less dangerous creatures, most deadly thing are earthquakes and Australians) so nobody thought about safety in general.
That's actually a really good question...
Guess he took the trial by fire approach.
I was wondering the same thing. The prudent thing would have been to close the platform for inspection.
Tragic but this sort of thing goes on , at least lessons have been learned. You couldn’t really prosecute 1 particular person, it was a joint mess up.
It's so sad how often a simple "nah, it would be fine" cost so many lifes...
-heartbreaking ...-
-lives-
"she'll be right" is what we say down under mate
My dad, a carpenter, died from a fall at a jobsite, he said shortly before this wooden building was a deathtrap.
I'm sorry for your loss. It never should have happened.
So sorry ❤
Sorry that happened.
@andrefiset3569
Ughh! 😩 That’s so tragic! I’m so sorry for your loss. May he rest in peace.
Sorry to hear. May he rest in peace.
Jeeze, I work in construction and I would NEVER even consider designing any structure open to the public whose failure could result even in minor injury, let alone participate in actually building something intended to cantilever over a significant dropoff that was not designed by a licensed engineer and properly inspected by the appropriate AHJ.
The fact that someone was just like "yea, I barely have any woodworking experience at all, I should totally design a viewing platform for students to look out over a giant chasm!" is the absolute height of irresponsibility and arrogance. Worse still is that the rest of his coworkers just went along with the idea.
"I would NEVER even consider designing any structure open to the public whose failure could result even in minor injury." So what would you build? Doesn't what you say apply to everything? A sidewalk's failure could result in minor injury.
@@MegaLokopo Well, I don't design sidewalks that are open to the public, so sure.
@@MegaLokopoI'm in construction too, and he is correct. Structures that span or hold up anything need to be designed by a licensed engineer. The health, safety, and welfare of the public must be maintained. It is indeed unthinkable to me that a govt agency wouldn't know this or understand the liability they are risking.
Now, flatwork like a sidewalk isn't the same risk, but still would be constructed to certain specifications and inspected to make sure it will hold up. So indeed not the same risk but absolutely everything on site is designed, tested and/or observed before it goes into service.
@@jdraven0890 I agree with you, but I think you missed my point. "failure could result in minor injury" that includes literally everything.
@@MegaLokopo that's fair, like anything could fail, but you DO have to evaluate the odds of that and the seriousness of it - I don't lose sleep over very many things.
Post traumatic amnesia is probably a blessing in my opinion
That is factual, the body allows this as a response to trauma a "defense" mechanism.
Many are the ways the Mind protects itself from shocks it can't deal with.
I had a brain aneurysm a few years ago and I don’t know what happened after I got to the hospital. I’m missing a few hours until they told me they had to transfer me to their sister hospital down the street.
@@intothemystic5223 The thing about post traumatic amnesia is that sometimes it wears off. Then you have to deal with what is essentially fresh trauma, even though the things happened a long time ago.
@@samanthacook2495 I just watched something yesterday where the guy had it. He was getting flashbacks but because he didn't even know he went through something traumatic, he thought his flashbacks were hallucinations and he was going crazy. He ended up expiring himself so I guess maybe it isn't a blessing in a lot of cases.
I built a deck on our house. The very detailed plans had to be approved by the building inspectors office. The holes depth had to be inspected. When finished it had a final inspection. The limit for the number of people was the most people that would fit.
I’m sure they had that done but no one follows them.
Indeed.
that's because it's the united states of america
We do have all those same rules in New Zealand, but that didn’t happen here because the Department of Conservation is a Federal Department therefore they did not apply for local building permits believing they were above local rules
@sp00f34
Plenty of places in the USA you are legally allowed to cobble together anything you want.
O'Dea, knowing there were concerns about the platform, happily led the party onto the platform and to their deaths, without checking the integrity in any way.. That is just criminal stupidity.
I mean, hindsight is perfect, but all he'd had reported to him was a bit of flexing, which as far as he probably knew didn't necessarily mean anything imminent. It sounded like he was wanting to check the flexing out for himself in order to inform future action, not that he was aware there might be anything immediately serious going on.
That was the thing, nobody involved anticipated that this was a thing that could happen. It wasn't conscious corner-cutting or penny pinching, it just never occurred to people to get actual engineers and construction workers in. Awful lesson about needing to imagine worst case scenarios when deciding how to do things.
I don't know if it's criminal stupidity but it is definitely stupidity. Always err on the side of caution.
@@thomasjoychild4962 Except for the fact that O'Dea also worked for the same DoC that negligently built this death trap. He knew it was built by a bunch of conservation people with no construction or engineering skills. He knew they used NAILS instead of bolts. He was clearly completely oblivious and a total dumbass. Part of the same group of dumbasses that got these students killed. I can assure you if I was involved in a workplace that just decided to go rogue and build an overhanging platform and invite groups of tourists onto it without any permits, plans, approvals, or construction skills whatsoever, that not only would I not have done my "inspection" at the same time as inviting 17 students onto it with me, I would have blown the whistle on this death trap well before it reached that point. All it would have taken was some phone calls to the proper authorities to get this thing shut down to the public. It was built without permits.
Good on the student that ran their arse off for help.. that was must have been a heart breaking experience.
in cases like this, adrenaline will carry you like crazy.
Was he more than one person?
@@shoechew They has been used as a singular pronoun for at least 600 years.
@@tylermccollum9942 BS. Hom0s started that nonsense within the last 10 years. Nobody ever talked like that the entire time I've been alive since 1970.
I already know he dropped the F bomb like 300 times while running
These people had NO business building that cantilevered platform...nuts
It should never of been over loaded. And the kids shouldn't have started jumping up and down on said platform.
@@rikidawson7510 did you NOT see the way it was constructed? I guess you missed that part.
@Rowganlife yeah I did. I only lived in the area.
In the USA this would have never happened. The platform planning would take 15 years and cost $5 million. Subsequently, a 10 year construction project would ensue with all union labor force, constructed according to plans, strong enough to hold a circus of elephants, With a total cost of $45 million. In America we mean safety, no matter the cost.
@@steveperreira5850 not far from the truth lol
I will never forget this happening. I used to live on the coast and had spent a lot of time in the Punakaiki area. I remember a friend of mine saying they wouldn't get on the damned thing because it was nailed and not bolted. It was a pretty typical west coast attitude at the time. If you raised concerns, then you were called a 'party pooper' and didn't know what you were talking about. There was a very "she'll be right" attitude that I found shocking. Those people should never have died.
Having visited both New Zealand and Australia, I thought all the dumb people were in Australia. Apparently some of them migrated to government offices in New Zealand. Looking for the dumbest people, look no farther than the government
Lots of these attitudes. It's pretty hard to make New Zealanders care about health and safety, particularly out in the regions. I can only imagine what it was like in the West Coast in the 90s
Remarkable observation! I think it gets to the heart of what is an otherwise almost inexplicable cockup. In aviation, etc, they have what is called the Swiss Cheese model where every accident has many causes that have to line up on a very bad day. In other words, all the holes of potential misfortune in an imaginary Swiss Cheese have to line up to allow the arrow of misfortune to get through. Except that, in this case, it iseems like, there was no cheese at all.
As a hiker, this is probably the last thing you ever expect to have happen to you. How awful. Shoutout to the friend that ran 5 miles in under an hour for help.
As someone who has done 6 yrs of work with a contractor doing construction/remodeling, etc. It's terrifying how poor the quality & safety measures were. It's like they didn't even considered just how serious & important a structure like that was in a location like that? When people visit places like that, the sad truth is most of us trust that whatever is in a place like that is there because it was done right & they approved it.. So that's what makes this extra messed up
They didnt even think that kids would jump up and down on it either. Smh
@@Him_He_Me yeah what the heck, that's basically a requirement for a group of kids when they are on a field trip lol. It's crazy they didn't take it more seriously.
@@benmcreynolds8581 Maximum capacity: 5 average sized individuals. No jumping. Only one person may move at a time, and can only shuffle around.
Right? Like this is why we have requirements for permits, because too many idiots have died or gotten others killed by shoddy work when they have no idea what they're doing but think "eh, it'll be fine" and poorly design, execute, or maintain a build. Time and time again we've been shown the deathly consequences for half assing things like this (Champlain Towers, anyone?) but people still don't learn.
$1000 and the yellow pages would have saved all 14 lives smh
16
I had no idea it took all the way to 1995 for NZ to pass laws that keep Joe Average from playing civil engineer. We learned our lesson in 1928 when the St. Francis Dam built by William Mulholland, who fancied himself a civil engineer even though he was self-taught and had no formal training, collapsed just hours after he inspected it, killing hundreds of people. There is no way a bunch of office workers should have been allowed to make decisions regarding the construction of a cantilevered anything, much less a viewing platform suspended over a sheer drop! I'm in shock.
Actually the laws were loosened earlier in the decade. The right wing government has always been heavily in favour of deregulation no matter how many times things like this happen.
Who's "we"? This is the internet. We're from all over.
All his dams are ticking time bombs
@@Balrog-tf3bg They are 😟
@@littlebear274we know the right wing are stupid when it comes to certain things. The only smart thing they ever did was work towards protecting real ladies sports from cross-dressing males
Basically those blokes put that thing together like a Dad making a tree house for his kids...
and then they took a photo of all of them on it
Wow makes me rethink tree houses..
A platform collapsed under me, with no serious injuries, back in 1987. My college had put up a temporary wooden platform, about 3 feet off the ground, so students could watch an outdoor movie [or some such activity]. I think the platform was because the ground was wet and muddy. The platform was maybe 20x20, or about 400 square feet, with maybe 100 students standing on it. Suddenly, the entire platform just dropped straight down onto the ground. Everybody was shocked, but I don't recall anyone seriously injured, fortunately. When we step into/onto manmade structures, we tend to assume they were built by qualified engineers. Sadly this is not always the case.
I've had too many wooden porches collapse underneath me, fortunately they're usually only 3-4 ft high and have never injured me. Always scary when it happens though, if I'm around a balcony or stairs I'm always skeptical. Also as a pizza delivery driver it's insane how many apartment stairs are rusting away or falling apart. I've climbed a few that had me bracing for the whole stairwell to come down. Once I actually had a stair break underneath me but the carpet held together and kept me from falling.
So, no one was seriously injured upon the collapse of a platform 3 feet above the ground? I'm not sure this is really an apt analogy to the Creek disaster.
@@vampiresforesl The analogy he's mentioned is wooden platforms collapsing. And whether or not people were injured or kill is up for debate. But either way, not many who build these even realize what kind of trap they have built for those not knowing what the heck would happen to them. It's a similar feeling of a skyscraper collapsing due to structure rot, and the amount of china made tofu buildings that have collapsed and killed hundreds of people in real life.
People saying that the kids were joking about the platform being rickety and it could fall at that moment and then it happening sounds like something straight out of Final Destination
That movie gave me nightmares for 2 weeks. I don't even want to go to any Nascar races despite really liking cars.
Fu*king creepy movie
Pretty much Final Destination is inspired not only by that, but was also inspired by many accidents during the 20th century, as well as an original episode for "The X-Files" but converted into a feature length film. Little did they know that their first movie they made of a plane accident & explosion, would lead to another horrific event with the September 11th attacks.
It is bs.
What I thought of was a cartoon of this and a sign saying "Overeaters Anonymous." It was the Far Side.
Its insane a viewing platform so high above the ground was allowed to be built like that.
You can't build a garage on your own property without council approval!
There are places in America where you can build whatever you want on your property.
But the government can do whatever it wants and ignore all the rules. Looking for stupid people, you can’t do better than the government
em84c knows better
@@MonTube2006 did I sound arrogant?
Im in Australia and council regulations can be excessive here. But I think a platform hanging over a cliff should have an engineer involved and someone checking it's safe
@@em84c No shit !
What’s amazing is this building crew actually worked to complete the platform knowing there were only a few skewed nails anchoring the whole thing with a massive drop below ..
There is another New Zealand outdoor tragedy Dark Records could look at: The Mangatepopo Canyon Disaster.
Also the Carterton hot air balloon disaster
Good suggestion.
They sure like stupid names in new zeal and
@@aussiet8001 already covered the hot air balloon incident on this channel
@@X737_ it's from the Maori language
I was working for Tai Poutini Polytechnic at the time of this disaster. It was a real shocker! Then students were all doing an outdoor course there.
It should never have collapsed but shortcuts were made in the construction and the concrete stairs that were meant to act as a counterweight were never connected top the deck. A sign limiting it to 5 at a time had been ordered but no one knew what happened to it. In addition, where they were on the platforms they felt it sway and several of the students started rocking it to possibly scare the others. Ten years after the accident, survivor Stacy Mitchell said that he and some other students were shaking the platform hard when it collapsed, which he had not reported at the time through fear of being blamed.
I was flatting in the same student house as stacy. He was a lucky man.... The students who went the previous day had also commented on the rickety structure. I hope stacy forgave himself. Wasnt his fault
RIP to all, especially Catherine. I lived 4 doors down from her in Pahiatua, They were all so excited about this adventure, Sadly inexperienced workmanship cost the lives of so many.
It probably would've been shorter to list the things they didn't massively fuck up. I hope the survivors have found their peace since then.
I remember that tragedy. I will never forget it. It was big news back in the day. Thank you for the story.
i live in NZ, i remember this.
there is no consulaion for the victims of the negligence.
in those days it was passion to preserve whats left of natures awe.
this didnt only effect DOC(department of conservation) it affected all government bodies.
it changed our building code to reflect Austrailia's which lead to 100's of thousands of leaky homes, and inadequate foundations causing millions in damages to this day.
as a new zealander i consider it the least we can suffer with.
the lives lost that day was purely from negligence.
in my honest opinion, this is the perfect example of a little bit of knowledge being more destructive, than not knowing the basics
“It’s okay, I know what I’m doing.” Nope.
What matters far more than what you actualy know, is whether you know what you don't know.
*sets reminder in my phone to never step out on any overhanging deck in a public park*
Wait - I'm SUPER tired as I watched this, so maybe I misunderstood something. At the beginning of the video, the lady said the structure was bowing weird and told someone. They decided to check it out the next morning......by letting a bunch of students stand on it? Is my exhausted brain processing that correctly?
There was a large failure of imagination on every level. He probably figured a bit of flexing meant that it might need some shoring up at some stage in the next while but didn't understand it might mean imminent danger of structural failure. He wasn't qualified to assess it anyway, so its unclear what extra info he expected to get from personally eyeballing the issue. He was also new to the job and there'd just been a raft of regulation loosening from the right-wing government.
Thank you for not starting this video with an exhaustive history of the type of wood the platform was made of a “this is your life” or a profile of each of the unfortunate victims. Clear, concise storytelling.
This is why engineers are required, the fact that the bolts were on site but no drill was brought to the jobsite,, let's just nail it together,, shotty is not even a good description,, the platform was doomed the minute it was thought of,, sad that it took this tragedy to make sure the right people are involved in construction like this.
this channel is honestly one of the best narrative channels EVER!
Bro it's a repost channel.
Yesss
@@JoeyB0b Really? What's the OG?
Certainly isn't his @@TrubbleBeast
@TrubbleBeast It's mentioned at the bottom of the video description, Fascinating Horror. FH is a great channel as well! Posts once a week.
I knew Evan Stuart that died in the tragedy. The hero of the moment was the DOC officer that grabbed the girl beside him and spun, so that he landed under her, cushioning her fall. He died, but the girl survived.
The DOC officer that let them go out there despite the warning that it was bending strangely?
@@bobbin321 People always have regrets that go through their mind in the last few seconds before dying, it's kind of funny how humans work. Like why didn't you think of that BEFORE making the most stupid decisions ever.
I'm from New Zealand so thanks for covering this, I was only 5 at the time! I know they had good intentions but holy how many things were done wrong. I mean you can't even get the basics like remembering your bolts and drills, what hope is there for the rest of the project. Someone should have been held accountable, but at least that's changed here now.
The man directly responsible was Conservation minister Dennis Marshall. He literally ordered platforms like this built by the department, oversaw the Mickey Mouse process and ignored warnings about lack of funding and expertise.
And guess what? He refused to take any responsibility for it let alone resign over it, and was only forced to resign a year later when public opinion went against the government.
First, great video! Thanks for covering this! Second, the way this thing was built is inconceivable! I can't believe it was even allowed to open! And finally, there's one thing I absolutely don't understand in this situation. If DOC officer Slatter was concerned enough to convince DOc officer O'Dea to come out and inspect the platform, why was it not inspected by these two *before* any of the students were allowed to stand on it? If Slatter voiced all that concern, why was she not in front with O'Dea? Why would you allow anyone, but especially *that* many people on a platform you were concerned about? None of that makes sense to me. This whole thing could have been prevented if the DOC officers had actually done their jobs.
He didn't take her seriously.
This is the first of me hearing about this tragedy but based on what was said, I think O'Dea was just another dude who didn't like to take women's concerns seriously
He was her new boss. She wasn't supervising him. One of my bosses I barely knew came out on a job for an evaluation of me and suddenly did something dangerous, which was suddenly kneel in front of a herd of cows. I stood by her ready to grab her, but did not tell her she just did something foolish. Luckily nothing happened. If the cows had gotten spooked that could have ended badly.
Something like this should have been designed with a 10 times safety factor. Steel I-beams anchored to deep reinforced piles and then redundant cables that would hold the whole platform from falling down even if the entire foundation slid out from under it. It would have been expensive though.
And add an annual inspection on top of all that.
@@davidcox3076 and that's how you get to the point of a bunch of Kiwi dads weekend warrioring a observation deck in a national park 5 beers deep when the only piece of wood they ever held was a #2 pencil.
NAILS?! I dont know much about construction but I know that screws hold better than nails.
Thought the same. Nails slide out when weight is applied.
Exactly. I thought it didn't take rocket science to figure that out but I guess with the DOC it would've taken a ton of rocket scientist for them to figure a bunch of stuff out
Who on earth would attempt to build something like this without any knowledge of how it has to be done safe.
Overconfidence is a killer!
taking tax payers dollars to make a useless death trap, never held accountable and all the victims get is an apology. disgusting
An apology and over $2 milion. Not enough, but more than just a sorry.
Then taxpayers pay again for the compensation.
They were compensated in the end.
Wow you're pumping out videos fast!
Wonder how many disasters are still out there that the public doesn't know much about... Guess there's a lot of plane disasters too.
many events are suggested through the link in the comments, there are so so many more to cover
@@DarkRecordsDocs You should do a video about the verruckt water slide
@@logan7156never heard of it 🤔
@djrosette Check it out. It's one of the worst water park disasters ever. An accident waiting to happen.
@@kurtleftridge6530oh ok
I'm amazed that it didn't fall down sooner. Thank God we have cell phones now and help is so much faster.
To be honest, I would be very surprised if Cave Creek gets any cellphone signal.
Thank the engineers
@@korpakukacNo he had it right
I knew one of the students who died, Scott. He was a chef in Queenstown when I knew him. Such a shock to find out he died as a result of this. RIP.
That platform looks like it can accommodate 3/4 people if you want to have nice views and mobility.
18 people crowded on top of that almost shoulder to shoulder is not only asking for it to collapse, it is also bad sighting experience.
*The bad structure was not the only problem there.*
Fr the fault was on both sides
that design would eventually collapse with 3/4 people as well. If there's not signed limit a platform like that, then it usually has to be however many can fit. And it should be able to handle that
That’s sad about that kid’s sense of guilt. A properly designed platform should have been able to withstand way, WAY more force than a mere nudge.
Yep, a properly built structure of that nature will have had possibilities like students being silly anticipated and factored into its stress tolerances.
It's wild that someone could just build and open something like that on public land, for the public, without any sort of permits, reviews, or inspections. Then again, here in America, state infrastructure inspectors submit reports that say "This bridge is in imminent danger of collapse" and the state is like "That's nice, we're not going to spend any money on it tho."
Thank you for covering this tragedy so well. My favourite friend lost her brother in the fall from the platform. It was a tragedy and the absolute negligence of the platform's construction caused a huge scandal here. The victims are still remembered infact, my friend walked to the platform a few weeks ago. As to the loophole about suing, the way damages are paid out to victims and/or families is slightly different here and has been since 1974 when the Accident Compensation Corporation was set up*. All Businesses and Companies pay a levy to the ACC, the levy is compulsory and the amount is dependent on how dangerous the occupation or business is considered to be. In the event of an accident, permanent injury or death, the ACC pays the victims directly, without the need for litigation. It's not a perfect system but, it works. Medical care here is also state funded from our taxes so there isn't the need to sue for medical costs either. In the case of serious accidents or gross negligence there will be an inquest, punitive damages will be awarded and Companies/ Corporations/Businesses etc who are held to be negligent face huge fines and must alter poor workplace practices and the ACC will take the employer or owner of the property where the injury occurred, to court to recover their costs.
*Better explanation of ACC and how it works here.
The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) provides compulsory insurance cover for personal injury for everyone in New Zealand, whether a citizen, resident or visitor.
This means if you are injured by an accident in New Zealand, ACC may pay some of your medical and rehabilitation costs.
ACC is a no-fault scheme - the only one of its kind in the world. It applies regardless of who caused the accident - including you. But it also means you can’t sue for any costs that relate to the injury or its negative effects.
ACC is paid for by employers. If you are an employer check your obligations. Employers who do not pay ACC can be liable for significant penalties. Most employees are automatically covered and the levies are an employer cost - they cannot be deducted from your wages or salary.
ACC covers injury from sprains to permanent disability, but not general illness, diseases, infections or age-related health conditions, non-work related gradual process injuries or mental injury (except in very specific situations). Depending on your injury ACC may pay a proportion of medical costs, provide assistance with home help, special aids or equipment, transport, modifications to your house or car, education, training, therapy and support.
Safety was such a forgotten thing here in Aotearoa New Zealand in the 90s especially. One good thing is we do try to change things post tragedy.
I know of a street in New Zealand that has had dozens of serious crashes, but …. They won’t reduce speed or install speed bumps because there hasn’t been a fatality yet. They said that officially.
I remember when this happened. One of my old classmates was one of the survivors.
It was so devastating.
To visit Cave Creek now is still beautiful but so eerie.
I went to school with one of the people who died here. He was an absolute prick, so while he didn't deserve this, I wish I felt more sorrow than I do.
which one was it....
Sadly a stupid student thing to go on bridges, platforms and balconies and see how many they can get on and give it a good shake. Balcony disasters in student City- Dunedin.
An true Kiwi tragedy. Because NZ is so small, it was true that almost everyone knew someone who was affected by the collapse.
A terrible indictment against the Department of Conservation.
7:15 "The sign was misplaced" 😒
As a framer, just looking at this poor excuse of a deck is infuriating!
May all these kids RIP 🙏
We may complain about 'red tape' but this is why we have it. Standards, permits and inspections keep people safe.
'The day before officer Shirley Slatter noticed unusual flexing and reported it to the Field Centre manager, convincing him to inspect it'. Why did they not inspect it before allowing anyone else on the platform? In fact, why didn't they close the platform until certain it was stable? 🤯
He was her new boss. Probably a case of "we males know best and don't worry your little head about it". Pat, pat.
O'Dea instead of sending an engineering consultant went for full testing.
Him and Stockton Rush would have been great friends.
I feel really bad for Stacy Mitchell. I think most people like to give platforms like that a good shake as a joke. I imagine tests similar to that are done regularly during the building process of professionally built structures. He deserves to have no guilt. Also, why was occupancy limit sign not put on or near the platform? So many dumb mistakes.
Yep, a properly built structure of that nature will have had possibilities like students being silly anticipated and factored into its stress tolerances.
It's amazing a crew of rookies built this, and none were concerned about the risk. Dunning-Kruger...
Sees wobbly platform and suspects danger: "yah lemme just get 17 people out here to stand on it and test it"😂🤡
Holy god.... the construction process was disgusting, how neglegent. Its really shocking. I would never just grab anyone to construct something for the public that needed safety matters to be totally spot on. The mind boggles.
Remember to use galvanized square steel and Eco friendly wood veneer and secure it with screws borrowed from aunt
Nails 😭 thats childs play. Screws have so much more support."She'll be alright" is literally their sadistic way of dumping wood together and hope it holds
No engineers? They built a load bearing structure and used no engineers in the designing? And no one went to jail for this?
A load bearing structure that was to hold people 100 feet in the air, and they used no engineers?
And nails since they forgot the drill.
@@snowmiaow and none of them had ever worked with lumber or woodwork before. and the plans were drawn on a post-it note.
this is the deadliest of example of your dad making offhand comments "i can build a better deck than that" at the cookout
Amazing level of irresponsibility and negligence all around! Be wary of balconies and high platforms- I knew someone who died when they leaned on a guardrail and it gave way. Horrifying!
This kinda reminds me of the icefields parkway accident here in Canada a few years back. People just trying to enjoy a good view and then tragedy strikes. Super sad.
I love your videos. What a shame humans don't seem to learn!! This isn't the first video where someone with NO engineering experience built something that led to death!
EXACTLY why I never walk out on suspended platforms!
What a depressing channel. Yet here I am
Subscribed!
Lol
This is insane. Those “lessons” had ALREADY been learned! This is why building regulations exist. If you are concerned about a structure enough to inspect it, why would you allow it to stay open? People needed to go to jail. It’s sickening.
Indeed. The first DOC woman should have found the courage to at least tape off the structure immediately, rather than defer to authority.
Hah perfect timing! I am all caught up on videos and this popped up 15 minutes ago 😎, love it!
I know the mother of one of the students who died. Really sad to see what happened.
First time ever hearing this story.
What?! The platform was only two years old? I thought for sure, it was going to be a case of a 50-60 year old platform that hadn't been maintained. Who the h*ll at the DOC approved a plan that had not even been designed by an engineer? At least the local conservation board chairman asked about permits, but no one figured safety was a big deal?! This is crazy!!! One blunder after another, and 14 people paid for the ineptitude with their lives. And no one was found liable. Pitiful. Also, if it was suspected that the platform was failing, why on Earth would they take any chances? Why didn't they block it off until a proper inspection could be performed? So sad.
HELLOOO IM BACK AGAIINN YOU HAVE BLESSED US WITH A VIDEO
I love living in the western world where we learn from our mistakes, even actively displaying them instead of covering it up and pretending it didn't happen.
I'm not an engineer or architect or know anything about building and I know this is a bad idea. How did this get approved, funded, and built without anyone stopping it?
Well, the right-wing govt at the time had just done a whole lot of regulation loosening around construction and resource consenting. Red tape gets in the way of development, and such.
"Hey, I need a platform built, can you recommend someone?"
"Yeah, my brother can do it. He's not a contractor or anything, but I'm sure it'll turn out fine"
Always keep in mind: if it was built by a person, there’s always a chance of mistakes or cut corners.
one of the clearest memories of my early tweens. Thank you for your attention to detail. kia ora
I remember when it happened and it was big news for a while.
well, this is the reason im scared of heights, not because i can`t stand my ground, but the structure under me somewhere we should not be... Rip young souls :/
it took an HOUR after the collapse to even contact help??? oh my god
edit: I know nz has isolated areas and a lot of nature, I'm more so talking about how it only took so long because they didn't have the keys to the car and had to call for help on foot. Just shocked at that extra detail, can't imagine how awful it must have been.
Yep but it's a pretty isolated place. Things like this lack of permits is a bit of a theme on the west coast of nz
The reason the part of this country is so beautiful is because it's insanely uninhabitable. Just cliffs, mountains, ocean, rivers and dense greenery. Driving through the Alps inland of the area, is just constant winding up and down mountains
There are places around there you can't even get to on foot.
I worked at refineries that mandated that all small vehicles remain unlocked with keys in the ignition, in case disaster necessitated evacuation. I can picture that this came from fire evacuations in which people were hurt.
This might be the most reckless public construction I've ever heard about.
Man, usually these things are one or two mistakes but this thing was literally incompetence at every step lol
I’ve always been afraid of these types of things due to heights but I always thought this was way to high of a possibility for me to walk out on one
In NZ a Cavecreek is a noun for an unsafe balcony
When you have a structure that overhangs a gulf or void, you definitely need a structural engineer in charge of everything. It's really sad that those people died, and it sounds and looks like it could have been avoided.
This is like Michael Jackson being administered propofol by a cardiologist.
It was TRULY horrifying. Never rely on the builders with lack of experience to built that platform.
Im Glad that WorkSafe is Totally a Thing Here Nowadays
They're pretty limp wristed ambulance at the bottom of the cliff already. Don't let the current government make it worse.
A cantilever platform has to be engineered precisely..and to think this happened in the 90's..
~~Before watching, I'm wondering if it was poorly maintained and allowed to deteriorate, or if it was made improperly where it allowed the thing to fall apart or the ground it was on eroded away~~
Edit: That was...not what I was expecting. It really boils down to the mindset of that era before getting permits and the like was far more regulated. Good intentions with lack of knowledge/permits led to devastating consequences.
My wife’s friend is an engineer working for the Auckland city council, she says still to this day departments beg her to sign off on projects that are not within the scope of her expertise. She doesn’t of course but there are surely other instances like this still happening.
That time period was under a government that was strongly in favour of de-regulation and "cutting red tape". A lot of people will always want to take shortcuts but it was definitely an attitude that came from above during the 90s. Another problem caused by the same beliefs was the "leaky homes" crisis (there's a wikipedia page about it under that name) caused largely by the Building Act 1991 which came into law in 1993 (the same year the platform was built) and the government ending apprentice training schemes. Builders used all kinds of shortcuts to just get the job done, while councils approved things that should never have been approved, and with our often damp and cold climate it's resulted in incredibly unhealthy homes that contribute to us having one of the highest rates of respiratory illnesses in the Western world. Thanks, National!
There WERE regulations, the govt of the time just substantially relaxed them, as @littlebear274 said.
How could they use a deck like that that wasn’t done professionally by people who had no idea what they were doing? Wasn’t checked by pros to make sure it’s built strong enough? Crazy.
Why would anyone in their right mind step onto a platform hanging halfway off of a cliff? Not to mention putting all their weight on the half that’s hanging off a cliff! 🤦♂️
The sheer incompetence leading to this tragedy is mind-boggling.
Are you the same voice as in the South Park, I never should have gone ziplining?
Now I can't unhear it!