The ACT Ambulance Service is currently on scene at the Hyatt Hotel Canberra, on Commonwealth Avenue, where an art display has collapsed.
Five people were injured in the collapse and were treated on scene by ACT Ambulance Service Intensive Care Paramedics. Four patients are currently being transferred to The Canberra Hospital for further assessment.
12:14pm Sunday 14 March 2012
[Courtesy ESA]
UPDATE 11/03/12 13:22: The Canberra Times is now reporting that they are in fact responsible for the injuries.
Four people have been taken to hospital after temporary walls displaying art works collapsed at the Hyatt Hotel, Canberra, earlier today.
ACT paramedics treated seven people at the scene of The Canberra Times Art Show.
It is believed someone leaned on the temporary wall, knocking it over and triggering a domino effect.One person has a suspected fractured arm, while two others will be assessed at hospital for possible neck injuries.
How long will the scourge of newspapers be allowed to wreak such carnage on our fair city?
UPDATE 11/03/12 22:45 Dacquiri has sent in pictures and video of the aftermath taken with an ancient Nokia:
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What’s Your opinion?
Collapsing art injures five at the Hyatt as the Canberra Times attacks
can you email to john@the-riotact.com ?
PantsMan said :
Now he’s removed it! Not in great taste me thinks.
I’ve got photos and video clips on my phone taken just after it happened, but can’t upload them anywhere unless someone’s got a cable for a Nokia 6131.
The walls would have been hired by CT for the event and setup by the supplier. They look to be the same type (probably even the same ones) I’ve seen used at other temporary art displays, e.g the Royal Canberra Show. I saw how it was built yesterday..stabilised at the ends and linked at the top for stability, which unfortunately also meant that they all fell together. Obviously they needed better bracing. This is sad for the charity that now won’t receive as much funding from the event, if anything at all. Worse still if CT decide such public events are just not worth the risk. I don’t suppose RA would step up? Somehow I doubt it.
That Hyatt needs a massive upgrade ive stayed there a lot and I mean a huge amount of time. Its not on the same level of class as a lot of overseas 5 star hotels. Not blaming the long time staff in anyway.
Andrew Bolt (I know, the lynch mob of left-wingers ready to drive me out of Canberra is forming as I speak), has this take on it:
Dacquiri said :
From the picture in the CT, it looks as though there were no feet.
Battlecat said :
I work there and I’m virtually certain the guy would have known, everyone knew. The thing is that staff have been ingrained, from the experience of multiple foreign delegation visits, to be incredibly secretive about everything (even if it’s blindingly obvious and people in the lobby are talking about it) to the point of farce.
TheDancingDjinn said :
There were chairs around the room and also mulitple couches just outside the room. But I guess if we had put a chair at the exact point where the person leaned against the wall than none of this would have happened, right?
So the walls at The Canberra Times Art Show are collapsing. A bit of a metaphor for the paper itself, eh?
The ninemsn site has it described that the people there were mostly elderly, and that someone had leant against a wall which caused a domino effect. Why if it was to have a heap of elderly there, wouldn’t someone put chairs for people to sit rather to lean on temporary walls that are not designed to have weight against them like a regular wall so to speak.
I was there when it happened. Pretty scary — we were lucky to have been towards the end, rather than in the middle, at the time and were able to get out quickly. We saw many fairly elderly people who did receive injuries, and most people seemed in a state of shock at what was a very surreal event. There are a number of obvious issues that no doubt will be looked at, including: whether the type of panels & their footings were simply insufficient to accomodate the weight of the artwork; whether the panel sections should have been smaller (would have probably minimised the diaster); whether the rows were too close together (they were — you couldn’t stand back to view the artwork); and whether some imbalance of the panels could have been due to artwork being removed as soon as it was purchased (a really bad decision, which turned the ‘art show’ into a mere ‘art sale’ and should have been advertised as such).
We went along to see this this afternoon, not knowing what had happened. We found the doors all closed and some poor kid at the welcome table meekly telling people that the show was closed. They had obviously sent the poor young guy out to deal with the arriving visitors and he really didn’t know what to say, so he just said “something happened and the show is closed.”
Perhaps the other workers/volunteers were dealing with more important things, but I felt sorry for the poor guy who had obviously been told not to tell what had actually happened and he was really uncomfortable..
I guess that’s one way of ‘making the news’.
At least now I understand why these events have signs like “Please don’t touch the paintings”. I used to think that was just because they didn’t want people damaging or stealing the artworks.
I’m just wondering if tomorrow’s “Beautifully Balanced Boulders” festival event will go ahead now on Corin Dam Road.
They were framed.
With photo here http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/four-hurt-in-art-show-mishap-20120311-1us65.html