At around 11:25am on the 28th of April 1995 a group of students from the
Tai Poutini Polytechnic at Greymouth in New Zealand crowded onto a viewing
platform high above Cave Creek in the Paparoa National Park on South Island.
The viewing platform collapsed, sending the entire group tumbling into the chasm
below. The vast majority did not survive the fall.
Paparoa is a New Zealand National Park famous for its forests and unique rock
formations. Cave Creek, one of its most popular sites, is a small stream which
emerges from a cave system at the bottom of a four-storey deep chasm. The viewing
platform, erected in 1994, enabled visitors to venture out over that chasm
and look down at the emerging stream below. A large group of students from the
outdoor recreation course at the nearby Tai Poutini Polytechnic visited the park
that day, but split into two groups early on. The first group comprised of 17
students along with a Department Of Conservation officer as a guide,
approached the platform and ventured out onto it. Survivors recall marveling at
how flimsy the platform felt. Despite this they trusted that it had been
constructed safely and evaluated by a qualified engineer. They were wrong. The
platform was a deathtrap.
With all 18 people from the group on it the platform collapsed, tumbling down
into the chasm below. The victims fell 30 meters (almost 100 foot) before landing on
jagged rocks.
The second group (from whom the first had split off not long before) arrived
at the location shortly after the collapse. A Department Of Conservation officer
from that group, along with one student, ran back along the trail to fetch help.
Upon reaching their vehicles, however, they discovered that they did not have
the keys. The student ran on foot to a nearby house to call the police.
The first police officer took two hours to arrive at the site of the incident on
foot. Helicopters and rescue equipment soon followed. Four seriously injured
students were extracted from the canyon. The remaining 14 people who had been
standing on the platform when it collapsed had passed away. An inquiry
into the disaster revealed that the platform had been improperly constructed,
and was bound to collapse at some point. Among the most egregious issues with it
was the fact that it had not been designed or approved by a qualified
engineer. Furthermore the platform was not bolted into the rock on which it was
built; instead nails had been used to secure it.
Additionally the steps to the platform were not attached properly, the platform
had never been granted building consent nor listed or inspected, and warning
signs suggesting a maximum of five people on the platform at any one time
had been ordered but never installe. The root cause of all these issues, the
inquiry found, was a systemic issue with the Department Of Conservation. The
organization had been given an immense and difficult task but had not been
given the funding to accomplish it, leading to the cutting of corners and
improper construction work. Following this determination the Department Of
Conservation inspected more than 520 structures across its parks and 65 were
closed for repairs. Many were removed and safety notices were added to others. 2.6
million dollars in compensation was paid to the families of the victims, but there
were no prosecutions as the Department Of Conservation was a national entity
and law at the time did not permit the crown to prosecute itself. New Zealand
laws have since been changed to ensure that even government departments can be
held to account. A memorial plaque was unveiled in 1996, and in 1998 the track
(closed to visitors after the accident) reopened. New stairs were installed but
the viewing platform - that poorly made structure that claimed so many lives - was
never rebuilt.