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This happened in 2009


I was about 100 feet away as this shit came down.
The sound really didn't make sense until I turned around and saw the last bits coming down and it was VERY loud.
Not great photos because I took them on my phone.
I will post a few of my personal photos just after it came down, and the guys on that scaffolding are very lucky to survive.






News Today 16 March 2012
Today in the Melbourne Magistrates Court


A massive scaffolding collapse on a busy Melbourne shopping strip
could have claimed the lives of dozens of people, a court has heard.

The multi-level scaffolding came crashing down on
Commercial Road, near Grattan Street, in Prahran on February 23, 2009,
injuring three construction workers, one seriously, and just missing
passers-by.

Dramatic footage captured by a security camera reveals
how close a bus, two cyclists and a pedestrian came to being caught up
in the collapse.






The accident, that happened during the construction of
boutique art hotel The Cullen, damaged parked cars, tore down power
lines and closed the busy road.

Asia Pacific Building Corporation, the hotel's developer
and the company in charge of managing the site, today pleaded guilty in
Melbourne Magistrates Court to two charges relating to workplace safety
breaches.

WorkSafe Victoria prosecutor Ruth Shann said the accident
had the potential to cause dozens of deaths and it was lucky that most
of the site's workers were on a break when the scaffolding caved about
10am.

"If it weren't for smoko there would have been a lot of workers back on that structure," she said.



Three bricklayers working at the time of the accident were taken to hospital, the most seriously injured
suffered
broken ribs, a punctured lung, a fractured shoulder blade, broken neck
bones and chipped bones near his spine after falling debris caused him
to fall through a window opening and on to a concrete floor.

Another of the injured workers, who had to have plastic
surgery on his finger, managed to ride the scaffolding to the ground as
it crumpled.

The court heard the collapse had been caused by an
overloading of bricks on scaffold bays and alterations made to the
scaffold structure's original design.

Ms Shann said SMS Scaffolding, that was employed by Asia
Pacific to construct the scaffolding, had reduced the width of some
platforms from five to three boards and made changes that meant it no
longer complied with Australian standards.

Scaffolding bays were found loaded with brick stacks weighing up to three times the safe limit.
Bricklaying
company EGI pleaded guilty and was fined $100,000 last November for its
role in overloading the scaffolding. SMS' case has not yet been heard.

Michael Croucher, SC, for Asia Pacific, said the company
had not been aware of the dangerous work practices at the site but took
responsibility as head contractor.

"You have to wear ... these sorts of consequences," he said.



He agreed that three workers directly employed by Asia
Pacific had been at the site, including one responsible for occupational
health and safety.

Mr Croucher said while the company's safety procedures
had proved to be inadequate, there had been systems in place and the
family building business, that began in 1867 and had a good record, was
in no way a "slipshod operation".


Asia Pacific chair David Deague was in court and Mr Croucher
said he and the company took "the incident very seriously".



The court heard Mr Deague and family members had been
devastated by the accident and the company had since improved its safety
policies.

Ms Shann said Asia Pacific's role had been to coordinate
the contractors on site and the safety breaches had had been "serious
examples of very serious offences".


"They ought to have been all over their obligations,
ensuring they were actually implemented at every site," she said.



Magistrate Jan Maclean agreed it was lucky that no one had died in the accident.



"It was a fortuitous event indeed that no one was killed," she said.



She will hand down her sentence next week.



Each charge faced by Asia Pacific carries a maximum fine
of more than $1 million but as the case is being heard at the
Magistrates Court, the highest penalty that could be imposed would be
just over $280,000

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