COLLAPSE OF SEATS

Press, Volume C, Issue 29444, 21 February 1961, Page 14

COLLAPSE OF SEATS

Wilding Park Incident

About 200 persons escaped injury when the front three rows ot a temporary open stand at Wilding Park collapsed just before the Harlem Globetrotters were about to begin the first Christchurch performance last evening. The rows of seats were at such a distance apart that spectators in the second and third rows had their feet beneath the planks in front f them, but the collapse of the structure was slow, and gave the spectators time to step clear safely. The Christchurch manager of Upright Scaffolding, Ltd., scaffolding contractors at Wilding Park (Mr W. Phillips) said last evening that a subsidence occurred when four seat trusses skewed at one end of the temporary stand The movement was limited to a small area, Mr Phillips said, and was checked by the continual line of tubes through the seating trusses. About 200 seats left vacant during the performance as a safety measure. Mr Phillips said the movement would be corrected and additional bracing incorporated in the structure today. After the Incident most of the spectators In the area affected returned to their seats, which were then much lower than they had been before. Those who had seats in the area left vacant were accommodated in other parts of the ground, where spectators were asked to make room by keeping closer. After the collapse of the seating. St. John Ambulance officers were quickly in attendance, but they had no cases to handle. The attendance at *the ’performance was about 3500