Collapse due to vibration?

Press, 18 February 1984, Page 9

Collapse due to vibration?

PA Auckland Three men working on a Glendowie house when it collapsed on Thursday may have disturbed supports while using a vibrating roller to compact soil, said a Labour Department spokesman yesterday.

Two men were killed and one injured in the accident, which the department is investigating.

The men had been installing a basement beneath the house which was raised before Christmas and had been supported with braces and struts.

The supervising construction safety inspector for the Labour Department, Mr John Jordan, said he was

waiting for the house to be cleared of personal effects before investigating. He said his initial impression, however, was that the roller had disturbed the foundations or the struts supporting the house. “It was not necessarily a fault in the temporary structure supporting the building,” he said. “It was possibly just brought about by the conditions at the time.

“There is always a certain element of risk in something like this.” Mr Robert Littlejohn, a St Heliers building contractor, was still in Middlemore Hospital yesterday. He had an ankle and rib broken in the accident.