Setyembre 5, 2023

"An estimated 60 to 80 people were on the [UW Memorial Union] pier when it collapsed, police and fire officials said..."

"... but only those on the end of the pier, where it makes a 90-degree turn to the east, went into the water, said Debra Drewek, a retired nurse who happened to be at the Terrace taking pictures when the collapse occurred.... 'There were way too many kids on the piers. They were packed,' Drewek said. 'There was no warning. All of a sudden it went down and people were in the water.' Many swam to shore while others clung to the pier that had collapsed or to the pier that remained standing.... The video shows dozens of people falling into the water or riding the pier down as it collapsed.... 'A lot of kids were crying because they had laptops, wallets and phones underwater,' Drewek said."

45 komento:

Aught Severn ayon kay ...

I failed to see any kids there, can someone please point them out?

gilbar ayon kay ...

people Think that lakes are just polite spots, for taking pretty pictures..
They're NOT! They're vicious killers, that WANT to Kill you!

Michael P ayon kay ...

How fortunate that the one hospitalization is for non-life threatening injuries! I hope that person and all the others who were injured recover quickly. Wounded pride and lost electronics are a relatively low cost for this lesson in loading factors and overcrowding.

Dave Begley ayon kay ...

I’ve been there!

rrsafety ayon kay ...

Laptops?

Rusty ayon kay ...

University is gonna get sued for not maintaining their pier.

Jake ayon kay ...

Not exactly tragic.

Temujin ayon kay ...

Between the pier collapsing and a UW female student getting badly beat up, it sounds like it was a wild weekend in Madison.

planetgeo ayon kay ...

The one thing we know for sure from seeing that video with that many students on it and how that "pier" was constructed is that those weren't engineering student.

Old and slow ayon kay ...

At first I expected to see kids in the video. Just silly young adults.

rehajm ayon kay ...

glad it wasn’t worse. My instant reaction to the pic was rickety

BUMBLE BEE ayon kay ...

A striking variant to Fudd's First Law of Opposition,,,
"If you push something hard enough it will fall over".

rwnutjob ayon kay ...

Apparently they don't teach physics anymore. Hell those kids couldn't even make change

Birches ayon kay ...

Lol

jim ayon kay ...

"University is gonna get sued for not maintaining their pier."

And someone's going to get sued for building it in the first place. Hard to say from the video whether those myriad little 4x4 posts had rotted or if they had no proper footings, but the problem is they all shifted when the left/shore side failed.

Luck this was shallow water, I assume. What's the lake bottom like?

gspencer ayon kay ...

"Oh the humanity!"

[Warning: some rich kids got wet; some lost electronic devices; go-fund-me page now active]

Aggie ayon kay ...

Puny pier puts partying punks plunging into pond! Kenosha Kops konfirm: Katastrophe klaims kountless komputers!

Next up: Sports

Roger Sweeny ayon kay ...

Youth is wasted on the young.

Chuck ayon kay ...

Extremely odd, that they would have a catastrophe at Wisconsin-Madison on a weekend when the Badgers were not playing Michigan.

Unlike

other

ones.

Mark ayon kay ...

Proof they no longer teach common sense in school.

Original Mike ayon kay ...

"The one thing we know for sure from seeing that video with that many students on it and how that "pier" was constructed is that those weren't engineering student."

The engineering students were all in the library.

tim maguire ayon kay ...

That is one flimsy looking pier. I'm not surprise it couldn't handle being fully loaded. While they may not have been able to predict the collapse, common sense should have been enough to tell them to leave their electronics on dry land--things were bound to get wet out there.

Heartless Aztec ayon kay ...

A long walk off a short pier.

rcocean ayon kay ...

Well kids, thats what happens when you give into pier pressure.

Paul ayon kay ...

What idiots.... college kids... oh, yea, the 'best and brightest'... All trying for the Darwin Awards.

Patrick Henry was right! ayon kay ...

Inspected by an equity engineer.

Jersey Fled ayon kay ...

I guess they don’t have an engineering department at UW Madison.

Fred Drinkwater ayon kay ...

How did that rickety thing survive winter, and winter ice on the lake?

Jaq ayon kay ...

Live and learn.

MadisonMan ayon kay ...

I wonder where the Life Guard was. Maybe they're not working after school starts?
It's been a long time since I was on the pier (decades ago as a student I would swim there now and again). I don't recall seeing weight limit signs.

Yancey Ward ayon kay ...

Young people are stupid when it comes to physics. Had I walked by that scene in the photograph, I would have warned them that it might collapse. Seen enough stories in my lifetime about collapsed decks to immediately recognize the danger.

To paraphrase Roger Sweeney above, wisdom is wasted on the elderly.

Rusty ayon kay ...

Jim said,
"Luck this was shallow water, I assume. What's the lake bottom like?"
Condoms and coed cadavers.

Fred Drinkwater ayon kay ...

What kind of idiot would take a laptop, or anything at all valuable, into that crowd on that pier?

These people vote. And I am informed that I should not, because I'm old and outdated and have nothing at stake.

Bill R ayon kay ...

It would have been even funnier if it was Virginia Tech.

BarrySanders20 ayon kay ...

So ... my UW student daughter was swimming off that pier 15 minutes before it collapsed. She and her roommates got bad vibes from how crowded it was, and after they were done swimming, decided not to climb back on. That looked similar to the porch collapses that happen in off-campus college towns. Too many people on shitty infrastructure - MarySanders20 got lucky and hopefully knows now to continue to use common sense and avoid the mass student events/porch parties. And never getting into any situation where she is walking home alone at 3 am.

campy ayon kay ...

Pier pressure has always been an issue for the yooths.

lonejustice ayon kay ...

I've been on that pier. It was a beautiful warm early fall weekend. But it was not crowded like it was in the video. I'm guessing it was never designed to support so many people.

MadisonMan ayon kay ...

How did that rickety thing survive winter, and winter ice on the lake?
It's removed in cold weather.

Fred Drinkwater ayon kay ...

Yancey,

My father use to regale the very young me with tales from his "Strength of Materials" classes at U.Chicago. 5 year old me was enthralled.

gspencer ayon kay ...

"for the yooths."

According to Vinnie, it's spelt "yutes."

Mr. Forward ayon kay ...

Thread winner!

"Blogger rcocean said...
Well kids, thats what happens when you give into pier pressure."

Fred Drinkwater ayon kay ...

Removed in cold weather...

So. Temporary, or non-existent, foundation. Light construction overall. No supervision by owner. Children of privilege.

What's the over-under on the lawsuit count?

RMc ayon kay ...

Shouldn't a university have better pier review...?

Ha! I kill me.

Butkus51 ayon kay ...

college students are smart

Mason G ayon kay ...

Tags: disaster

Disaster? 'A lot of kids were crying because they had laptops, wallets and phones underwater,'

Maui was a disaster.

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