From "Pier collapse at UW-Madison Union Terrace injures 20 and sends one to the hospital" (Kenosha News).
September 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."
From "Pier collapse at UW-Madison Union Terrace injures 20 and sends one to the hospital" (Kenosha News).
From "Pier collapse at UW-Madison Union Terrace injures 20 and sends one to the hospital" (Kenosha News).
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45 comments:
I failed to see any kids there, can someone please point them out?
people Think that lakes are just polite spots, for taking pretty pictures..
They're NOT! They're vicious killers, that WANT to Kill you!
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.
I’ve been there!
Laptops?
University is gonna get sued for not maintaining their pier.
Not exactly tragic.
Between the pier collapsing and a UW female student getting badly beat up, it sounds like it was a wild weekend in Madison.
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.
At first I expected to see kids in the video. Just silly young adults.
glad it wasn’t worse. My instant reaction to the pic was rickety
A striking variant to Fudd's First Law of Opposition,,,
"If you push something hard enough it will fall over".
Apparently they don't teach physics anymore. Hell those kids couldn't even make change
Lol
"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?
"Oh the humanity!"
[Warning: some rich kids got wet; some lost electronic devices; go-fund-me page now active]
Puny pier puts partying punks plunging into pond! Kenosha Kops konfirm: Katastrophe klaims kountless komputers!
Next up: Sports
Youth is wasted on the young.
Extremely odd, that they would have a catastrophe at Wisconsin-Madison on a weekend when the Badgers were not playing Michigan.
Unlike
other
ones.
Proof they no longer teach common sense in school.
"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.
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.
A long walk off a short pier.
Well kids, thats what happens when you give into pier pressure.
What idiots.... college kids... oh, yea, the 'best and brightest'... All trying for the Darwin Awards.
Inspected by an equity engineer.
I guess they don’t have an engineering department at UW Madison.
How did that rickety thing survive winter, and winter ice on the lake?
Live and learn.
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.
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.
Jim said,
"Luck this was shallow water, I assume. What's the lake bottom like?"
Condoms and coed cadavers.
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.
It would have been even funnier if it was Virginia Tech.
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.
Pier pressure has always been an issue for the yooths.
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.
How did that rickety thing survive winter, and winter ice on the lake?
It's removed in cold weather.
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.
"for the yooths."
According to Vinnie, it's spelt "yutes."
Thread winner!
"Blogger rcocean said...
Well kids, thats what happens when you give into pier pressure."
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?
Shouldn't a university have better pier review...?
Ha! I kill me.
college students are smart
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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