16 dead in South Korea during Kpop concert, due to vent grate collapse, Safety official in charge de
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[IMG]http://jto.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/f-4minute-a-20141019-870x592.jpg[/IMG]
[QUOTE][B]At least 16 people have been killed and 11 injured in an accident at a pop concert in Seongnam, south of Seoul in South Korea, officials say.[/B]They say a ventilation grate collapsed and a group of concert-goers fell 10 metres (33ft) into an underground parking area.
The crowds had been watching an outdoor performance by the popular Korean girl band 4Minute and other bands.
The victims climbed on top of the grate to get a better view of the show.
Rescue workers warn that the death toll may rise.
[B]'Sucked into a hole'[/B]"Twelve people were killed at the scene, two others died while they were being rushed to the hospital. Others are assumed to have passed away while receiving medical treatment," a local fire official was quoted as saying by South Korea's Yonhap news agency.[/QUOTE]
[url]http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-29660885[/url]
[QUOTE]SEOUL – An official dealing with safety measures at a concert in South Korea where 16 people died when the grate they were standing on collapsed, apparently committed suicide hours after the tragedy, authorities said Saturday.The death of the 37-year-old local government official, surnamed Oh, was announced as South Korean police launched an investigation into Friday’s accident, which took place during an outdoor pop concert in the city of Seongnam.
The victims were standing on a large ventilation grate to get a better view of the show when it collapsed under their weight, sending them plunging 18.7 meters (62 feet) down into an underground parking area.
Amateur video footage obtained by YTN news channel showed shocked spectators surrounding the collapsed grate as the popular all-girl K-pop band 4Minute, apparently oblivious to the accident, continued performing on stage.
Disaster relief spokesman Kim Nam-Jun told journalists Saturday that Oh, who worked with a group sponsoring the concert, apparently committed suicide after jumping off a building nearby.
He was found dead early Saturday a few hours after he was interrogated by police over the accident, YTN TV said.
Kim also said authorities had inspected the site Saturday.
“A joint team of police and national forensic experts scoured the site this morning and closely inspected gratings and related structures,” he said.
Police have questioned 15 people, including officials of the local Internet news provider that financed and organized the concert, Yonhap news agency said.
“If it turns out that safety regulations were ignored, we would bring criminal charges against them,” a police official was quoted as saying by Yonhap.
Witnesses told media there were no security guards or safety fences to prevent overflowing spectators from climbing onto the grate, after some 400 prepared chairs were fully occupied well before the concert kicked off.
More than 700 people were believed to be attending the concert.
“Many people on the vent gratings were chanting and dancing to the music. I was worried about their safety but there were no security guards around,” a 45-year-old man who runs a restaurant near the site was quoted as saying by Chosun Ilbo newspaper.
“The show host repeatedly told the spectators to come off the grate but no one paid heed to the warning,” another witness told the paper.
Safety engineering expert Chung Jae-Hee of Seoul National University of Science and Technology said the incident was another “man-made” disaster.
“Basic safety precautions were all brushed aside. The organizers of the show should have at least set up temporary safety fences or deployed security guards there,” he said.
“These kind of safety hazards are latent in many places all over this country.
“Over the past decades, economic expansion always took precedence over safety concerns, resulting in the lack of safety-consciousness among Koreans.”
The incident came as South Korea is still grappling with the aftermath of the Sewol ferry disaster in April that left more than 300 dead, most of them high school students.
The Sewol disaster prompted government promises of a national review of safety standards, as it became clear that poor regulatory oversight was a major contributor to the scale of the tragedy.[/QUOTE]
[url]http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/10/18/asia-pacific/korean-safety-official-dies-in-apparent-suicide-after-concert-tragedy/#.VEJgXiKUc08[/url]
20+ people on this kind of things is a safety risk.
I have a morbid fear of grates (any covering), I always walk around them or jump them.
By the look of the picture, the grate wasn't covering that large of a fall around the edges, but the middle there is a small square whole which is probably where most of them fell down, if the entire thing had been a hole the numbers would've probably been higher.
From the size of the grate you could probably fit 60-70 people on it easy.
[QUOTE=Bradyns;46268122]I have a morbid fear of grates (any covering), I always walk around them or jump them.[/QUOTE]
I feel really uncomfortable walking over them too. I always feel like it'll collapse.
Well that wasn't very grate at all.
Didn't the captain of that ferry that capsized in South Korea a year or two back off himself as well?
God those things always terrified me, now I'm even more terrified of them now I guess.
[QUOTE=download;46268199]Didn't the captain of that ferry that capsized in South Korea a year or two back off himself as well?[/QUOTE]
No, the captain got caught, the owner off himself.
Grates coincide with my fear of heights. If it's a grate that leads to like, a 10ft drop into the sewers, I don't mind that much. But 33ft? Hell no.
Easy to put the blame on the organisation of the concert, but the fact is that when looking at the image it's obvious those grates were not designed to stand on in it's urban design. Just look at the height difference to the pavement/plaza and there's even plants next to it. Aside from that I don't even think those grates are made to hold 20+ people dacing to a rythm.
It's quite sad how far organisations have to go with safety because people just lack common sense these days.
This strikes me as more of an engineering oversight and a failure in urban planning/design.
It's grate without any back up safety features covering a drop of lethal height, placed in an area open to the public at below chest level. Knowing that it's so easily accessible to the public, it should've been expected that the grate would have to bear the weight of people and it should've been designed (and over engineered far in excess for) to be able to support the load of however many people can be crammed to stand on top of the grate's surface area.
Typical engineering safety factors range from 2 to 3 times the maximum design load, and metal grates are actually really fucking strong. There is no reason that grate should've been allowed to fail under any human generated force.
[QUOTE=Zeemlapje;46268309]Easy to put the blame on the organisation of the concert, but the fact is that when looking at the image it's obvious those grates were not designed to stand on in it's urban design. Just look at the height difference to the pavement/plaza and there's even plants next to it. Aside from that I don't even think those grates are made to hold 20+ people dacing to a rythm.
It's quite sad how far organisations have to go with safety because people just lack common sense these days.[/QUOTE]
Ya, if those concert goers were jumping to the beat, it'll definitely give way.
Picture of people on the grate a few minutes before it collapsed:
[IMG]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B0JVWbpCYAAbHoF.jpg:large[/IMG]
[QUOTE=darunner;46268603]Picture of people on the grate a few minutes before it collapsed:
[IMG]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B0JVWbpCYAAbHoF.jpg:large[/IMG][/QUOTE]
Could we assume that it was because they were all in such a centralised part rather than the entire grate? Like, if they had spread out more, would it have been more likely the grate wouldn't have collapsed?
Personally, I think them trying to find who is "at fault" is stupid. No one is, that's the primary definition of an accident.
[QUOTE=darunner;46268603]Picture of people on the grate a few minutes before it collapsed:
[IMG]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B0JVWbpCYAAbHoF.jpg:large[/IMG][/QUOTE]
Those at the right side must feel extremely lucky their section didn't give way.
[QUOTE=Dukov Traboski;46268719]Personally, I think them trying to find who is "at fault" is stupid. No one is, that's the primary definition of an accident.[/QUOTE]
The definition of accident only implies the lack of intent not the lack of fault.
Engineers are ethically responsible for the safety of everyone who relies on their designs, and the blame for a failure like this one caused due to oversight falls squarely on the engineers who did not make the sufficient effort to safely account for reasonably predictable real world scenarios that may occur.
There's a reason engineers must be qualified and designs heavily scrutinized - to do any less is criminal negligence.
[QUOTE=Dukov Traboski;46268719]Personally, I think them trying to find who is "at fault" is stupid. No one is, that's the primary definition of an accident.[/QUOTE]
have you never taken an OSHA course? theres no such thing as a fault-less accident.
either the concert organizers, the engineers that designed it, and/or the people themselves are at fault.
[QUOTE=Dukov Traboski;46268137]By the look of the picture, the grate wasn't covering that large of a fall around the edges, but the middle there is a small square whole which is probably where most of them fell down, if the entire thing had been a hole the numbers would've probably been higher.[/QUOTE]
Also I missed this post earlier but if the whole thing had been a hole it's very likely the thing wouldn't have collapsed in the first place.
Similar to the way I-beams retain nearly all the strength of a normal beam, a grate should in theory retain nearly all the strength of a full metal plate of the same thickness. The grate in this case failed because someone apparently didn't put any thought into the load bearing ability of the center beam.
[QUOTE=sloppy_joes;46268962]have you never taken an OSHA course? theres no such thing as a fault-less accident.
either the concert organizers, the engineers that designed it, and/or the people themselves are at fault.[/QUOTE]
It's the band's fault for being popular enough to make people want to climb on top of a grate to see them!
I can't find out how deep the hole was. Anyone know?
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