Scaffolding at a construction site in Sydney collapsed for the second time in weeks on Tuesday, crushing two parked cars and narrowly missing a cyclist and a passing motorist.
The steel structure, stacked two storeys high at the Wattle Street site in Ultimo, buckled during strong winds and fell across several lanes of traffic. Fire and Rescue NSW said the collapsed section was about 20 metres long and 10 metres high.
“When we arrived on scene, there was a large section of scaffolding laying across a few lanes of traffic,” Matthew Sigmund from Fire and Rescue NSW said.
The scaffolding was torn away from the building, with the two cars underneath caught in the collapse. Crews checked the vehicles and confirmed that nobody was inside.
“Our crews did investigate to make sure there was no one in the vehicles and there wasn’t, which was a good outcome,” Mr Sigmund said.
Second collapse at Sydney construction site
The incident follows the collapse of part of the same building last month, when two men were seriously injured after being trapped beneath hundreds of falling bricks.
No one was hurt in Tuesday’s collapse, but an investigation is under way into how two dangerous incidents occurred at the site within weeks of each other.
Mr Sigmund said the specific cause of the scaffolding collapse had not been established, although significant weather was reported in the area at the time.
“I don’t know the specific cause of the scaffolding collapse, but at this stage there was significant weather in the area at the time, so it is likely to be the case,” he said.
The building is being gutted to make way for student accommodation. One witness said whoever was responsible for the building needed to be held accountable.
