Project manager talks of brush with death

A crossed beam saved the life of project manager Dave Hargood after tonnes of concrete collapsed on him at the Briscoes worksite in Masterton.
"I just ducked and lay on the ground in the dark. It was all I could do. I had nowhere to run," Mr Hargood said yesterday of the collapse in July of this year. He has not talked publicly about the incident before.
"Then I realised a concrete beam was propping up what came down otherwise I would have been one flat little turkey."
Mr Hargood, project manager for Masterton construction firm Rigg-Zschokke, was speaking after the release of a Department of Labour report into the early-evening collapse of a flooring section that was being poured above an underground car park during construction of the Briscoes building in Dixon Street on July 29.
The report cleared all involved parties of negligence and Mr Hargood, although traumatised, received only minor scrapes and bruises during the collapse.
Several other workers were also on site at the time, Mr Hargood said, including a colleague who was with him in the underground section, but was "standing quite a way back" when the flooring gave way.
He said he was covered in wet concrete and the entire worksite was plunged into darkness as the flooring fell.
"All the lighting got knocked out at the same time and everything just happened in an instant. It was so quick there was no time to think. We'd really only just started and were planning on working through until later that night. Mr Hargood said he crawled to safety in absolute darkness from beneath the collapsed section, which comprised about 60 tonnes of freshly-poured concrete.
"I'm just happy the report has cleared anyone of any blame and glad we got the job done on time. Everything came out well after all I suppose."
The worksite was locked down for several days after the collapse and Mr Hargood took time off work to recover after his narrow escape.
Dave Hulston, Department of Labour Wellington service manager, said the collapse "was the result of ambiguous instructions provided to the construction company (Rigg-Zschokke) about the bracing required for the pre-case floor sections".
"The construction company had followed the instructions and had checked them with their design engineer, who agreed with the interpretation." Mr Hulston said "as there was no negligence involved by the company, the department will not be taking any action against any of the parties involved" and that the precast concrete company that supplied the concrete beams and floor sections has amended their instructions to ensure "a similar mistake will not occur in the future".
Property developer Florus Bosch, who owns the building, said yesterday he is pleased the report has cleared the building company "like we knew it would" and described the collapse as "one of those things. Accidents happen and I'm very glad nobody was seriously injured or worse".
Rigg-Zschokke managing director Ian Hargreaves said the report had not found blame with any party but the collapse was a safety prompt for the Masterton firm and other construction companies.
"It forces you to look at your systems and processes because businesses are generally guilty of not doing that on a regular basis," he said.