By CATHERINE MASTERS
A man was crushed to death and another worker taken to Auckland Hospital after a slab of concrete fell on them at a building site for new inner-city apartments yesterday afternoon.
The slab also sliced through a cable, cutting power for several hours to apartments surrounding the Parliament
St/Eden Cres site, not far from the Auckland High Court complex.
Emergency workers also had to contend with damage to a water pipeline.
The accident occurred about 4 pm, and the dead man's body was still lying pinned under concrete at the cordoned-off site hours later as Occupational Safety and Health inspectors and police investigated.
Alini Taumateine, who lives in apartments next to the site, was in her living room when she heard someone screaming for help.
The voice sounded "very in pain", she said, and she ran to dial 111.
A worker from another building site nearby told the Herald that he feared that recent heavy rain, combined with the effect of traffic in Parliament St, might have weakened a bank close to where the concrete wall that the slab was from collapsed.
Other nearby residents, many watching from their apartments, said work had been going on at the site day and night.
One said workers were there at "crazy hours". Another said the scene after the accident was chaotic.
Senior Sergeant Sharon Stephens said contractors had been putting a concrete slab wall on the Parliament St side of the site, which was where the accident took place.
She understood that part of the concrete wall fell in suddenly and that the dead man had had no chance.
She did not know what had caused the collapse.
