Schoolies safety scare
Audit reveals risks of highrise festival antics
SCHOOLIES is creating “extreme risks” where hotel staff are forced to intervene to stop fatalities or serious injury, a security audit says.
A confidential 2017 Schoolies Risk Assessment reveals the biggest fears surround the safety of visitors and staff in outdoor apartment building areas and pool decks.
Control measures put in place for this year’s event will require “security to be on the pool deck and face the towers” to watch for missiles being thrown at guests by the partying Year 12 students.
Other security staff are to monitor balconies on CCTV and identify drunk schoolies and ensure they are “evicted from the hotel”.
The Bulletin yesterday reported large body corporates will lobby the State Government for a Schoolies “exit strategy” after units were trashed last year.
The confidential security report, updated this month for Schoolies 2017, highlighted other high-risk areas, including: Schoolies climbing or leaning over the balconies SURFERS BUILDING MANAGER
where death.
Alcohol and drug intoxication a fall could cause which triggers property damage and abnormal behaviour, lending itself to “increased risk of sexual assault or suicide”.
Exceeding the maximum number in rooms set by the fire code leading to a panic during an evacuation.
The blocking of fire doors and obstructing evacuation routes causing “fire and smoke to travel faster and spread between floors and delay evacuation”.
Schoolies will get a full security briefing on arrival and staff must party rooms.
Management are to “maintain records of alcohol taken into each room and limit it to ensure responsible drinking”.
Photographs given to the Bulletin show schoolies blocking fire doors to give them access to the fire stairwells.
A building manager at a major Surfers Paradise apartment building said: “It’s now not a matter of if there will be a major catastrophe — a significant loss of life and injury — but simply when”. note potential
IT’S NOW NOT A MATTER OF IF THERE WILL BE A MAJOR CATASTROPHE — A SIGNIFICANT LOSS OF LIFE AND INJURY — BUT SIMPLY WHEN