Injured still in hospital after deck collapse in Plett
WHILE the Plettenberg Bay restaurant deck which collapsed earlier this week is open for business again, several injured visitors are still in hospital recovering after surgery.
About eight people were injured when a group of patrons at the popular Lookout Deck Restaurant – mostly matriculants and their parents celebrating the end of the youngsters’ school careers – fell about 1.8m when one of the venue’s decks came crashing down late on Tuesday.
Three women suffered broken bones and had to undergo surgery. Two of them had broken ankles – one with an open fracture – and another broke her arm in five places.
“We all [three women] had to undergo surgery and will only be discharged in two or three days,” Karen Lotter, who broke her ankle, said from her hospital bed yesterday.
Johannesburg holidaymaker Lotter said the incident should not have happened and believed the deck had structural issues.”
Restaurant owner Chris Stroebel said it had come to light that “one of the deck fasteners” had broken after patrons “jumped up and down” causing one end of the struc- ture to collapse. “Fathers and their sons were taking part in a ‘down-down’ competition and the women who were injured were standing on the tables taking pictures.”
If he had seen the jumping, he said, he would not have allowed it.
However, Lotter said there had been no jumping and they had not been standing on the tables. Two of them were standing on benches taking pictures. “There was definitely no jumping.”
Brett Walker, of Durban, who was also on the deck on Tuesday, said a crack was heard before it collapsed. “The deck first dropped slightly and then collapsed,” he said. He suffered a few cuts and bruises.
His daughter Sarah was more severely injured and spent a night in hospital.
“My daughter had internal bleeding in her leg and possibly a fracture. We are waiting for the swelling to go down before we have more X-rays done. She is in a lot of pain.”
Walker and Lotter said they were very unhappy about what followed the collapse.
“At no stage did the owner announce the incident to patrons and apologise,” he said.
“He also did not even check on my daughter’s wellbeing, [even when] I went back to the restaurant to pick up my phone.”
But Stroebel said he had gone to see the injured in hospital and sent them all flowers. He said he and his staff were traumatised by the incident.
In the meantime, the Bitou Municipality demanded that the deck be closed until engineers had done an assessment and handed in a report stating the structure was safe.
Stroebel said engineers had worked around the clock since the incident to ensure that the deck was structurally sound and had given the green light on Thursday. The deck was opened for lunch yesterday.