Jumpers grounded
Police crack down on parkour practitioners
Kids are running rampant over roofs in Invercargill’s central business district and business owners are scared someone is going to die.
Earlier this year, 17-year-old George Hill was found dead between two buildings in Timaru. He was believed to have been climbing on roofs.
Invercargill police are taking action to prevent a similar tragedy, and that even means arresting the teens. A 15-year-old boy was charged with unlawfully entering a property in an incident last month, after climbing on a roof.
‘‘Over the past few months, police have attended a small number of calls of this nature, and have taken appropriate action in each instance,’’ police southern area commander Inspector Mike Bowman said.
Neville Cook, who manages a central Invercargill business, said the teenagers trespassing on properties might be having fun, but they were not thinking about anyone else’s safety.
‘‘It’s only a matter of time before someone falls off and is killed. It just takes one group to start it.’’
Some of the buildings the teens are running across are eight metres high. The block, situated in the centre of Invercargill, incorporates several large buildings with an open-air car park in the middle.
The site is set to be redeveloped and many of the buildings in the block are vacant.
Previously trespassing on the buildings occurred sporadically but the problem has worsened since late last month.
Police were called when someone threw material off the roof on to the street below, Cook said.
He had the roof cleared so the teenagers had nothing to throw at pedestrians.
Building owners said it was a health and safety issue, but they found it hard to find a way to stop the group of teens clambering about.
Thompson Property Group Invercargill manager Steve McVicar, who has a building on the outskirts of the central business district, said: ‘‘You can’t stop people, if they want to get up there they will find a way.’’
Kelvin Hotel general manager Aaron Mills said he knew people had tried to climb scaffolding currently surrounding the building.
‘‘We can’t stop determined people from trying, we called police directly because it’s a health and safety issue.’’
Also of concern is who would be held liable if someone was to fall off a building or through a roof.
University of Otago faculty of law associate professor Barry Allan said anyone injured on premises would be covered by ACC.
‘‘While there has been some acceptance in England and Australia that a building owner might have a duty of care in negligence, even to trespassers, any claim of that sort is ruled out by the [ACC] scheme.’’
While building owners had to ensure a workplace was safe for people who were there for lawful purposes, no such duty was owed to someone trespassing on the property, he said.
An ACC media spokesman agreed and said no-one would be held at fault if a trespasser fell, because ACC was a no-fault scheme.
‘‘The bottom line is, if kids are running across rooftops, fall through and get hurt, they are covered like everybody else.’’
New Zealand law did not give people the right to sue for injury.
It’s only a matter of time before someone falls off and is killed. Neville Cook