NSW: Call for upgrade of car parks after driver death plunge
By Margaret Scheikowski19 Jan 2009 4:45 PM
SYDNEY, Jan 19 AAP - A coroner has called for the upgrading of older multi-storey above-ground car parks in NSW, after finding a Sydney driver's death was an "accident waiting to happen".
Thomas Lee, a 34-year-old information technology engineer, died when the car he was reverse parking plunged backwards through safety rails on the second floor of the Carlton Crest Hotel car park, in central Sydney.
In delivering his findings at Glebe Coroners Court on Monday, Deputy NSW Coroner Hugh Dillon said Mr Lee's wife Michelle had the horrifying experience of witnessing the tragedy in March 2006.
"This was not a freak accident but an accident waiting to happen," he said, adding there was no evidence Mr Lee was in any way at fault.
The Sydney City Council-approved car park, erected in the late 1980s and owned by Mirvac since 2007, did not comply with the current Australian Standard for construction work.
Mr Dillon said the 1981 Standard, as it had been interpreted by some engineers and planners before a relevant advice note was removed in 1989, was "unsafe".
The inquest was told the note was used by some engineers as a "cop-out" clause to avoid installing expensive steel barriers, instead relying on concrete wheel stops to bear the brunt of an impact.
But he said the evidence showed that, at least in March 2006, maintenance work was not carried out on the wheel stops, which had failed to stop Mr Lee's car before it went straight through the barrier.
Despite a superficial appearance of considerable strength, the barrier provided "no practical resistance" to his car and did not even meet the standard for pedestrians.
"Although they look solid, they were not designed to withstand live loads from motor vehicles," he said.
Among his recommendations, he called on the NSW government to ensure councils have powers to conduct audits of above-ground car parks built before 1989 to determine whether they are in need of urgent upgrading.
Further, all local councils should be advised to contact car park owners and operators in their areas, notifying them of the flaw discovered in the 1981 Standard.
They should be put on notice "that reliance on wheel stops as the primary safety barrier in above-ground car parks may place users of car parks at risk".
"Any such advisory letter sent to car park owners ought to suggest that the owners seek legal advice about questions of legal liability for accidents," he concluded.
Outside the court, Michelle Lee broke down as she spoke of the grief caused by the sudden death of her husband, who had just been "parking our car".
"Over these years, I have always had faith that God would bring something good out of this devastating tragedy," she said.
"I believe that the coroner's recommendation is that silver lining in an otherwise dark cloud."
She said she prayed all of the coroner's recommendations would be implemented.
