Edinburgh schoolgirl killed by falling wall. April 1st. '14

zwiebel

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A 12 year-old Edinburgh schoolgirl has been crushed to death after an interior wall fell on her. Pupils allege warnings had been raised about an unstable wall in a changing area, known as 'the old gym'.

The victim has been named as Keane Grace Wallis-Bennett. She was in her first year at the school.

The incident happened at Liberton High School. Edinburgh City Council was fined £8,000 in February after a 15 year-old pupil at the school was seriously injured when she fell 16feet as teachers tried to free her from a trapped lift.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/wendy-richards-missing-police-launch-3276204

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/apr/01/edinburgh-schoolgirl-dies-wall-collapsed
 

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The wall was a 'freestanding modesty wall'.

I have one of those. Made of glass bricks. To fall down, it would need to rip about 12 solid steel rods out of the wall, as well as a steel frame on the floor. I cannot comprehend how this happened. I thought it must have been an ancient stone wall and that's why it fell. Now it's sounding like it was a modern one.
 
Just speculation; modern interior walls are usually timberframe and lightweight. They are unlikely to kill you if they fell on you. So they don't need foundations.

Please don't tell me someone built a brick interior wall at this school, without proper foundations. I'm struggling to think why else a brick wall would fall - unless it wasn't properly joined to an adjoining, existing wall.....
 
No, it was 'freestanding'. So no fixings to anything adjoining. Just the floor. So it must be lack of foundations then?
 
Terrible incident. Really shocking, another girl in the UK going to school never to come home. Seen many of those over the years. Can't say it's unexpected, the government now need to wake up to these budget cuts. It's terrible.
 
'She was our princess who dreamed of being prime minister.'

'I told staff months ago but nothing was done. I think they should have done something about it. I reported it, about two months ago, that the wall had moved when I leaned on it. The member of staff said it would be fine.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...y-wall-got-ready-PE-lesson-changing-room.html

The tragedy has been raised in the House of Commons during Prime Minister's Question Time. David Cameron has spoken about it.
 

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From this tender for electrical maintenance contractors, I'm guessing Edinburgh contract out other maintenance work too?

https://in-tendhost.co.uk/cityofedinburghcouncil/aspx/Tenders/Forthcoming

But really, the most important question is, who built that wall originally? Interior walls are not subject to the elements like exterior ones - it shouldn't have just collapsed like that. It's only about 40 years old. If one wall was dangerous, others could be too. I hope they check the roof too.

I wouldn't let my child go back into that school, with or without a safety report - even structural engineers can only see so much with the naked eye. It's put the entire building into question as far as I'm concerned and I would love to know who built it.
 
Terrible incident. Really shocking, another girl in the UK going to school never to come home. Seen many of those over the years. Can't say it's unexpected, the government now need to wake up to these budget cuts. It's terrible.

You have a valid point about maintenance aviator. I think there must have been a problem with the original building of the wall though - which must have been paid in full for or it wouldn't be there. What do you think?
 

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