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No fence around deadly log pile

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Fri, 10 Feb 2012 8:50a.m.

Police say there was no fencing around the log pile

Police say there was no fencing around the log pile

A five-year-old boy was killed in the grounds of a Motueka school last night when a log rolled off a log pile and crushed him.

Glen Eric Takaro Temiha-Barlow was with his parents, visiting friends at a nearby house.

Police say there was no fencing around the log pile, which was stacked three to four logs high on Motueka High's rugby field, at the time of the accident.

Acting Senior Sergeant Rob Crawford told Radio New Zealand a group of children were “playing on top of the logs and jumping up and down on them”, which may have caused a log to become loose and roll off the stack.  

The logs were cut from some rotting poplars that the Tasman District Council said the school was required to fell.  They were stacked on Wednesday night and were due to be removed today.

Mr Crawford said OSH is investigating the lack of fencing around the pile.

Police and The Department of Labour are investigating.

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Comments

10 Feb 2012 10:05p.m.

Human wrote:

Open your hearts a family has lost their child, that kind of sorrow is to hard to even imagine. Need we look to blame first, please open your hearts..... send only aroha so healing can one day start....please.

10 Feb 2012 01:21p.m.

Shaun wrote:

Again it comes down to supervision....if the kids were being looked after properly, this wouldn't have happened. Where were the adults?

10 Feb 2012 10:53a.m.

Garyb wrote:

Lloyd - that's an unfair question - a school is supposed to be a safe place. Parents are criticised enough for not encouraging their children to play outside. As long as adequate funding was at hand - the area should have been fenced. If the school did not have adequate funding to provide for a safe environment - then the responsibility leads back to the Ministry of Education.

10 Feb 2012 10:30a.m.

nigel wrote:

Imagine how the poor chap that piled them up must be feeling, he never would have thought of it.

10 Feb 2012 10:25a.m.

LLOYD wrote:

So where were the parents or older brothers that should have been supervising the 5year old?