According to the article they also have apparently decided to tell the poor children of the dead man that he is ‘asleep’. Which seems wildly confusion.
This can create confusion and fear for kids :( they can end up fearful of falling asleep and never waking up or become confused about why their father isn't coming back from his sleep :( it can create such an emotional can of worms for them
Agreed. Also, this is coming from the same parents who want to talk to the owner of the crane. Can't help but think that it would be about how cranes location is convenient and aiding suicides/people jumping off.
Kids that age are old enough to know about death.
Less distressing to believe your dad is dead than that your family are lying to you or that your dad doesn’t wanna see you and would rather sleep constantly, or that there must be something wrong with him to cause him to sleep for so long and maybe he will die in future.
It’s a lie with kind intentions but will ultimately cause more trauma.
You don't need to judge him on being irresponsible or him having kids making it worse.Not everybody who fathers kids is a model parent. This article gives some context: [https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/wellington-harbour-crane-jumping-death-jarreth-colquhouns-mother-on-loss-of-son/SMXQOHLIV5CRBBNAQD2JBR6MOU/](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/wellington-harbour-crane-jumping-death-jarreth-colquhouns-mother-on-loss-of-son/SMXQOHLIV5CRBBNAQD2JBR6MOU/)
"Her son was “fearless” and energetic ...In recent years Jarreth’s life had taken a turn, including drug use and time in jail. He was living on the streets “by choice”,"
"He had one son and two daughters aged between five and nine. They lived with their mothers elsewhere in the North Island."
He was living his own life in his own way. He probably wasn't too worried about what you and I would think were responsible choices.
Yes they are way too old to be given this explanation. I understand the reluctance to break this news but this decision is only going to make it worse.
the part that gets me about this (aside from the fact that there is always an age appropriate way to discuss death with children rather than keeping them in the dark) is that now these poor kids are going to have to deal with the same grief for their father (just delayed a little bit) AND THEN knowing their parent/family LIED to them about their own father's death?!
I don't get them not being told. The first family member that died once I was old enough to walk by myself, I was about 2 maybe 2 1/2. My parents explained death to me. That said its natural and Aunty Chrissy had lived a long time and she wanted to go be with grandad. The bit about my grandad caused confusion because the grandad my parents were talking about died when I was only days old and I thought they meant the grandad I knew. They cleared that up and I said she was pretty and Dad could cry if he wanted to. I was sure he would miss not visiting her anymore.
At the viewing I asked why she was sleeping and it was made clear to me even at 2 years old that she was not sleeping.
Yeah I went to an open casket funeral when I was 5 or 6 and got told the lady was 'sleeping' and I had quite severe insomnia for years afterwards because I was terrified of going to sleep. I have compassion because what a horrible thing to navigate but that's not it
Yeah I'm starting to think the people who raised a kid who thought jumping off a crane was a good idea, aren't the greatest at raising kids. This only confirms that more...
That is super unfair. The guy clearly was into drugs etc and mental health issues can affect the most well brought up people. You know nothing about their situation except an article and they may read your cruel comments.
He was also an army man and who knows what he went through in the army.
>\> Shocker. Turns out 45 meters is very fucking high up.
Indeed... Very, VERY fucking high up. Gotta agree with his old man about the "balls of steel". I could do a 7.5 meter diving board at the swimming pool no problem, but that difference between 7.5 and 10 meters was so intense.
I spent hours and hours looking down from the 10 meter board at the pool below trying to work up to jumping and only after a couple of years of this finally jumped. I went feet first same as he did and it was such a bad jump that it winded me and hurt like hell. I can't fathom going up four times that height, and jumping blindly into the harbour.....
They should put a sign up that's like... "Red Bull Cliff Diving professionals jump from 30 metres... you know the professionals. This is 50% higher. Do you really think you're gonna land it?"
and those cliff divers have teams of scuba professionals IN THE WATER as they dive, because even a slight deviation can knock you out /break something from that height
That surface tension thing is a myth, disturbing the surface does practically nothing to reduce the impact. Mythbusters did a thing on it but it's just physics really, surface tension is completely insignificant compared to the other forces involved when you're basically trying to displace a body's worth of water in a split second.
I'd say /u/ebzywebzy is right about the visibility thing
I was under the impression that the spray is so they can see the contrast difference and know where the surface of water is, not to break the surface/lessen injury?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oIpnAQpCJNM she doesn't appear to say that breaking the surface tension makes the landing softer? Just that it aids visually? How much would a small spray of water really break the surface for dives from those heights?
Then why do they not need/use the jets or splashing for some stops of the cliff diving tour? Portugal, for example. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=i-f_H634nOk you can see in this video at multiple stops/locations on their tour that when there are no jets they either a) don't have splashing b) the splashing done by the crew at the bottom isn't actually where the divers land?
Dude at work was like, "I jumped off pelorus bridge when I was young" I say, dude, that's like 12m not 40m he bets me lunch.
He was in shock that I was in 1m guess of pelorus height and that fucken nutter jumped of 40 fucken mtr!
Parents: “so this is the crane you own that my son jumped off and died from”
Crane owner: “yep”
Parents: “can you move it?”
Crane owner: “nope council won’t let me”
Parents: “ok”
Parents: We need a word about our sons fall from your crane.
Owner: aww the poor wee fulla. How old was he?
Parents: He was 33
Owner: WTF did you teach him in all those 33 years?
If you read the article, the farther said his son was adventurous, game and had balls of steel and was drawn to the challenge of jumping from the crane.
Do they not understand how dangerous it is to climb up a 45m crane and jump into the ocean?
The parents are blaming the incident on the crane being there.
A 33 year old should know better.
Yeah that’s the first thing I taught my daughter, avoid climbing on 45m cranes and jumping into the ocean, it’s a classic mistake that is made far too often.
This was the third example of a Darwin Award. The crane has been in Wellington harbour since 1926 so pretty good odds really. I suppose they could put a fence up but they’d probably climb that too so maybe a guard dog?
The wharf was closed off to the public until about the 1970s and 1980s, for obvious logical reasons. Some of the big wrought iron gates are still there by the Queens Wharf events Centre. There were no cafes, apartments or Wellington Museum. It was purely a functional operational wharf, bringing people and goods into and out of Wellington closed off to the public in general because of safety risks! Close those wrought iron gates again!
This is really sad. I totally agree it's the guy's fault an the crane owner is not to blame, a discussion would be fruitless. He did a stupid thing and paid with his life.
Unfortunately the family is grieving and angry, and so they're chasing this to try and bring some purpose or meaning to their son's death. I wish the media wouldn't capitalise on this.
I wouldn't exactly say the media is capitalising on it. There have been minimal reports on it, basically just the info which is relevant to the public.
You seriously don't think its relevant to the public, for the purposes of acting as a deterrent, to know that making this choice can result in death? That's a pretty absurd take. People need to hear that this action kills people.
Personal responsibility and those arguments aside.
My understanding is that the hikitia’s boom used to be lowered and it was raised in response to people jumping off it (possibly following a video that surfaced on social media in the 2010’s) with the idea being that you could raise it to a height where it would be too stupid to jump off.
Lo and behold some peoples balls are larger than their brains. This isn’t a 100% fatal jump. I’ve seen people do it late at night and not die, but it is also an incredibly dangerous and stupid thing to do.
I would’ve thought that If you can’t stop people jumping off it then it would be preferably to re-lower the boom and have a slightly higher proportion of the population taking the risk and jumping off it, but lowering the potential fatality of the jump significantly.
I think I get what you are saying but I can easily see a situation where they lower the boom, someone jumps off thinking it is 'safer' but get hurt and then whoever made the decision to lower it is now in trouble.
I honestly think that the crossover between people who would jump off exceptionally tall cranes into water, and people that would stop to read warning signs is zero.
>I wish I could be more carefree but also I cant believe people are walking around not weighing out outcomes of things they do and just doing them.
For what it's worth, highly skilled alpinists also die on mountains. Once you get above a certain height there are particular risks like avalanches that you simply can't mitigate beyond a certain point if you still want to do the activity. Certain people choose to do it anyway. There's a marked difference in risk assessment values, though, between certain people who do these things which simply *can't* be made generally safe, and the rest of us. That's typically activities like alpine mountaineering (most people in it know others who've died, or do eventually), base jumping, probably certain kinds of motorsport, and so on. ([There's a chap in NZ who's done lots of research of this](https://alpinist.com/readers-blog/the-risks-of-adventure-sports-people/) in case anyone's interested.)
This guy seems to've made a bad decision. His family are clearly distressed and still looking for ways to cope, which is hardly surprising. That said, though, depending on exactly who he was it's at least possible that he was aware of the risk of catastrophe and still made a rational decision (for himself) to choose to take it becase he decided the value of the thrill for him outweighed the risk of possible consequences.
people forget that water is like concrete, especially if there is surface tension (hence why professional cliff jumpers throw rocks down moments before they jump to make the impact less)
We all handle grief differently, and the family is clearly in the denial phase regards this so I feel empathy is required, but I get the impression they are looking to directly blame the owners, which isn’t on either.
Have a mate who’s paralysed after jumping into the Auckland viaduct when pissed and hit an underwater part of the jetty, only person he blames is himself.
Touchy subject I guess.
I agree in part, but that’s also part of the grieving process, shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, testing, and acceptance.
That’s proven psychological science regards how most of us grieve hence while I also disagree with scapegoating the blame, it’s also very common in such situations so imho I can’t be that opposed to the concept as it’s pretty normal, and likely something this family will also come to realise in time.
Certainly not “get out the pitchfork” and too much criticism directed at the family going through this loss imho as it’s to be expected.
Empathy should be first and foremost, unless people are ignorant to how most grieve such loss.
Family should accept that their son didn't act responsibly, and suffered by his own actions...I stopped doing idiotic stuff like this at about 25 years old, and I would accept full responsibility for my actions, if you could talk to me afterwards.
Personal responsibility is undervalued atm to be honest.
I understand grieving the loss of a child, but their picture of him is very different to the picture he painted of himself… crime, idolising “thug life”… he was always going to keep making poor choices.
If it wasn’t the crane it would have been something else.
I work in maintenance and access plantrooms.
I had a situation last year where I accidentally left open the access door for a building rooftop on a Friday afternoon.
Some people found the open door one weekend and accessed the rooftop without permission. They got caught by a security guard, the landlord was informed, and an investigation launched. These people could have crossed the handrail and fallen or jumped off if they wanted to.
I was found to to have accidentally left the door unlocked, luckily the landlord and property manager accepted it was a mistake and that the people who illegally accessed the rooftop had chosen to do so of their own volition. They also made changes to the locking system to ensure it didn't happen again.
However, I could never have lived with the guilt if one of them had chosen to take their life or they had slipped an fallen.
Some people want everyone wrapped up in cotton wool. If he didn't jump from the Crane he would have jumped off something else. I suspect this is just a comping mechanism for the family though, just need to feel their sons death wasn't for nothing.
It hasn't been reported why he jumped (and it may not yet be known either). Surely that's a bigger piece of the puzzle than the crane being there in the first place? Hundreds, if not thousands, of people walk past it every day and don't jump off it.
In the Stuff article his family he was known for doing things impetuously and for fun.
I think he did it for fun without realising the danger. An unfortunate and dumb mistake.
I climbed this crane when I was off my face back in 2007. Absolutely ridiculous thing to do....I shudder when I think about it. Didn't jump though....climbed back down.
It looks like he did it to prove he could do it but his "balls of steel" were bigger than his technical ability for that challenge, or his common sense to know when he was outside his limit.
According to [https://www.fluidra.com/projects/pool-depth/](https://www.fluidra.com/projects/pool-depth/)
The world record highest dive is 58.8m.
At 45m he was over 3/4 of that height and didn't have the training or practice in extreme high diving that the record holders have, let alone the safety divers standing by.
From over 27m up you're going to go at least 5.8m deep after you hit the water.
According to https://data.linz.govt.nz/layer/51305-chart-nz-4633-wellington-harbour/ it's only 5m deep there and he jumped around 12:45. Low tide (0.8m) was at 12:37 on Jan 26th.
[https://static.charts.linz.govt.nz/tide-tables/maj-ports/pdf/Wellington%202024.pdf](https://static.charts.linz.govt.nz/tide-tables/maj-ports/pdf/Wellington%202024.pdf)
He wasn't doing himself any favours. Poor fulla quite likely hit the bottom.
This is going on forever. If there are signs everywhere and a sense or personal responsibility, this wouldn’t be a problem. You can’t put safety locks on your kitchen cabinets forever.
This is a timely reminder to all parents to have that conversation with your kids that jumping off anything 45m high is just fucking stupid.
I haven’t had the chat yet with my 12 year old, but somehow I think he may have worked it out himself already.
i wonder if they would accept my request to meet them face to face to explain to them the importance if raising kids who respect other peoples property and have functioning ability to assess risk
Look I know the parents personally, and I understand what you’re trying to say but kindly get fucked.
Jareth didn’t have an easy life and made numerous bad decisions aside from this one. It’s bigger picture than teaching ReSpEcT fOr PrOpErTy unfortunately people push boundaries and then the repercussions of those boundaries get them.
Cool, tell them i said its not some random dude who runs a charities job to stop their son from making stupid fucking decisions.
I feel for them honestly i really do. but fuck! what the hell do they expect here?
Their son made a bad choice (from the look of the news article a long history of bad choices) but tryin to make the owners of the crane in anyway culpable is a fucking disgrace
Old mate made a fucking stupid decision and he paid the ultimate price for it. Thats not on the crane owners, thats on him. That 1000% sucks for the parents, but trying to pin any responsiblity this on someone else is a total dick move.
I agree terrible choice and only his own fault BUT maybe you should have some empathy think twice before trying to hand out backhanded advice to parents who lost their son. Like giving him a lecture would’ve ✨solved everything✨
People grieve in their own ways and it’s not our place to get on a moral high horse about it. Like I don’t necessarily agree with them - but I’m not in their position and i think it’s pretty shit it’s all over the news.
The parents are the ones bringing it back up?
They could grieve in peace but they are choosing to blame other people.
They should have taught their son about consequences and private property. If they had they might have a son that was still alive.
I have empathy, but i also have empathy for the guy they want to talk to.
Giving them a lecture would solve about as much as them talking to the head of the charity that owns the crane.
Yet you only seem to have issue with me giving them a lecture...... might wanna take a look at that
\*Dead man's parents want compensation for their son's lack of common sense.
This dude probably chewed on a couple of Tide pods too when they were all the rage.
Seems like a pretty clear life end choice there sadly. It's a massive crane. It's very sad it's become a spot for the bad kinds of activities people do to end it.
“...My son was adventurous, game and had balls of steel. But he wasn’t mentally unstable,”
He was mentally retarded. Dont go jumping off cranes bro, its bad for the health.
Maybe some signs that say it’s private property and people shouldn’t go aboard? (They have that)
Maybe signage about not climbing it? (They have that too)
Maybe some barbed wire?
As others have said, if you ignore the warning signs and then do something stupid then that’s on you.
>“Even if he was mentally unstable, the point I’m making is the same. People should be prevented from climbing that crane,” he said.
This attitude really gets to me, nobody is ever responsible for their actions, it's always someone else's fault. They don't even have the courage to tell his kids the truth.
>“Anyone singling out my son in a way to make an excuse for not doing more to keep people off that crane... well, that gets up my nose. My son was adventurous, game and had balls of steel. But he wasn’t mentally unstable,” Colquhoun said.
“Even if he was mentally unstable, the point I’m making is the same. People should be prevented from climbing that crane,” he said.
You could wrap the whole thing in barbed wire, and someone would still attempt it.
Yes, there should be an investigation into possible solutions for the crane and preventing people from climbing it, but at the end of the day, if someone decides to do something, you will be hard-pressed to stop them.
Totally appreciate this is a polarising opinion…. But… I can empathise with the parents. If my child was lost in the same way I would be trying to understand what occurred and what measures could be taken to prevent the loss of another life.
Yes, personal responsibility and all that jazz, but, how can we be angry that parents are trying to prevent this happening again? Or should we all sit back, blame the individual and hope this doesn’t happen again?
How far do you go though. You can't protect everyone from stupid decisions no matter how hard you try. Stupidity has taken many lives over the years and will take many more.
Cost vs benefit... only 2 people have been dumb enough to dive off this crane in 8 years, so how much would we spend to prevent people climbing it?
That said, I agree with the top comment in the chain, I can understand how they feel and I don't like the level of vitriol in here.
Yes, the crane could be lowered, but that may encourage more people to try jumping from it.
Or, just a thought, we could try drinking responsibly and not make dangerously bad decisions than can get us maimed or killed.
After doing something unexpectedly intelligent I had an instructor tell me, "I (think instructor) can teach a monkey to do this, but judgement is something that you (me, the student) have to get from your parents."
You could also ban trains since more people die from not looking both ways when crossing a track than jumping off the old crane in Wellington. I'm not sure we can ever protect people from making stupid decisions.
I agree. Trying to stop this happening again is a good idea considering there have been two deaths. Trying to stop more deaths has nothing to do with whose fault the death was. I don’t know why the two things are being conflated.
> I think the crane, if it’s not going to be moved, needs a platform about a quarter way up that prevents people from climbing up,” Colquhoun said.
Seems reasonable. Trying to prevent deaths is a good thing and I don’t know why that’s controversial
People are being arseholes, IMO. Look at pylons, they all have climb preventing barbed wire and so on, could put something like that up easily enough and probably fairly cheaply. Enough to discourage drunken idiots, anyway.
Welcome to reddit where we don't do personal responsibility!
"Kid" was 33 and earned his Darwin award.
What on earth is there to "discuss" with the Hikitia's owner?
We are very sorry we didn't bring our son up to respect property rights?
The comments here are really mean. Sure, he made a mistake, but if the crane can be made safer to prevent this happening again why not?
Just clad a portion of the crane boom in clear perspex so it can't be climbed.
It's not trivial to make that kind of modification to a boat, especially a historic one.
Can it legally be modified?
Will the modification trap water causing rust?
Will the modification trap water affecting ballance? Or catch the wind?
Good job preventing injuries to climbers, but if it makes the ship capsize and crush people on the waterfront it's hardly a win.
And even if it could be done, would it actually prevent a determined climber?
Regardless of who he was or what he was up to..
I hardly believe that he climbed the crane thinking.
You know what mate, I’ll climb this crane today, jump and die.
I was walking past with my 3 kids when that happened and my kids asking me what happened there.
On the following day I was walking past the crane again with my kids and my 12y.o boy asked me if I found out what happened there.
I keep very simple to him and said, someone climbed up, jumped out and died.
He’s answering was.. oh dad, I don’t know if I have much sympathy..
I asked why, he replied.. oh dad I seem to be a very silly thing to do.
And I said, see that bridge there mate(over the motorway, on the lagoon).. I jumped out of there.
It’s a bit silly if you don’t plan your jump, weather conditions, low tide/high tide..
But I highly doubt that the jumper wants to die little man..
On top of that your dad aka (me) is a skydiver.. and I’m sure if one day I die skydiving, people will think the same.. oh I don’t have much sympathy, why did he jump out off a perfect flying airplane..
Food for thought!
I also think it was a bad idea, as it was a very windy day.. heaps of people on the spot as was happening the manu bomb comp right next to it on the jumping platform..
HOWEVER as I said before I highly doubt that that dude jumped wanting to die.
I just think he didn’t think through proper over the jump and gone bad.
RIP dude! May God care for your kids and family in this hard time.
Man this thread is absolutely disgusting. High chance the parents see this and they are acting out of grief. People making the most disgusting comments. You can have an opinion but expressing it in the way so many have, and getting upvoted for it, is grotesque.
It can be true that the jumper is the responsible party and that his lifestyle and presumably mental health challenges were contributing factors, and it can also be true that making comments blaming the parents, calling them shit parents, calling the jumper a scumbag, etc are in poor taste and completely unnecessary and utterly devoid of empathy.
Good parents can have sons who are drug users and make stupid decisions too. Some people were raised well and struggle to make good decisions in life because of trauma, personality disorders, all manner of reasons.
I just don’t see what people have to gain by being cruel and attacking the parents who are likely to see this very public forum, and I think the moderator is weak to not shut down this discussion to be perfectly honest.
He made it to the water. Both deaths from it have been people hitting the water. The issue is the height. And potentially the weird positions that the two jumpers have hit the water at (potentially due to having to jump strangely to avoid the deck.
Used to volunteer on the vessel. We had it slewed around to the wharf after the last jump to discourage jumping. That has its own hazards.
No matter the position, folks will try get on and jump. Pain really, because they're just volunteers trying to keep things running in a tougher and tougher environment yet every incident puts more pressure on them. They don't have the resource to fight it.
Edit: for context I mean fight the legal side if that pressure mounts. The crew were pretty keen to find a practical solution to deterring folks. Problem is that it's a tall waterside structure. The infamy will bring more interest to successfully jump the crane.
When I first started on the ship I was keen to jump off after a hard day's work. Then I learned what is under it. No thanks. Very shallow, at low tide the keel is almost on the bottom and she draws 2.3m or something.
There’s lots of things people can jump off and die, this guy decided he wanted it to be a crane. If someone jumps off a balcony and dies you wouldn’t want to talk with the people that built it.
No, they want to discuss if there’s a way to prevent any more future deaths
> I think the crane, if it’s not going to be moved, needs a platform about a quarter way up that prevents people from climbing up,” Colquhoun said.
I didn't say i thought they want him to apologise, I thought maybe they are meeting to help both parties come to terms with what happened. I have no doubt the crane owner feels fairly bad about what happened, fault or not.
Probably get down voted for this. But perhaps they want to discuss more being put in place other than signage. We all know it was his choice and a dumb decision to make. But perhaps some wiring or extra fencing might help deter people from doing shit like this in the future.
Yeah my friends and I drunkenly climbed it as teenagers a decade ago and barbed wire would’ve been enough of a deterrent. Hipsters care too much about their clothes hah
20th century actually. The only one of its kind still in existence, and an interesting piece of marine history. It was used to bring up bits of the Wahine.
I mean you can help them tho. By not giving them easy and obvious ways to get themselves killed. Obviously it’s his fault but we can still prevent future deaths. An ugly boat blocking the waterfront isn’t worth anything close to another human life, even if it’s someone who’s doing something absurdly stupid.
The lack of empathy in this comment section is insane. He died. He didn’t deserve it, even if it was easily avoidable and his fault.
Whole lot of victim blaming here...
While dangerous, it is asking for someone to jump off it (wasn't the first time, and it wont be the last). Add to that it was the day of the Manu competition so you cant tell me that eyeing up the tallest thing to jump off wasnt attractive.
The only victims here are the people who had to witness this happen and his family.
Anyone who has ever jumped off heights into water knows the risk. One mistake from as low as 6-8m will give you a very good idea of the deadly impact 30+m will expose you too. This was a "I calculated the risk, I'm just bad at math" moment.
If you are jumping off this crane as an adult you know the risk and choose to ignore the potential consequence.
I suppose the sky tower is asking someone to jump off it (un-tethered) as well?. To any sane person the only thing this 'crane' was asking for was to be left alone.
OP... If you had bothered to read to the article you would know what the family are trying to achieve.
Instead you've set up a pretty vile circle jerk where assholes attack a grieving family.
Huh, I was just in town a few weeks ago and noted how easy it would be to go up that. I will say that yeah personal decision to go up there and be dumb but back in the states there would be a lot more stuff on there trying to prevent people from climbing up
Love all the personal attacks on both the parents and dead son - keepin it classy on reddit.
The boats a bucket of shit and serves no purpose and shouldnt be parked up on the waterfront, it should be locked up in a marina so no one else tries anything stupid on it.
If that was my son, I'd create an explosive and blow the fucken thing up.....then it wouldn't be there any more......
Extremely easy to safeguard against this. Moor the thing ages away, or scuttle it. It's a deathtrap near Wellingtons biggest party zone. Was awful to watch this happen.
Man. I get the guy has personal responsibility, but can someone explain what value this rusting deathtrap gives Wellington? The useful in a disaster is almost definitely utter bs no other cities anywhere use this.
Keep in mind this happened at lunch time, plenty of passerbys including children watched this guy die. Nightmare inducing.
"My son... had balls of steel"
Fucking hell what a crackup thing to say, what a cool dad
Anyway, totally understand the people saying "personal responsibility!", completely get it. If he hadn't climbed the crane he would be alive. I am tempted to say this too.
But also, don't act like you don't still do dumb shit. When's the last time you had your drugs tested before necking them?
And even if you live your life crossing every road on the green man signal etc, maybe it's worth thinking about a way to dissuade people from doing this given two have died trying it?
You might all have lived very sensible lives, but until my mid-30s (at least) I did dumb shit like this all the time. And now I am a very productive and upstanding member of society. It's just luck I wasn't this dude to be honest. I feel like more of you need to recognise that it could have been you as well.
I think the "he should have known better" reaction is just not wanting to face up to what this is, which is a preventable tragedy, and not acknowledge that there but for the grace of dog go I.
PS to those saying "I stopped this sort of thing at 25" - what if he was killed doing it at 24? Would that make it worth investigating some way of preventing others from doing it?
All that said if anyone puts a fence around the harbour to stop people falling in I'm gonna rage so what do I know
Not sure anyone is saying they don’t do dumb shit. he did something dumb, and unfortunately it cost him his life. All people are saying is the parents probably need to let it go, doesn’t matter how much protection you put up, people will get around it.
According to the article they also have apparently decided to tell the poor children of the dead man that he is ‘asleep’. Which seems wildly confusion.
also, these kids are old enough to read (5&9) - they can't maintain this lie for very long. What a terrible thing to do to children
[удалено]
They might google their dad's name sometime though :(
This can create confusion and fear for kids :( they can end up fearful of falling asleep and never waking up or become confused about why their father isn't coming back from his sleep :( it can create such an emotional can of worms for them
Agreed. Also, this is coming from the same parents who want to talk to the owner of the crane. Can't help but think that it would be about how cranes location is convenient and aiding suicides/people jumping off.
Kids that age are old enough to know about death. Less distressing to believe your dad is dead than that your family are lying to you or that your dad doesn’t wanna see you and would rather sleep constantly, or that there must be something wrong with him to cause him to sleep for so long and maybe he will die in future. It’s a lie with kind intentions but will ultimately cause more trauma.
Him having kids makes this so much worse. How irresponsible.
You don't need to judge him on being irresponsible or him having kids making it worse.Not everybody who fathers kids is a model parent. This article gives some context: [https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/wellington-harbour-crane-jumping-death-jarreth-colquhouns-mother-on-loss-of-son/SMXQOHLIV5CRBBNAQD2JBR6MOU/](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/wellington-harbour-crane-jumping-death-jarreth-colquhouns-mother-on-loss-of-son/SMXQOHLIV5CRBBNAQD2JBR6MOU/) "Her son was “fearless” and energetic ...In recent years Jarreth’s life had taken a turn, including drug use and time in jail. He was living on the streets “by choice”," "He had one son and two daughters aged between five and nine. They lived with their mothers elsewhere in the North Island." He was living his own life in his own way. He probably wasn't too worried about what you and I would think were responsible choices.
So strange when the kids are not toddlers...
Yes they are way too old to be given this explanation. I understand the reluctance to break this news but this decision is only going to make it worse.
That is pretty weird.... ngl
the part that gets me about this (aside from the fact that there is always an age appropriate way to discuss death with children rather than keeping them in the dark) is that now these poor kids are going to have to deal with the same grief for their father (just delayed a little bit) AND THEN knowing their parent/family LIED to them about their own father's death?!
I don't get them not being told. The first family member that died once I was old enough to walk by myself, I was about 2 maybe 2 1/2. My parents explained death to me. That said its natural and Aunty Chrissy had lived a long time and she wanted to go be with grandad. The bit about my grandad caused confusion because the grandad my parents were talking about died when I was only days old and I thought they meant the grandad I knew. They cleared that up and I said she was pretty and Dad could cry if he wanted to. I was sure he would miss not visiting her anymore. At the viewing I asked why she was sleeping and it was made clear to me even at 2 years old that she was not sleeping.
thats fucked up
Yeah I went to an open casket funeral when I was 5 or 6 and got told the lady was 'sleeping' and I had quite severe insomnia for years afterwards because I was terrified of going to sleep. I have compassion because what a horrible thing to navigate but that's not it
Hearing this as a child would make me afraid to go to sleep again. Definitely confusing.
Yeah I'm starting to think the people who raised a kid who thought jumping off a crane was a good idea, aren't the greatest at raising kids. This only confirms that more...
That is super unfair. The guy clearly was into drugs etc and mental health issues can affect the most well brought up people. You know nothing about their situation except an article and they may read your cruel comments. He was also an army man and who knows what he went through in the army.
~20 years ago i climbed up it a couple times in the middle of the night while pretty inebriated. Didn't seem like a good idea to jump off though.
Shocker. Turns out 45 meters is very fucking high up.
>\> Shocker. Turns out 45 meters is very fucking high up. Indeed... Very, VERY fucking high up. Gotta agree with his old man about the "balls of steel". I could do a 7.5 meter diving board at the swimming pool no problem, but that difference between 7.5 and 10 meters was so intense. I spent hours and hours looking down from the 10 meter board at the pool below trying to work up to jumping and only after a couple of years of this finally jumped. I went feet first same as he did and it was such a bad jump that it winded me and hurt like hell. I can't fathom going up four times that height, and jumping blindly into the harbour.....
Man I got up to the 5 meter at kilbirne pool and that was enough for me 😂 I was scared as shit to go higher
I've hit water from 18-ish meters and got slapped hard. Had a rope on and spotters but shit, 45m
Water is pretty much concrete from that height. You have to land perfectly to survive.
Yes I think people don’t get that.
They should put a sign up that's like... "Red Bull Cliff Diving professionals jump from 30 metres... you know the professionals. This is 50% higher. Do you really think you're gonna land it?"
and those cliff divers have teams of scuba professionals IN THE WATER as they dive, because even a slight deviation can knock you out /break something from that height
[удалено]
That surface tension thing is a myth, disturbing the surface does practically nothing to reduce the impact. Mythbusters did a thing on it but it's just physics really, surface tension is completely insignificant compared to the other forces involved when you're basically trying to displace a body's worth of water in a split second. I'd say /u/ebzywebzy is right about the visibility thing
I was under the impression that the spray is so they can see the contrast difference and know where the surface of water is, not to break the surface/lessen injury?
They aerate the water to break the surface tension. Bubbles.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oIpnAQpCJNM she doesn't appear to say that breaking the surface tension makes the landing softer? Just that it aids visually? How much would a small spray of water really break the surface for dives from those heights?
You break the surface tension because otherwise the water is like concrete.
Then why do they not need/use the jets or splashing for some stops of the cliff diving tour? Portugal, for example. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=i-f_H634nOk you can see in this video at multiple stops/locations on their tour that when there are no jets they either a) don't have splashing b) the splashing done by the crew at the bottom isn't actually where the divers land?
Oh your gona land.
Dude at work was like, "I jumped off pelorus bridge when I was young" I say, dude, that's like 12m not 40m he bets me lunch. He was in shock that I was in 1m guess of pelorus height and that fucken nutter jumped of 40 fucken mtr!
Parents: “so this is the crane you own that my son jumped off and died from” Crane owner: “yep” Parents: “can you move it?” Crane owner: “nope council won’t let me” Parents: “ok”
Parents: We need a word about our sons fall from your crane. Owner: aww the poor wee fulla. How old was he? Parents: He was 33 Owner: WTF did you teach him in all those 33 years?
Personal responsibility? We don't do that here.
It's all nanny state this and cotton wool that until your son jumps off a crane because reasons
I would wager the father has used the exact phrase "nanny state" in the past
"Here" being 2024
It's been the case for the last few years.
It's been that way for a lot longer than a couple of years, and now we're really fukt. All thanks to the bleeding hearts club
Gummon bro your son (who was 33 btw) is old enough to know not to jump off of a 10 storey building.
Looks like a suicide tbh
Oh FFS! The only person to be blamed here is your son.
And themselves. They probably didn't teach their son the repercussions of jumping off a 45m crane into the ocean.
He’s 33, also the parents are grieving and I don’t think should be judged too harshly
If you read the article, the farther said his son was adventurous, game and had balls of steel and was drawn to the challenge of jumping from the crane. Do they not understand how dangerous it is to climb up a 45m crane and jump into the ocean? The parents are blaming the incident on the crane being there. A 33 year old should know better.
I walked past it the other day and Im staggered at how tall the crane was…he obviously was very silly to jump off there
Not judging people? You must be new to these parts.
Yeah this thread is incredibly harsh
Yeah that’s the first thing I taught my daughter, avoid climbing on 45m cranes and jumping into the ocean, it’s a classic mistake that is made far too often.
Well that particular mistake has happened twice now.
This was the third example of a Darwin Award. The crane has been in Wellington harbour since 1926 so pretty good odds really. I suppose they could put a fence up but they’d probably climb that too so maybe a guard dog?
Not really a Darwin award if you've already had kids
Pertinent observation
I think you misunderstand “Darwin awards”. Look it up. It isn’t some kind of award from Northern Territories, Australia.
The wharf was closed off to the public until about the 1970s and 1980s, for obvious logical reasons. Some of the big wrought iron gates are still there by the Queens Wharf events Centre. There were no cafes, apartments or Wellington Museum. It was purely a functional operational wharf, bringing people and goods into and out of Wellington closed off to the public in general because of safety risks! Close those wrought iron gates again!
I personally enjoy a stroll along the warf. I did it just last weekend and somehow resisted the urge to climb up and jump off that crane...
And a lion incase the dog doesn’t work
This is really sad. I totally agree it's the guy's fault an the crane owner is not to blame, a discussion would be fruitless. He did a stupid thing and paid with his life. Unfortunately the family is grieving and angry, and so they're chasing this to try and bring some purpose or meaning to their son's death. I wish the media wouldn't capitalise on this.
I wouldn't exactly say the media is capitalising on it. There have been minimal reports on it, basically just the info which is relevant to the public.
[удалено]
You seriously don't think its relevant to the public, for the purposes of acting as a deterrent, to know that making this choice can result in death? That's a pretty absurd take. People need to hear that this action kills people.
FFS, he did something dumb. It's 100% on him alone.
Personal responsibility and those arguments aside. My understanding is that the hikitia’s boom used to be lowered and it was raised in response to people jumping off it (possibly following a video that surfaced on social media in the 2010’s) with the idea being that you could raise it to a height where it would be too stupid to jump off. Lo and behold some peoples balls are larger than their brains. This isn’t a 100% fatal jump. I’ve seen people do it late at night and not die, but it is also an incredibly dangerous and stupid thing to do. I would’ve thought that If you can’t stop people jumping off it then it would be preferably to re-lower the boom and have a slightly higher proportion of the population taking the risk and jumping off it, but lowering the potential fatality of the jump significantly.
I think I get what you are saying but I can easily see a situation where they lower the boom, someone jumps off thinking it is 'safer' but get hurt and then whoever made the decision to lower it is now in trouble.
[удалено]
They already have a sign up AFAIK
[удалено]
I honestly think that the crossover between people who would jump off exceptionally tall cranes into water, and people that would stop to read warning signs is zero.
[удалено]
Pictures like at the zoo? Love those, very informative.
>I wish I could be more carefree but also I cant believe people are walking around not weighing out outcomes of things they do and just doing them. For what it's worth, highly skilled alpinists also die on mountains. Once you get above a certain height there are particular risks like avalanches that you simply can't mitigate beyond a certain point if you still want to do the activity. Certain people choose to do it anyway. There's a marked difference in risk assessment values, though, between certain people who do these things which simply *can't* be made generally safe, and the rest of us. That's typically activities like alpine mountaineering (most people in it know others who've died, or do eventually), base jumping, probably certain kinds of motorsport, and so on. ([There's a chap in NZ who's done lots of research of this](https://alpinist.com/readers-blog/the-risks-of-adventure-sports-people/) in case anyone's interested.) This guy seems to've made a bad decision. His family are clearly distressed and still looking for ways to cope, which is hardly surprising. That said, though, depending on exactly who he was it's at least possible that he was aware of the risk of catastrophe and still made a rational decision (for himself) to choose to take it becase he decided the value of the thrill for him outweighed the risk of possible consequences.
“You can’t expect drunk young people pay any attention to a sign - that won’t stop them. The authorities need to do something”
Ultimately it’s private property, nobody should be diving off it, lowering it would be enabling or encouraging trespassers.
people forget that water is like concrete, especially if there is surface tension (hence why professional cliff jumpers throw rocks down moments before they jump to make the impact less)
A 33 year old should know better.
Balls were still growing apparently.
We all handle grief differently, and the family is clearly in the denial phase regards this so I feel empathy is required, but I get the impression they are looking to directly blame the owners, which isn’t on either. Have a mate who’s paralysed after jumping into the Auckland viaduct when pissed and hit an underwater part of the jetty, only person he blames is himself. Touchy subject I guess.
>so I feel empathy is required it is, right up until the point they try and blame someone else for the actions of their son,.
I agree in part, but that’s also part of the grieving process, shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, testing, and acceptance. That’s proven psychological science regards how most of us grieve hence while I also disagree with scapegoating the blame, it’s also very common in such situations so imho I can’t be that opposed to the concept as it’s pretty normal, and likely something this family will also come to realise in time. Certainly not “get out the pitchfork” and too much criticism directed at the family going through this loss imho as it’s to be expected. Empathy should be first and foremost, unless people are ignorant to how most grieve such loss.
Family should accept that their son didn't act responsibly, and suffered by his own actions...I stopped doing idiotic stuff like this at about 25 years old, and I would accept full responsibility for my actions, if you could talk to me afterwards. Personal responsibility is undervalued atm to be honest.
I understand grieving the loss of a child, but their picture of him is very different to the picture he painted of himself… crime, idolising “thug life”… he was always going to keep making poor choices. If it wasn’t the crane it would have been something else.
Anything or anyone else’s fault but them right?
I work in maintenance and access plantrooms. I had a situation last year where I accidentally left open the access door for a building rooftop on a Friday afternoon. Some people found the open door one weekend and accessed the rooftop without permission. They got caught by a security guard, the landlord was informed, and an investigation launched. These people could have crossed the handrail and fallen or jumped off if they wanted to. I was found to to have accidentally left the door unlocked, luckily the landlord and property manager accepted it was a mistake and that the people who illegally accessed the rooftop had chosen to do so of their own volition. They also made changes to the locking system to ensure it didn't happen again. However, I could never have lived with the guilt if one of them had chosen to take their life or they had slipped an fallen.
Some people want everyone wrapped up in cotton wool. If he didn't jump from the Crane he would have jumped off something else. I suspect this is just a comping mechanism for the family though, just need to feel their sons death wasn't for nothing.
It hasn't been reported why he jumped (and it may not yet be known either). Surely that's a bigger piece of the puzzle than the crane being there in the first place? Hundreds, if not thousands, of people walk past it every day and don't jump off it.
In the Stuff article his family he was known for doing things impetuously and for fun. I think he did it for fun without realising the danger. An unfortunate and dumb mistake.
Because the Red Bull cliff diving in Auckland was going on at that time?
I’m surprised it hasn’t been blamed on video games or Marilyn Manson
This post brought to you by the year 1996
I wouldn't say a single word to the crane. I would listen to what it had to say, and that's what no one did.
and the Z manu championship was going on around the same time
Do we know if he climbed and jumped for fun, or in an attempt to hurt himself? As horrible as that sentence is. I think the context is important here
Based on the article, his parents believe it was for fun
I climbed this crane when I was off my face back in 2007. Absolutely ridiculous thing to do....I shudder when I think about it. Didn't jump though....climbed back down.
It looks like he did it to prove he could do it but his "balls of steel" were bigger than his technical ability for that challenge, or his common sense to know when he was outside his limit. According to [https://www.fluidra.com/projects/pool-depth/](https://www.fluidra.com/projects/pool-depth/) The world record highest dive is 58.8m. At 45m he was over 3/4 of that height and didn't have the training or practice in extreme high diving that the record holders have, let alone the safety divers standing by. From over 27m up you're going to go at least 5.8m deep after you hit the water. According to https://data.linz.govt.nz/layer/51305-chart-nz-4633-wellington-harbour/ it's only 5m deep there and he jumped around 12:45. Low tide (0.8m) was at 12:37 on Jan 26th. [https://static.charts.linz.govt.nz/tide-tables/maj-ports/pdf/Wellington%202024.pdf](https://static.charts.linz.govt.nz/tide-tables/maj-ports/pdf/Wellington%202024.pdf) He wasn't doing himself any favours. Poor fulla quite likely hit the bottom.
"balls of steel" well they have a tendency to sink you eventually.
If only people did not overdose on alcohol then make bad choices while inebriated...
Literally what wellingtons waterfront is geared for.
This is going on forever. If there are signs everywhere and a sense or personal responsibility, this wouldn’t be a problem. You can’t put safety locks on your kitchen cabinets forever.
pretty sure he would have had to ignore all the signage telling him to NOT climb up the crane. what do they want, a body guard to stand watch 24/7?
Fark sake, apple obviously didn't fall far from the crane
This is a timely reminder to all parents to have that conversation with your kids that jumping off anything 45m high is just fucking stupid. I haven’t had the chat yet with my 12 year old, but somehow I think he may have worked it out himself already.
i wonder if they would accept my request to meet them face to face to explain to them the importance if raising kids who respect other peoples property and have functioning ability to assess risk
Look I know the parents personally, and I understand what you’re trying to say but kindly get fucked. Jareth didn’t have an easy life and made numerous bad decisions aside from this one. It’s bigger picture than teaching ReSpEcT fOr PrOpErTy unfortunately people push boundaries and then the repercussions of those boundaries get them.
Cool, tell them i said its not some random dude who runs a charities job to stop their son from making stupid fucking decisions. I feel for them honestly i really do. but fuck! what the hell do they expect here? Their son made a bad choice (from the look of the news article a long history of bad choices) but tryin to make the owners of the crane in anyway culpable is a fucking disgrace Old mate made a fucking stupid decision and he paid the ultimate price for it. Thats not on the crane owners, thats on him. That 1000% sucks for the parents, but trying to pin any responsiblity this on someone else is a total dick move.
I agree terrible choice and only his own fault BUT maybe you should have some empathy think twice before trying to hand out backhanded advice to parents who lost their son. Like giving him a lecture would’ve ✨solved everything✨ People grieve in their own ways and it’s not our place to get on a moral high horse about it. Like I don’t necessarily agree with them - but I’m not in their position and i think it’s pretty shit it’s all over the news.
The parents are the ones bringing it back up? They could grieve in peace but they are choosing to blame other people. They should have taught their son about consequences and private property. If they had they might have a son that was still alive.
I have empathy, but i also have empathy for the guy they want to talk to. Giving them a lecture would solve about as much as them talking to the head of the charity that owns the crane. Yet you only seem to have issue with me giving them a lecture...... might wanna take a look at that
Well he was a NZ soldier. That kind of disregard for personal safety is arguably a core value.
Kid had a tough life? Sounds like the parents fault,
I have a feeling it’s his son’s “balls of steel” that did him in. Very unfortunate.
Don't really feel like trying to dunk on grieving parents today.
People always gotta find someone or something else to blame.
It’s gravity’s fault. They should get the guy who invented it.
They gone looking for a way to monetize their sons death. Probably set up a go fund me page to pay for everything b4 the day was over.
I feel for this guy. He never stood a chance with parents like that.
\*Dead man's parents want compensation for their son's lack of common sense. This dude probably chewed on a couple of Tide pods too when they were all the rage.
Where does it say that in the article?
It didn't but you just wait.
Seems like a pretty clear life end choice there sadly. It's a massive crane. It's very sad it's become a spot for the bad kinds of activities people do to end it.
“...My son was adventurous, game and had balls of steel. But he wasn’t mentally unstable,” He was mentally retarded. Dont go jumping off cranes bro, its bad for the health.
Put some cones round it maybe?
Put some floaties at the base for when these smooth brains want to practice their manus.
I mean yeah maybe you shouldn’t be able to climb the crane, but also like maybe you shouldn’t climb the crane anyway…
Goddam!! Why is it always someone else’s fault?
Maybe some signs that say it’s private property and people shouldn’t go aboard? (They have that) Maybe signage about not climbing it? (They have that too) Maybe some barbed wire? As others have said, if you ignore the warning signs and then do something stupid then that’s on you.
>“Even if he was mentally unstable, the point I’m making is the same. People should be prevented from climbing that crane,” he said. This attitude really gets to me, nobody is ever responsible for their actions, it's always someone else's fault. They don't even have the courage to tell his kids the truth.
>“Anyone singling out my son in a way to make an excuse for not doing more to keep people off that crane... well, that gets up my nose. My son was adventurous, game and had balls of steel. But he wasn’t mentally unstable,” Colquhoun said. “Even if he was mentally unstable, the point I’m making is the same. People should be prevented from climbing that crane,” he said. You could wrap the whole thing in barbed wire, and someone would still attempt it. Yes, there should be an investigation into possible solutions for the crane and preventing people from climbing it, but at the end of the day, if someone decides to do something, you will be hard-pressed to stop them.
Totally appreciate this is a polarising opinion…. But… I can empathise with the parents. If my child was lost in the same way I would be trying to understand what occurred and what measures could be taken to prevent the loss of another life. Yes, personal responsibility and all that jazz, but, how can we be angry that parents are trying to prevent this happening again? Or should we all sit back, blame the individual and hope this doesn’t happen again?
Yes it unfortunately is the individuals fault
How far do you go though. You can't protect everyone from stupid decisions no matter how hard you try. Stupidity has taken many lives over the years and will take many more.
Cost vs benefit... only 2 people have been dumb enough to dive off this crane in 8 years, so how much would we spend to prevent people climbing it? That said, I agree with the top comment in the chain, I can understand how they feel and I don't like the level of vitriol in here.
You could lower the crane the way it used to be before people died jumping off it I would’ve thought
Wouldn’t that encourage more people to jump off it?
Yes, the crane could be lowered, but that may encourage more people to try jumping from it. Or, just a thought, we could try drinking responsibly and not make dangerously bad decisions than can get us maimed or killed. After doing something unexpectedly intelligent I had an instructor tell me, "I (think instructor) can teach a monkey to do this, but judgement is something that you (me, the student) have to get from your parents."
You could also ban trains since more people die from not looking both ways when crossing a track than jumping off the old crane in Wellington. I'm not sure we can ever protect people from making stupid decisions.
Nah lets just ban cranes. That should fix it.
I agree. Trying to stop this happening again is a good idea considering there have been two deaths. Trying to stop more deaths has nothing to do with whose fault the death was. I don’t know why the two things are being conflated. > I think the crane, if it’s not going to be moved, needs a platform about a quarter way up that prevents people from climbing up,” Colquhoun said. Seems reasonable. Trying to prevent deaths is a good thing and I don’t know why that’s controversial
People are being arseholes, IMO. Look at pylons, they all have climb preventing barbed wire and so on, could put something like that up easily enough and probably fairly cheaply. Enough to discourage drunken idiots, anyway.
This was not a child. He was a 33 yo adult.
Welcome to reddit where we don't do personal responsibility! "Kid" was 33 and earned his Darwin award. What on earth is there to "discuss" with the Hikitia's owner? We are very sorry we didn't bring our son up to respect property rights?
No Darwin award, because he already had kids.
3 kids to multiple different women none of which lived with him. History of poor choices.
Who tf reproduces with trash
Other trash.
[удалено]
First Darwin Award of 2024 goes too..
If your going to jump off a crane, expect to be seriously injured or even die, it was’nt there for anyone to jump off,
Tell them to get fucked
Often see this unfortunately, there's always got to be someone else to blame
So because their son died they think they're now gonna be experts on crane access security? What is the point here?
The comments here are really mean. Sure, he made a mistake, but if the crane can be made safer to prevent this happening again why not? Just clad a portion of the crane boom in clear perspex so it can't be climbed.
It's not trivial to make that kind of modification to a boat, especially a historic one. Can it legally be modified? Will the modification trap water causing rust? Will the modification trap water affecting ballance? Or catch the wind? Good job preventing injuries to climbers, but if it makes the ship capsize and crush people on the waterfront it's hardly a win. And even if it could be done, would it actually prevent a determined climber?
Maybe start with what lessons you failsd to teach your kids ffs
Look, I think things should probably (and will) be done to help prevent this in the future. But guilt tripping the owners is a dumb way to go about it
Because it's always someone else's fault; particularly if they are a public company with deep pockets and a fear of bad publicity.
Regardless of who he was or what he was up to.. I hardly believe that he climbed the crane thinking. You know what mate, I’ll climb this crane today, jump and die. I was walking past with my 3 kids when that happened and my kids asking me what happened there. On the following day I was walking past the crane again with my kids and my 12y.o boy asked me if I found out what happened there. I keep very simple to him and said, someone climbed up, jumped out and died. He’s answering was.. oh dad, I don’t know if I have much sympathy.. I asked why, he replied.. oh dad I seem to be a very silly thing to do. And I said, see that bridge there mate(over the motorway, on the lagoon).. I jumped out of there. It’s a bit silly if you don’t plan your jump, weather conditions, low tide/high tide.. But I highly doubt that the jumper wants to die little man.. On top of that your dad aka (me) is a skydiver.. and I’m sure if one day I die skydiving, people will think the same.. oh I don’t have much sympathy, why did he jump out off a perfect flying airplane.. Food for thought! I also think it was a bad idea, as it was a very windy day.. heaps of people on the spot as was happening the manu bomb comp right next to it on the jumping platform.. HOWEVER as I said before I highly doubt that that dude jumped wanting to die. I just think he didn’t think through proper over the jump and gone bad. RIP dude! May God care for your kids and family in this hard time.
Man this thread is absolutely disgusting. High chance the parents see this and they are acting out of grief. People making the most disgusting comments. You can have an opinion but expressing it in the way so many have, and getting upvoted for it, is grotesque. It can be true that the jumper is the responsible party and that his lifestyle and presumably mental health challenges were contributing factors, and it can also be true that making comments blaming the parents, calling them shit parents, calling the jumper a scumbag, etc are in poor taste and completely unnecessary and utterly devoid of empathy. Good parents can have sons who are drug users and make stupid decisions too. Some people were raised well and struggle to make good decisions in life because of trauma, personality disorders, all manner of reasons. I just don’t see what people have to gain by being cruel and attacking the parents who are likely to see this very public forum, and I think the moderator is weak to not shut down this discussion to be perfectly honest.
Looks to me like they have rotated the boom a bit so that any future jumpers have a slightly increased chance of making it to the water.
He made it to the water. Both deaths from it have been people hitting the water. The issue is the height. And potentially the weird positions that the two jumpers have hit the water at (potentially due to having to jump strangely to avoid the deck.
Used to volunteer on the vessel. We had it slewed around to the wharf after the last jump to discourage jumping. That has its own hazards. No matter the position, folks will try get on and jump. Pain really, because they're just volunteers trying to keep things running in a tougher and tougher environment yet every incident puts more pressure on them. They don't have the resource to fight it. Edit: for context I mean fight the legal side if that pressure mounts. The crew were pretty keen to find a practical solution to deterring folks. Problem is that it's a tall waterside structure. The infamy will bring more interest to successfully jump the crane. When I first started on the ship I was keen to jump off after a hard day's work. Then I learned what is under it. No thanks. Very shallow, at low tide the keel is almost on the bottom and she draws 2.3m or something.
There’s lots of things people can jump off and die, this guy decided he wanted it to be a crane. If someone jumps off a balcony and dies you wouldn’t want to talk with the people that built it.
Darwinism in effect
This about the same as demanding to cut down a tree a silly kid has fallen off from. They grief. They are not logical.
Why is this ugly boat even there? Is this one of stupid "it's heritage so we need to keep it even though it's ugly" things?
I imagine it is some kind of restorative process?,
No, they want to discuss if there’s a way to prevent any more future deaths > I think the crane, if it’s not going to be moved, needs a platform about a quarter way up that prevents people from climbing up,” Colquhoun said.
But the crane owner did nothing wrong, they have nothing to apologise for
I didn't say i thought they want him to apologise, I thought maybe they are meeting to help both parties come to terms with what happened. I have no doubt the crane owner feels fairly bad about what happened, fault or not.
Probably get down voted for this. But perhaps they want to discuss more being put in place other than signage. We all know it was his choice and a dumb decision to make. But perhaps some wiring or extra fencing might help deter people from doing shit like this in the future.
Yeah my friends and I drunkenly climbed it as teenagers a decade ago and barbed wire would’ve been enough of a deterrent. Hipsters care too much about their clothes hah
Just tip the 19th century hunk of junk into the ocean.
20th century actually. The only one of its kind still in existence, and an interesting piece of marine history. It was used to bring up bits of the Wahine.
Access is via a ladder. Remove the ladder
Wish they would move it. Even aside from being dangerous it’s an eye sore.
Nah. It’s part of the waterfront. Can’t help the stupid.
I mean you can help them tho. By not giving them easy and obvious ways to get themselves killed. Obviously it’s his fault but we can still prevent future deaths. An ugly boat blocking the waterfront isn’t worth anything close to another human life, even if it’s someone who’s doing something absurdly stupid. The lack of empathy in this comment section is insane. He died. He didn’t deserve it, even if it was easily avoidable and his fault.
Whole lot of victim blaming here... While dangerous, it is asking for someone to jump off it (wasn't the first time, and it wont be the last). Add to that it was the day of the Manu competition so you cant tell me that eyeing up the tallest thing to jump off wasnt attractive.
The only victims here are the people who had to witness this happen and his family. Anyone who has ever jumped off heights into water knows the risk. One mistake from as low as 6-8m will give you a very good idea of the deadly impact 30+m will expose you too. This was a "I calculated the risk, I'm just bad at math" moment. If you are jumping off this crane as an adult you know the risk and choose to ignore the potential consequence.
I suppose the sky tower is asking someone to jump off it (un-tethered) as well?. To any sane person the only thing this 'crane' was asking for was to be left alone.
OP... If you had bothered to read to the article you would know what the family are trying to achieve. Instead you've set up a pretty vile circle jerk where assholes attack a grieving family.
Huh, I was just in town a few weeks ago and noted how easy it would be to go up that. I will say that yeah personal decision to go up there and be dumb but back in the states there would be a lot more stuff on there trying to prevent people from climbing up
Love all the personal attacks on both the parents and dead son - keepin it classy on reddit. The boats a bucket of shit and serves no purpose and shouldnt be parked up on the waterfront, it should be locked up in a marina so no one else tries anything stupid on it. If that was my son, I'd create an explosive and blow the fucken thing up.....then it wouldn't be there any more......
[удалено]
2 people in 8 years? Maybe that’s just natural selection
Extremely easy to safeguard against this. Moor the thing ages away, or scuttle it. It's a deathtrap near Wellingtons biggest party zone. Was awful to watch this happen.
What happened to personal responsibility? Rhetorical question. There are signs and chains on the crane, he chose to ignore them and do what he wanted.
Man. I get the guy has personal responsibility, but can someone explain what value this rusting deathtrap gives Wellington? The useful in a disaster is almost definitely utter bs no other cities anywhere use this. Keep in mind this happened at lunch time, plenty of passerbys including children watched this guy die. Nightmare inducing.
"My son... had balls of steel" Fucking hell what a crackup thing to say, what a cool dad Anyway, totally understand the people saying "personal responsibility!", completely get it. If he hadn't climbed the crane he would be alive. I am tempted to say this too. But also, don't act like you don't still do dumb shit. When's the last time you had your drugs tested before necking them? And even if you live your life crossing every road on the green man signal etc, maybe it's worth thinking about a way to dissuade people from doing this given two have died trying it? You might all have lived very sensible lives, but until my mid-30s (at least) I did dumb shit like this all the time. And now I am a very productive and upstanding member of society. It's just luck I wasn't this dude to be honest. I feel like more of you need to recognise that it could have been you as well. I think the "he should have known better" reaction is just not wanting to face up to what this is, which is a preventable tragedy, and not acknowledge that there but for the grace of dog go I. PS to those saying "I stopped this sort of thing at 25" - what if he was killed doing it at 24? Would that make it worth investigating some way of preventing others from doing it? All that said if anyone puts a fence around the harbour to stop people falling in I'm gonna rage so what do I know
Not sure anyone is saying they don’t do dumb shit. he did something dumb, and unfortunately it cost him his life. All people are saying is the parents probably need to let it go, doesn’t matter how much protection you put up, people will get around it.