Balcony collapse survivor: 'I remember how painful it was'

Tuesday, 4 September 2018

The balcony collapse at a Six60 gig on Castle St, Dunedin on March 4.

A university student who suffered a severed spinal cord after being crushed in a Dunedin balcony collapse clearly remembers the pain she was in more than two years after the event.

Bailley Unahi was on a flat crawl when her University rugby team decided to check out a secret gig by Kiwi band Six60 a flat complex on Castle St on March 4, 2016.

The group arrived just as the band took the stage. Moment later, a cantilevered wooden balcony collapsed above the then 19-year-old.

Bailley Unahi is carried to an ambulance after the balcony collapse in Dunedin.

'I was just crushed by the weight of the balcony and everyone on it … I remember how painful it was.'

**READ MORE:

Dunedin student Bailley Unahi was left in a wheelchair after a balcony collapsed above her.

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Police and bystanders rush to help those injured.

* Police denied entry to some flats**

Previously withheld footage, which shows the moment the balcony collapsed, was shown by Attitude, which screens on TVNZ on Sunday.

The complex where a balcony collapsed in Castle St, Dunedin.

Unahi told the 'Bulletproof Bailley' programme she felt like her legs were floating in the air, as she struggled to breathe.

'I wasn't really crying or anything … I didn't have blood or anything so I thought, 'it is fine, nothing too serious'.'

Unahi's friend later called her Winton-based parents to tell them she had been in an accident and could not feel her legs.

'I felt really guilty. I felt like I had done something wrong … I shouldn't have gone there, it shouldn't have happened,' Unahi told the programme, which features videos about chronic health and disability.

She recalled media taking pictures of the scene, and her friends not being able to ride to the hospital with her.

A scan revealed her spinal cord was severed and 'the tears came', her mother Danielle Unahi told Attitude.

It was not until she read some articles on Facebook that Bailley Unahi realised she would never walk again.

Danielle Unahi tried to reassure her daughter but it was hard to 'sit there and see her crumble'. Finding out through the media was 'gutting'.

Bailley Unahi said she did not realise how easy her life was before her injury.

'You don't realise how much your legs help you with everything,' she said, as she underwent intense therapy.

Her mother spent 19 weeks at Christchurch's Burwood Hospital and saw lots of the 'ups and downs', but praised her daughter's resilience.

Bailley Unahi, who declined to talk to Stuff, is still studying in Dunedin, but has changed from a Bachelor of Science to Occupational Therapy at Otago Polytechnic.

Police last year decided not to lay criminal charges over the incident after a report by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment found the balcony gave way because of 'grandstand level' loadings.

Earlier this year a final police report was released to Stuff under the Official Information Act. That came after Stuff revealed repairs to the balcony since it collapsed, and others at the same Castle St complex, had been made without council consent.

For Unahi, even if anyone was held accountable, it would not change her injuries.

She wanted people to treat her like a normal person. 'I'm just like you, except I'm sitting.'

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