By Hamish Clark
Some Dunedin landlords are calling for an end to the annual Hyde Street student keg party fearing someone could be killed.
The roof of one student flat collapsed under the weight of party goers, costing thousands of dollars to repair and injuring drunken students.
Drunk students who were jumping on the corrugated iron roof were stunned by the metre fall down onto the ceiling joists, and lucky not to fall to the ground.
Today Marty Duffy has been called in to patch up the mess.
“It’s just getting a bit out of hand, a bit of fun is fine [but] wanton destruction of other peoples property is bullsh**.”
Two roofs need replacing; one has a hole right through the ceiling and the other will cost $4000 to replace.
“There was a heap of blood on the roof up there. I don't know why someone wasn’t killed, kids were jumping from roof to roof thinking they were Spiderman.”
The Hyde St keg party is an annual event. It started before dawn and students are blaming out-of-towners for the trouble.
Police arrested 15 people as St John treated over 80 for injuries.
“We dealt with some people with aspects of concussion and ankle injuries, either a trip and a fall or landing off a roof,” says Dave Jasperse, Coastal Otago operations manager.
Landlords say they have had enough and want the street party shut down.
“Unfortunately this is not a rare occurrence, we had roof collapses last year and we don't feel it will be long before there could be some serious injuries involved,” says Kyle Elmer, Otago Property Investors Association vice president.
Police say they will not be charging those who damaged the roof.
“What for… if you are going to charge them with willful damage you have got to prove that in fact there was an intent to cause damage and have to identify the damage each one of those caused,” says Inspector Greg Sparrow, Dunedin and Clutha area commander.
Students are keen to party on again next year, fighting landlords wishes that the drink fest could be confined to the history books.
3 News
source: newshub archive
