This is the video that has sent shockwaves around Australia this morning, depicting frantic scenes on a Sydney work site yesterday, after nine stories of scaffolding collapsed, killing an 18-year-old apprentice and hospitalising another 38-year-old man. Raising questions about work place safety and the vulnerability of young apprentices, it will send a chill through parents everywhere.
WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW – WARNING – DISTRESSING SCENES
The family of Christopher Cassaniti, who had just days ago turned 18 and celebrated on the work site with a cake brought by his mum, has been left devastated by the accident.
Adding to tragedy, his mother was on site at the time and was present as work mates tried frantically to free the young apprentice on the Macquarie Park building site.
While Christopher could not be saved, the second victim is reported to be stable after suffering injuries to his pelvis and abdomen.
Video from the scene shows desperate co-workers in the immediate aftermath of the accident, as they tried to free the men. Screams of pain and desperation can be heard from the rubble, before emergency services staff arrived.
‘My brother is down there,’ one distraught man is heard saying.
One co-worker, Albert Muscat, told 7 News of the horror that unfolded: ‘Twenty minutes on we didn’t hear their voices anymore,’ he said of the victims.
CFMEU NSW state secretary Darren Greenfield said that Christopher’s family are distraught.
‘To lose their 18-year-old son, new to this industry, early in his working life, and to lose his life doing a job, it’s atrocious,’ he said.
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