In Brno, scaffolding collapsed, injuring two people and damaging 15 cars

Brno - A three-story scaffolding collapsed in the center of Brno today, injuring two people and damaging about 15 parked cars. The accident occurred shortly after 10:00 in Benešova Street, the traffic is paralyzed in the area, and the street is completely impassable, said the spokesperson of the Brno police, Andrea Procházková, to ČTK. The clearance of the debris will likely take all of Sunday.
    The scaffolding was set up at a building that once housed the company GE Money Bank. The building is adjacent to the Grand Hotel, which is one of the most luxurious in Brno. The scaffolding collapsed over a length of 80 meters. It tore down part of the wall over 25 meters and created a one-meter-high pile of rubble.
    A 21-year-old woman suffered moderate injuries with numerous fractures. A 50-year-old man escaped with minor injuries. They are reportedly a father and daughter who were passing by the building.
    "It is a blessing in disguise that this incident happened today when the center of Brno is practically half-empty. On weekdays, Benešova Street is very busy," said the firefighter spokesperson to ČTK.
    Right in front of the building are parking spaces. Most of them had cars parked. After the scaffolding fell, some were completely demolished. When freeing the vehicles, the firefighters had to remove not only remnants of scaffolding tubes, tram wires, and other materials from the cars but also overturned streetlight poles. The damages are not yet known.
    Experts are investigating the cause of the accident. A structural engineer was already on site. The examination of the building showed that its structure is not compromised; only the gable wall on the left edge of the building needs to be demolished.
    The accident prompted the deployment of hundreds of rescuers, half of whom were firefighters. A dog handler was also searching through the rubble. At one point, his dog indicated a spot where a potential victim might be. "But no one was beneath the rubble. It was just remnants of the material that had previously injured the young woman," explained the spokesperson.
    At 15:30, firefighters started dismantling the remains of the damaged scaffolding in the upper parts of the building from the cabin of a thirty-meter fire truck. "We have damaged cables, which we will repair once the area is safe. We had to divert several connections. Seven buses are providing replacement transport instead of some trams," said the spokesperson of the transport company to ČTK.
    Benešova Street is one of the busiest streets in the city center. It is home to a former bus station, is adjacent to the main train station, and is also an important artery for tram transport.
    A similar incident occurred in May 2005 in Uherské Hradiště when four people were injured due to the collapse of scaffolding at the company Mesit. Part of scaffolding also fell from a building site in June 2004 in Prague-Suchdol onto a baby stroller, in which a mother was carrying a two-year-old girl. The child was seriously injured, and the scaffolding also lightly injured the mother. In November of the same year, during the construction of a highway from Liberec towards Česká Lípa, scaffolding killed a worker.