Falls Festival Respond To Claims Of Dangerous Conditions After Camper Was Run Over
Paramedics told the 24-year-old he was lucky to be alive.
Falls Festival has told triple j’s Hack programme that they will be examining their internal procedures after a camper was run over while sleeping in his tent on New Year’s Day.
Andrew Pepper, 24, told Hack yesterday his group were reluctant to camp in their assigned spot at the Victorian leg of the festival, as they were concerned about the ground’s steep hill, particularly given the wet weather. You can see photos of the campsite (and Pepper’s injuries) below.
He claims that Falls officials would not let them move, saying one said, “mate, you get put where you get put”. Falls denies this.
While sleeping, he was run over. He woke with a car on top of him, and has a fractured vertebra. Friends feared he was dead.
“The paramedics have said the only reason I’m still alive is because I was on my stomach,” Pepper told the ABC. “They said if I was on my back and the car had have gone over my chest it would have been a whole different story.”
Pepper his friends were unsatisfied with how Falls failed to responded to his messages about the incident, and so went public with it through a viral Facebook post made Sunday featuring images of Pepper’s injuries, and the campsite conditions (below). In their statement, Falls Festival says that they haven’t “received any direct contact from the injured patron or his parents”, and that they are assessing the incident internally while police also investigate.
“Falls has multiple levels of safety checks that go into the planning of the event,” the statement reads. “We have experienced event staff who assist with parking cars on site. For risk mitigation purposes we park cars parallel, nose to tail to prevent any potential unforeseen vehicular movements.”
“The safety of our patrons is paramount, and we will be assessing this incident and review as part of our ongoing risk management process, as we strive for continual improvement.”
Read the viral Facebook post and full statement below.
Upon entering the festival we were placed down an extremely steep hill in which we complained some of the cars would…
Posted by Rebecca Dickson on Sunday, 6 January 2019
Falls Festival statement to triple j
Sadly, one of our patrons at the Lorne event was injured in a vehicle incident on the 1st of January 2019, as patrons were leaving the event site.
Event medical staff, police and detectives were called to the scene immediately following the incident, and the driver of the car was interviewed, swabbed and breath tested on site. The injured patron was assessed by event medical staff immediately following the incident. Police are currently investigating the incident and the driver of the car.
Due to the nature of police matters, and privacy laws, we are not privy to information regarding the patron’s wellbeing post incident unless they personally contact us. To date we have not received any direct contact from the injured patron or his parents.
As police move through their investigative process, they are in direct contact with the patron involved and only contact us should they require further assistance from the event.
Falls has multiple levels of safety checks that go into the planning of the event. We have experienced event staff who assist with parking cars on site. For risk mitigation purposes we park cars parallel, nose to tail to prevent any potential unforeseen vehicular movements.
Falls has a Safety Committee, that includes key event management personnel and external agencies, who consider all elements around the safety of the site, staff and patrons as a continual process throughout the year. The role of the Safety Committee is to identify, develop and implement procedures to mitigate risks across the event.
The safety of our patrons is paramount, and we will be assessing this incident and review as part of our ongoing risk management process, as we strive for continual improvement.
Photo credit: Rebecca Dickson, via Facebook