The sister of a man who died in last February's earthquake has
told the Royal Commission she had grave concerns about the safety
of the building they were working in.
Amy Cooney and her family want answers as to why the Iconic bar in
central Christchurch was red stickered after the Boxing Day
aftershocks in December 2010, but allowed to reopen after repair
work was carried out.
The memory of February's quake is fixed in Cooney's mind.
Jamie Gilbert, 22, was her brother and a father of two.
"As we ran out the masonry blocks on the facade of the building
were falling," Cooney said.
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"When I came round I was still holding Jamie's hand. I couldn't move and I started yelling out for help.
"I could see Jamie was limp and I knew then that he was dead. His chest and head were crushed in."
Jamie's father, Robert Gilbert, was also at the hearing and the told ONE News outside that he wants answers for his son's children.
"I want to be able to talk to his children when they grow up. When they ask 'what happened' I'd like to be able to say 'we did everything we could to uncover what actually happened.'"
The unreinforced masonry building on the corner of Manchester St and Gloucester St was red stickered after the Boxing Day quake.
Cooney said: "I just assumed that that corner would fall in and then it would just be a domino effect of everything. And I felt like it would just implode in on ourselves. If was sitting in my office I would be dead as well."
Repairs were done and it reopened in time for New Year's Eve.
Structural engineer Christopher Gordon told the Royal Commission by video link that the repairs were not to make the building pretty.
"It was just to put the building back to the strength it was before the earthquake."
The Royal Commission heard yet again that engineers never expected the scale of February's quake, this time from structural engineer Warren Lewis.
"We certainly were to a certain extent led to believe that the aftershocks would die down," he said.
But Jamie Gilbert's family is upset that no-one is taking responsibility.
"It would be refreshing to hear somebody say 'look it was an earthquake, we were under a lot of pressure, and we made mistakes'. Haven't heard that yet," Robert Gilbert told ONE News.
