An incident in downtown Regina, which saw a suspended platform fall several storeys down to ground level, has shaken a family who narrowly avoided serious injuries. David Drinkwater and Claire Johnstone — who are currently staying at The Hamilton, where the incident occurred — were on their way to the hospital to tend to their sick child Theo, when Johnstone came within inches of being struck by falling debris. Exterior cameras on the family’s car show Johnstone getting into the vehicle mere seconds before debris came crashing down right where she was standing. “It’s timestamped, so you can see that my door is just about to be closed, and you can see the shadow of the debris falling. And it’s in that same second that I get into the car and close the door. That messed me up more than anything,” Johnstone told CTV News. The family’s vehicle sustained significant damage, but the couple says they are more traumatized by the near miss and the thought of what could have happened. “A foot back or a foot forward, a second later and it could have been somebody dying. And that changes all of our lives. And I just think whoever cut corners or whatever happened is really lucky that nobody died or got seriously injured,” Johnstone said. Johnstone and her family normally reside in Squamish, B.C. but she is currently visiting her husband David who is temporarily working in Regina. She says after what happened, it is hard not to believe in some sort of divine intervention. At the same time, however, the incident has left her paranoid and on edge. She says she immediately thought of the Final Destination movies, where one cheats death and then is subsequently hunted by it. “I’m not going to lie that that’s not what went through my head. I didn’t leave the apartment yesterday. I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m okay, I’m good, I feel like I need to take a second,’” she explained. Regina police and other emergency crews were on site of the incident Tuesday afternoon. Through a video submitted to CTV News, the platform appeared to be suspended on the west side of the Hamilton building at 1867 Hamilton St. prior to collapsing at around 2:20 p.m. Photos from the scene show the platform resting on top of the high-rise’s entrance, wedged in a tree. Other debris, including bricks, could be seen throughout the scene. Regina police confirmed its officers, along with paramedics and firefighters, responded to the scene Tuesday afternoon. Two injured men were found and transported to hospital with what police called non-life-threatening injuries. Occupational Health and Safety had no further updates on the incident on Wednesday as its investigation continues. CTV News reached out to the scaffolding company whose trucks were spotted during the cleanup of the incident and was told they have “no comment.” Construction was underway on Thursday afternoon to fix some of the brickwork damaged in Tuesday’s incident. But for Johnstone and her family, she says some of the mental wounds from their near brush with death might never fully heal. With files from David Prisciak
