The gift of hindsight is a wonderful thing and everyone is the expert after the event.
And the events of Friday night, in Castle St, the heart of Dunedin's student quarter, have understandably shocked and upset many.
They have also reignited the debate over student behaviour, safety, responsibility and unwanted publicity.
What should have been a fun party, a live gig in a courtyard outside a block of flats, on a balmy Dunedin night, where a crowd of youngsters gathered to hear one of their favourite homegrown bands, went horribly wrong when an apparently overloaded balcony collapsed on to the crowd below.
Now a young female student is lying seriously ill in Christchurch Hospital, her back broken in three places, dealing with the possibility she may never walk again.
A young male Otago Polytechnic student is stable but remains in Dunedin Hospital's high-dependency unit.
They were among the 18 people taken to Dunedin Hospital's emergency department with a variety of injuries.
There is a lot to be clarified in respect to this incident, and any investigations into the collapse must take their natural course.
In what does seem a swift decision, the police have already ruled out a criminal investigation.
WorkSafe New Zealand has ruled out an inquiry.
An investigation into the building, however, has been ordered by Building and Housing Minister Nick Smith to be carried out by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
Until then, the questions mount.
Could or should the problems have been foreseen?
Could the tragedy have been prevented?
And if so, whose responsibility was that?
It is impossible to fully mitigate against genuine accidents and errors of judgements, of course.
If the platform had not collapsed in Castle St, the gig might, in fact, have been deemed a success.
Gigs, parties and gatherings are all part of the student lifestyle - and students contribute handsomely to the city's economic and cultural life.
Do we want to shut that down?
Equally, is it right, given the serious injuries, to accept these sorts of incidents are simply part and parcel of being a student in Dunedin, part and parcel of having a "vibrant'' student quarter?
After all, we have been here before.
At last year's Six60 gig, a man was injured when he fell from a roof.
This year's gig was never going to be a small party for friends.
Indeed, it was estimated 1500 people turned up.
Police and the university's Campus Watch staff were reportedly not informed, but learnt about the event on social media.
Thank goodness some were already on the scene.
Watching video footage of student after student being wheeled or stretchered out of the area to waiting ambulances by fire, police, St John and Campus Watch staff was sobering.
Are these the images we really want to illustrate our city?
Again?
We market ourselves to national and international students, but we are not just a student city.
We also seek to attract entrepreneurs and families, we fly the flag for a Unesco City of Literature, we are gearing up to welcome our first intake of Syrian refugees fresh from a real war zone.
Mayor Dave Cull is right to be angry. Only days before, a couch fire in the student quarter reignited fears of a fatality.
This year's upcoming Hyde St party coincides with the final night of the iD Dunedin Fashion Show where media from around the world will be in attendance.
Is that a potential recipe for PR disaster, even with the work done to bring the Hyde St event under control in recent years?
The overriding question remains (and it is clear there is no simple answer) how many more bad headlines can the city and university - even by proxy - sustain, and how many more people need to be seriously injured before enough well and truly is enough?
