No more flying ply on hockey field

A group of high school pupils narrowly missed being hit by building materials from a neighbouring building site while playing on the hockey turf at Dunedin's McMillan Centre. Photo: Peter McIntosh
A group of high school pupils narrowly missed being hit by building materials from a neighbouring building site while playing on the hockey turf at Dunedin's McMillan Centre. Photo: Peter McIntosh
Safety measures have been put in place after school pupils narrowly missed being hit by a flying sheet of plywood at a Dunedin hockey field.

On May 18, heavy winds blew the plywood off Otago Polytechnic's student village building site on to the neighbouring hockey turf.

It is understood the plywood narrowly missed hitting pupils from St Hilda's Collegiate and Columba College, who were practising at the Harbour Tce facility.

Otago Hockey Association acting general manager Adam Walker said it took the incident seriously, but was happy with measures by contractor Naylor Love to ensure it did not happen again.

''Naylor Love have done everything they can and we appreciate all the effort they have put in,'' Mr Walker said.

The incident caused a scare.

''We did close down the facility for the rest of the night.

''Anything that is flying on a turf that has people training on it is something we have got to take seriously.''

Naylor Love project manager Cameron Orr said the plywood came free after strong winds worked loose the nails used to temporarily fix plywood to the building.

It was then blown over a fence and on to the hockey turf, Mr Orr said.

Although no-one was injured, Mr Orr acknowledged the plywood sheet could have caused injury.

Since the incident, Naylor Love had changed to screws or strops rather than nails to temporarily fix sheets of wood. Also, all loose materials were being removed from the work site at the end of each day.

vaughan.elder@odt.co.nz

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