Skip to main content

Students received charges

Five Canadian students received criminal charges when a fun prank they planned went wrong. The engineering students had intended to lower the carcass of a Volkswagen Beetle car from the Iron Workers Memorial Bridge in Vancouver. The students clearly need to spend more time studying as they miscalculated the stresses involved and the cables they selected failed under the load. The car then fell into Vancouver harbour and the students were arrested and charged for causing over C$5,000 of damage. Canadian engi
February 23, 2012 Read time: 1 min
Five Canadian students received criminal charges when a fun prank they planned went wrong. The engineering students had intended to lower the carcass of a Volkswagen Beetle car from the Iron Workers Memorial Bridge in Vancouver. The students clearly need to spend more time studying as they miscalculated the stresses involved and the cables they selected failed under the load. The car then fell into Vancouver harbour and the students were arrested and charged for causing over C$5,000 of damage. Canadian engineering students have a history of car dangling attempts, which is used to publicise engineering week at the University of British Columbia.

Related Content

  • Construction trends in North America, looking to the future
    June 10, 2019
    Exciting changes in construction will reward the aware contractor - *Jeff Winke comments Hop in a car and drive anywhere in the US and chances are the drive will be on roads and highways that need patching, resurfacing, or widening, and bridges often show signs of needed maintenance. Sadly, things are in bad shape. On the last two report cards from the American Society of Civil Engineers, the US infrastructure scored a D+. This year’s report urges the government and private sector to increase spending
  • BC to renovate Simon Fraser Bridge
    January 20, 2022
    The Canadian province will rehabilitate the deck structure of the southbound bridge of the twin-bridge river crossing in Prince George.
  • New Zealand's bridges survive earthquake
    February 7, 2012
    How is it that New Zealand's recent large and destructive earthquake did so little damage to the bridges in the quake zone? Mary Searle investigates. The magnitude 7.1 earthquake that hit the Canterbury region in New Zealand at 4.35am on Saturday, 4 September was similar in size to the quake that shook Haiti in January. However, the damage in Canterbury was minimal in comparison. A key contributor to this was New Zealand's preparedness for such an event. Positioned on a major fault line, New Zealand has ear
  • Bridge of international accord from Russia-China
    May 29, 2018
    A new bridge project joining China and Russia is a sign of international accord between the two nations – Mike Woof writes A new bridge spanning what China calls the Heilongjiang River and which is known as the Amur River in Russia, is a clear sign of an important international accord between the two countries. Discussions over the bridge project were first started between China and Russia in the 1980s, with both nations seeing many changes in leadership since that time. But while the political discussion