Quake survivor wants apology

10:36 pm on 4 June 2013

A woman who was the lone survivor of a bus that was crushed in the February 2011 earthquake, killing 12 other people, is renewing her calls for an apology from the Christchurch City Council.

Ann Brower, a senior lecturer at Lincoln University, suffered a broken leg, spine, hand and hips when an unreinforced masonry building crushed the bus on Colombo Street.

Dr Brower said a council inspection after the Boxing Day earthquake in 2011 revealed that the Category 3 heritage building was unsafe and recommended an urgent barricade was required, but no action was taken.

Dr Brower says the council should apologise for taking no action to barricade unreinforced masonry buildings it knew were dangerous.

She says this isn't the first time she has sought an apology for the council's failure to act, leading to the death of 42 people who were killed by falling, unreinforced masonry buildings.

Dr Brower personally asked Christchurch mayor Bob Parker to apologise in November last year, but he declined.