Canberra Hospital Implosion: Ex-Cop Recalls Split-Second Tragedy

In 1997, tens of thousands of Canberrans were invited to watch the demolition of The Royal Canberra Hospital – but the family-friendly spectacle turned into a lethal tragedy.

The botched demolition rained debris upon thousands of spectators, and a 12-year-old girl named Katie Bender was killed by a flying piece of metal. 

Former detective Greg Ranse led the coronial investigation to find out where the demolition went wrong.

Greg Ranse recalls watching the Canberra Hospital Implosion on the Crime Insiders podcast:

“The sister said to Katie, ‘stand up’. You know, ‘it’s just about to happen.’ Katie stood up and listened. Two seconds later, she was deceased,” Ranse said.

Katie’s family were watching from around 450 metres away. Metal fragments from the explosion flew up to nearly half a kilometre.

“The first police officer that attended there, he covered up Katie and pretended to give her first aid so as not to alarm the people around,” he said.

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Ranse said the lethal incident came down to systemic failure, money saving and shortcuts.

“Lack of legislation, lack of procedures, lack of understanding how much explosives were being used,” he said. “All this added up to what was then to be a terrible, terrible disaster for one family.”

“Hopefully, lessons have been learnt that cheaper is not better.”

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