Woman hit by falling barbell accepts apology, partial compensation
A video shared by a woman who was hit by a falling barbell at a gym in Singapore stayed online for less than a day but was reportedly viewed nearly a quarter of a million times.
TikTok user sunnylimsl posted the CCTV clip of the incident on Sunday (Aug 7) but it was removed less than 24 hours later.
The 22-second video showed her between squat racks, facing one of them while a man was removing weight plates from a barbell on the one behind her.
He apparently removed the last two plates on one side while the other side was still loaded with four plates, causing the barbell to fall towards her and hit her head and arm.
The loaded side bounced off the floor, narrowly missing her foot.
The woman was seen smiling as people around went to check on her but she said in the video that it still hurt.
Those commenting on the video called for greater awareness of gym safety rules and for more staff to be present.
Today reported that while the video was online it had been watched more than 230,000 times.
In a later video, the woman said she had a headache and went to hospital.
AsiaOne identified her as Sunny Lim and quoted her as saying that doctors told her after a physical examination that it was "nothing too serious".
The man who had caused the barbell to fall offered to foot her medical bill.
"He did not see the barbell hitting me from his angle and he sincerely apologised to me via phone call and also on text," Ms Lim was quoted as saying.
In a TikTok video posted on Monday, she said she had accepted the apology and they had agreed on partial compensation.
@sunnylimsl Thank you all for flooding in to check on me!! Just thought I do a quick update. Also, I had to take down the previous TikTok due to some reasons and out of respect for the gym. Hope to also clear this up someday.
♬ original sound - Sam Arrow
Some netizens identified the gym as Anytime Fitness in Choa Chu Kang, and AsiaOne said it had contacted the outlet for comment.
There have been horrific accidents involving falling barbells.
In February this year a 42-year-old woman was crushed to death in front of her daughter in a Mexico City gym when she lost control of a barbell and it fell on her neck.
Last year a 41-year-old man died after dropping a barbell on his chest in Hong Kong.
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