[media-credit name=’DEREK MONTGOMERY/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Nearly 20 spectators were given a little more trick than treat after a section of a Memorial Union pier collapsed into the water during the "Giant Pumpkin Regatta" Sunday afternoon.

While watching the regatta — where students and community members ply the waters of Lake Mendota seated atop carved-out pumpkins attached to inner-tubes — numerous attendees congregated on a section of pier adjacent to the race that subsequently buckled under their weight, leaving them chest-deep in cold water.

"It was mostly reporters and people taking pictures," said University of Wisconsin senior Calvin Lietzow, who safely watched the commotion from the land-ended portion of the pier. "They just overloaded that section of the dock … and then it just collapsed straight downward."

Lietzow said the incident was "instantaneous," but dryer attendees were given ample time to rescue the fallen spectators.

"They just dropped straight down," he said. "Everyone's like 'oh my god' and started helping people … I think everyone was out of the water in nearly a minute."

Despite the shock of the incident, injured pier-victims suffered little more than minor scrapes and bruises.

"If they have some sort of injury, we ask them to fill out an injury report," University of Wisconsin public relations specialist Marc Kennedy said. "From what I was told, nobody had to go to the emergency room or hospital or anything — everyone was OK."

In the wake of the pier collapse, Kennedy said the union will conduct a full investigation into the matter and the dock will be replaced "in the near future."

"We will take it seriously," Kennedy said. "We will take a look at it right away and see what we have to do to ensure people are safe on the piers."

Before the "Giant Pumpkin Regatta," the pier had proved sufficient, sustaining the daily weight delivered by Hoofer Club and other Memorial Union sailing activities.

"The pier is used mainly for people coming in and leaving in sailboats … so usually there aren't that many people on the pier," Kennedy said. "There haven't been issues with people on the pier in the past."

UW junior Mandy Faretta, who competed in the regatta and was the only participant to capsize, said after the collapse, attendees quickly replaced the broken section.

"The show had to go on, so you just took down an earlier segment of the pier … and kept racing," she said. "It didn't stop the fun."