The collapsing deck accident was a fatal accident Hurley believes he caused some time before he won the lottery. As we learn in the episode "Dave", the deck was meant to hold 8 people, but there were 15 people too many before Hurley stepped on as number 16, for a total of 24.
Two people died and Hurley developed severe depressive symptoms of stress and psychosis as a result, and was admitted to the Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute by his mother, Carmen.
Dr. Brooks, Hurley's therapist, tried to convince him that the accident was not his fault and that the deck would have collapsed anyway because it was already overloaded.
Trivia
- Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse joke in the 2/19/08 audio podcast that season five of the show will focus entirely on the deck collapse incident, and in fact the season would be entitled Season Five: Deck Collapse! This seems to indicate that they do not plan on having a flashback to that event.
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