ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 28, 1996 TAG: 9604290055
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: ELISSA MILENKY STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on April 30, 1996.
The last name of Blacksburg Police Lt. Bruce Bradbery was misspelled
in a Sunday story about the balcony collapse at the Terrace View
apartment complex.
THREE PEOPLE remained hospitalized Saturday night after one balcony collapsed onto another during a party.
A night of partying at a Blacksburg apartment complex turned to chaos early Saturday when two wooden balconies on the second and third floors collapsed, throwing nearly 45 people onto a concrete patio below.
Three people were still hospitalized Saturday night, two in stable condition and one in satisfactory condition. Thirteen others were treated at local hospitals for injuries ranging from cuts and broken bones to emotional trauma.
Fifteen to 20 people were on the third-floor balcony of a Terrace View apartment shortly after midnight with a full keg of beer and an ice-filled trash can when the balcony fell at a slope onto approximately 20 people on the balcony below, said Blacksburg Police Lt. Bruce Bradberry. The second-floor balcony, which contained an empty keg, then crashed to the ground.
People who were at the accident scene early Saturday morning described a nightmarish scene. Some people were lying on the ground; others cried or stood dazed among the debris.
Wallets, purses, shoes, garbage and wood from the collapsed balconies littered the area. Nearly 200 bystanders, many of them college students, gathered nearby.
``There were just so many people hurt. So many people that didn't know what was going on, had been unconscious or momentarily in disbelief," Bradberry said.
Radford University junior David Scully said he was standing on the second-floor balcony with only about eight people when the collapse occurred. He was trapped under a railing and other people for about three minutes until someone pulled him to his feet.
Although his ankle was injured, Scully said he immediately looked through the crowd to make sure his girlfriend was OK. He later went to the hospital on his own.
"All I remember is the crash, falling, and eventually, once everything cleared up, I had a whole bunch of stuff on me and I was hoping someone would clear it off," he said.
Officials from Blacksburg's planning and engineering department inspected the apartment building Saturday to determine whether the balconies were properly secured and up to town standards. Town Manager Ron Secrist said he expects an answer early this week.
Buildings in Blacksburg are inspected during and after construction. After that, inspections are made at the owner's request one or if there is a complaint about a particular problem, Secrist said.
Terrace View manager Paula Williams said her staff inspects the apartments yearly, checking everything from the balconies to the condition of the carpets. She could not recall any balcony problems in the past.
The complex's policy handbook, which is included in residents' leases, stipulates that only 10 people of average weight can be on a balcony at one time. Parties must be contained within the individual apartments, Williams added.
She would not comment specifically about the Saturday morning collapse.
The Terrace View apartment complex was built in 1973 and is run by Atlanta-based Stonemark Management, which took over from Snyder Hunt Property Management Inc. several years ago.
A similar accident occurred in 1985 at the Foxridge apartment complex in Blacksburg. Fifteen to 20 students were on a third-floor balcony when it collapsed onto an empty balcony during a homecoming party.
Three Virginia Tech students who were hurt in that accident sued Snyder Hunt, which still manages Foxridge, but the state Supreme Court ruled against them in 1990.
"Balconies are not going to hold that many people," Bradberry said.
Most of the debris from Saturday's collapse was cleared by early afternoon, but yellow police tape still surrounded the right side of building 7,000, where the accident occurred. Students milled around the building, pointing at the strips of exposed wood where the balconies once hung.
Melissa Evans, a Tech sophomore who lives in the second-floor apartment with the collapsed balcony, said three different parties - including a small one in her apartment - were being held in her building Friday night, and people were circulating among them.
At least one of the parties was partly in celebration of neighbor and Tech football player George DelRicco's recent selection by the Cincinnati Bengals in the National Football League draft, Evans said.
"[You] have to be allowed to let people outside of the apartment," said Evans, who added that some of the boards were loose on her balcony before the accident. "You can't be scared your balcony is going to collapse."
The most serious injuries were sustained by 18-year-old Susan Cawperthwait, who has a lacerated kidney; Tech student Mark Harris, 25, who has a broken back; and Louie Hankins, an 18-year-old Tech student who is at Roanoke Memorial Hospital with broken bones. A hospital spokeswoman would not specify his injuries.
Bradberry said people probably would have died if the balcony had not fallen at an angle.
Scully, the student who injured his ankle, considers himself lucky:
"It turned out a lot better than it could have."
LENGTH: Long : 104 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS/Staff. A third-floor balcony ofby CNBbuilding 7,000 at the Terrace View apartments fell onto a
second-floor balcony early Saturday. color.