ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 30, 1996 TAG: 9604300070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: ELISSA MILENKY STAFF WRITER
TOO MANY PEOPLE, a keg and a trash can full of ice had everything to do with a balcony's collapse onto another last weekend.
Overcrowding, not any apparent structural defects, led to the collapse of two wooden balconies that threw about 40 people onto a concrete patio at the Terrace View apartment complex early Saturday, Blacksburg officials said Monday.
The collapse injured 16 people, including three who were still hospitalized Monday. Virginia Tech student Mark Harris, 25, who has a broken back, and 18-year-old Susan Cawperthwait, who suffered a lacerated kidney, are both in stable condition at Columbia Montgomery Regional Hospital.
Tech student Louie Hankins, 18, fractured several vertebrae and is in satisfactory condition in Roanoke Memorial Hospital's orthopedic ward.
Adele Schirmer, Blacksburg's planning and engineering director, said no state building code violations were found during the town's investigation of the incident. The balconies were constructed according to state standards, she said.
Shortly after midnight, a third-floor balcony bearing 15 to 20 people, a full keg of beer and an ice-filled trash can fell at an angle onto a crowd of partyers and an empty keg on the balcony below. The second balcony gave way, tossing people and kegs to the ground.
"Structures are designed to [hold] a certain amount of load," Schirmer said. "Any time a structure is overloaded, there's a failure potential."
Buildings are judged by the state standards that were in effect at the time of construction, said Robert Miller, the town's building inspector. The 70-square-foot balconies at the 23-year-old Terrace View building should hold up to 2,800 pounds, he said. That number comes from a standard of 40 pounds per square foot for private balconies, which was in effect in 1973.
No one has calculated the estimated weight on the third-floor balcony Saturday, but Miller uses an average weight of 150 pounds per person. There was also an untapped keg of beer, which a local wine store estimated would weigh 150 pounds, in a trash can filled with ice.
Terrace View's policy handbook, which is part of the rental agreement, says a maximum of 10 people can be on a balcony at one time.
Schirmer began her investigation of the collapse at 1:30 a.m. Saturday, about an hour after the accident, and returned to the scene later that morning in daylight. Wood from the balconies, which were built to state standards, showed no signs of rot, Schirmer said.
Miller examined a videotape and photos of the accident scene taken by police, and she looked at the remaining balconies on Terrace View's building 7000 Monday morning.
Terrace View is run by Atlanta-based Stonemark Management, which also operates the Frontier and Cedar Point apartment complexes in Roanoke.
Stonemark President Mark Vernon said the company is going to hire a structural engineer to evaluate the complex's other balconies "just as a preemptive measure" and is looking into posting signs that would identify weight limits.
"We're concerned that so many people were involved in the accident," Vernon said. "We're speaking to our attorneys to determine whether there's a way to communicate to our renters beyond the lease agreement. ... We also have to figure out how to communicate to people who are not residents."
Nine people were injured in 1985 when a balcony collapsed at Foxridge apartments, also in Blacksburg. Three Virginia Tech students sued Snyder Hunt Management Inc., the company that runs the complex, but a Montgomery County circuit judge ruled against them. The state Supreme Court rejected their case in 1990.
Snyder Hunt managed Terrace View until a few years ago. The company added reinforcements to the balconies of all their apartments - including Terrace View - after the 1985 collapse, Miller said.
"It was just a little extra reinforcement," he said.
Blacksburg police Lt. Bruce Bradbery said the department educated people about the dangers of overcrowding balconies then and will continue that effort now. The department's evening and midnight patrols have been told to knock on doors if they see more than 10 people on a balcony at one time.
"Hopefully, just the police officer knocking on the door and saying 'Hey, this is dangerous, this is what happened to your friends not too long ago''' will help, Bradbery said.
LENGTH: Medium: 81 linesby CNB