A stairwell in a Towson University Parking Garage was under construction when it began to collapse, falling onto the leg of a young construction worker.
At around 10 a.m. Tuesday, June 27, emergency workers responded to a stairwell collapse at the Union parking garage on Towson University campus. The garage was recently updated with a solar-panel roof, but apparently had not had any structural updates. The stairs were apparently under construction when they began to collapse. The concrete stairs fell onto the leg of one 18-year-old construction worker who was taken to the emergency room with non-life-threatening injuries. The Towson University parking garage was in use at the time of the collapse. CBS Local was on scene with its Sky Eye Chopper 13, capturing aerial footage of the scene. https://twitter.com/PaulGessler/status/879734849761935361 Not much information is available at this time, but Towson students and Alumni have already taken to Twitter to express their concerns, many of whom recall how many times they had used that exact stairwell themselves. https://twitter.com/jasmineajdesign/status/879729536958705664 Another Twitter user expressed more immediate alarm: https://twitter.com/IlkannaJones/status/879740078586822656
On CBS Local's Facebook broadcast of the collapse, other Facebook users expressed dismay over the apparent safety concerns, one user writing, "My $20,000 tuition and $350 parking and they can't even make it safe LOL"
Another expressed a similar sentiment, "Wow....students pay almost $400 a year to park and this happens??? Yea what are you doing with that money. Glad no one is hurt but seriously Towson!"
Another commenter suggested that signs of the danger were imminent five years ago: "I knew this would eventually happen. I graduated in 2012 and those steps were so old with cracks going through them. They were probably the original steps. You could see the structural rods inside of them all rusted. With all the state funding they get they couldn't replace a simple safety issue. Smh"
There will probably be an investigation into the collapse and into the structural integrity of surrounding buildings on campus.
Do you think the University is at fault? Should students pay nearly $400 for parking after such an incident? Let us know in the comments below.