Two Women Fall THROUGH 10th Story Window at W Midtown (Atlanta: hotels, inspection)

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by SW30303

What a terrible accident! - sometimes just clowning around can be deadly (wrong place + wrong time) AND having the window that loose for BOTH of them to fall through, woh.

I still can't comprehend what kind of "clowning around" is vigorous enough to cause two fairly slight women to smash through a window in a highrise building and simultaneously fall through the hole. Seems to me it would take an extremely strong person running at the window full tilt to even come close doing something like that. I'm not sure I could even break threw a regular window in my house by simply running into it.

Wonder what happened? Seems like there's gotta be more to it than just "play fighting" or "clowning around."

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by arjay57

I still can't comprehend what kind of "clowning around" is vigorous enough to cause two fairly slight women to smash through a window in a highrise building and simultaneously fall through the hole. Seems to me it would take an extremely strong person running at the window full tilt to even come close doing something like that. I'm not sure I could even break threw a regular window in my house by simply running into it.

Wonder what happened? Seems like there's gotta be more to it than just "play fighting" or "clowning around."

Maybe they tripped and fell against it hard, and one of them had something metallic which caused the window to shatter?

[arjay57]

I guess it's conceivable but to me it seems odd. Aren't those windows made of tempered glass and designed to commercial specs? If you even run into a standard sliding patio door, you know how hard those tings are how they'll bounce you right back.

A friend of mine was trapped in a highrise office building fire years ago and he talked about it was virtually impossible to break a window. (Which is a bad idea in the first place). I took several men repeatedly hurling desk chairs and furniture at the window to make it crack.

And as I say, I can't imagine tripping in my own house and knocking out a window and falling completely through. Much less me and another person at the same time.

[Adric]

Remind me to never lean up against the window at the W Midtown...

[testa50]

arjay--what you're saying is exactly correct. The windows are NOT easily broken, and I'm sure the W's windows are to the exact same spec that thousands of nearby condo units are built to.


But that's only part of what i'm talking about. Look at the exact window and how it broke:


(from the patch article just linked: Two Women Fall at W Hotel, One Dies - Midtown, GA Patch)

There are two panes, separated by a support bar about 36" above the ground. The window BELOW the support bar is the one that broke.

36" seems like a lot of space to fall through, but honestly it's rather difficult for an adult to fall under an obstruction at that height on accident.

Then, for TWO people to trip in such a way that not only they have enough force to smash through the window, but BOTH of them end up falling out of it, and they weren't intending for this to happen or even intending to smash the window especially hard in the first place--it all just seems very unlikely/unlucky.

But, then again, millions of people do millions of things every day and with a sample size that large lots of really unlikely things are bound to happen.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by testa50

But that's only part of what i'm talking about. Look at the exact window and how it broke:

There are two panes, separated by a support bar about 36" above the ground. The window BELOW the support bar is the one that broke.

36" seems like a lot of space to fall through, but honestly it's rather difficult for an adult to fall under an obstruction at that height on accident.

Then, for TWO people to trip in such a way that not only they have enough force to smash through the window, but BOTH of them end up falling out of it, and they weren't intending for this to happen or even intending to smash the window especially hard in the first place--it all just seems very unlikely/unlucky.

Very good analysis, testa. You know CSI would not walk away from this.

[Zel Ya]

Originally Posted by arjay57

I still can't comprehend what kind of "clowning around" is vigorous enough to cause two fairly slight women to smash through a window in a highrise building and simultaneously fall through the hole. Seems to me it would take an extremely strong person running at the window full tilt to even come close doing something like that. I'm not sure I could even break threw a regular window in my house by simply running into it.

Wonder what happened? Seems like there's gotta be more to it than just "play fighting" or "clowning around."

I suppose one explanation could be a defective window. We've had a lot of bad weather in recent weeks and the window could have been weakened due to high gusts of wind, hail, and water propelled at high rates of speed to the surrounding edges of the window.

[arjay57]

Just doesn't sound like any accident I've ever heard of. Even if the bottom pane did just break out somehow, how did two victims fall through a small hole at floor level? Hopefully they'll do a thorough investigation.

[Caleb Longstreet]

Hmmmmmmmm.......one way or another, Charlie Sheen has to be involved......how else could two chicks, late at night, find themselves going out a window.....wonder if Rose was in town.......I dunnoooo.....

[architect77]

Please remember this an old building. These windows could be 25 years old. I doubt they're anything like those in newer highrise buildings.