Student injured when dorm railing falls from Tucker

This archived article was written by: Benjamin Waldon

Falling 12 feet from the second floor landing of the Tucker Residence Hall after the wrought iron railing tumbled to the ground on September 3, sophomore Jared Hunsaker, 20, is still suffering from a compressed vertebrate, strained hips and a bruised foot bone. He said he is pursuing a lawsuit against CEU for poor maintenance of the dorms.
Falling to his feet and then rolling onto his back, Hunsaker was taken to the hospital immediately after the resident hall assistant called 911.
Paying out of his pocket, $50 for admission into the emergency room, he was in the hospital until doctors found injuries caused from the fall, which took approximately 44 minutes.
After the emergency room visit, Hunsaker has visited two doctors, and so far the only information he has on any of his injuries is that it is going to take six months for the bruised bone in his foot to heal.
Less then a week later, Hunsaker found himself with flu-like symptoms, in which he said, “The doctor said he feels that is directly related to the fall, that the compressed vertebrate in my back collected puss, and built up my left lung with fluid, giving me pneumonia.”
Hunsaker once again had to pay $50 to access the emergency room for the sickness. He was in the hospital from about 9 a.m. Saturday, September 9, until 6 p.m. Monday, September 11.
The railing was loose for a long period of time Hunsaker noted, “I noticed it, that it was loose, when I lived in the Tucker Residence all last year. Last fall, I moved in and my parents made the comment the day that I was moving in that it was loose, in the presence of an RA last year nothing was done about it.”
Hunsaker added, “In that time, the 44 minutes when I was in the emergency room, they [CEU] had the railing back in place, not totally secured within the next 2-3 days they had it fully secured [with bolts].”
He is not going to see this one through and just live with the consequences but plans to get results for poor maintenance causing him to fall and take serious injuries that will most likely be with him for the rest of his life.
“We are pursuing a lawsuit against the college for failure to keep maintenance up on the rail, and because of their negligence,” he said.
This could take, “Anywhere between four four or six months before we start filing any papers and that’s just to figure out … the seriousness of my injuries and what it will take to fix that.”
Hunsaker is still in search for a back specialist to see how much actual damage has been done to his back, and to see what can be done about it.
An accusation was brought before Hunsaker in a code of conduct hearing concerning his alleged use of alcohol during the time in which the fall took place. Hunsaker denies the fact that he was intoxicated at all and states that the witnesses that were involved and the hospital records say that he was clean at the time of the incident. The hearing was held last week and all charges were dropped.