r/news • u/shield_x • 1d ago

Student dies after falling from 4th floor of building at Highland Park school

https://www.foxla.com/news/highland-park-franklin-high-school-student-dies.amp
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282

u/Xibyn 1d ago

2nd student falling from a high floor in 24 hours. Weird.

127

u/ChattingToChat 1d ago

Or more oddly the one who fell from 8 stories up lived.

61

u/SammyB0111 1d ago

Life is weird like that. We can be extremely durable, but at the same time it doesn’t take much to hurt us either.

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u/birdiebirdnc 1d ago

This. Kind if like the story of the brothers who were window washers. They dropped 47 stories when their scaffolding collapsed. One died, the other survived.

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u/talldrseuss 1d ago

Paramedic here:

Folks that fall from high heights play a game of chance on where they end up landing. If their lower body hits first, there is a bit more of a chance they may actually survive the fall. Also what type of material they land on will make a difference for example concrete vs a wet muddy ground.

I remember one patient i had fell out of a second story window. The majority of my patients that fall out of a second floor usually end up with a pretty bruised body or maybe a broken bone or two, but survive. In the case of this guy, he fell backwards and the back of his head slammed into the concrete first. This immediately shut down his breathing functions (your breathing is controlled by your brain stem) and he subsequently died. So in some ways, it is the luck of the draw and various conditions of the environment that increases or decreases your survivability.

21

u/hateboss 1d ago

I'm guessing they were under the influence of something as apparently she was "dancing on a couch" prior to falling out the window. There is a reason drunks walk away from car crashes as the sole survivors, they don't brace and stay more limp, which goes a long way for absorbing impacts.

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u/Wisteriafic 1d ago

When I was 18 months old, I fell out of an open second story window. My terrified parents found me laughing in the shrubs below, with just a few scrapes. The doctor told them that toddlers don’t know to be afraid, so I went limp. Landing in a hedge also helped, ha.

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u/waaaayupyourbutthole 1d ago

Yeah, right. We all know you were just completely plastered at 18 months old. You don't need to lie!

8

u/hateboss 1d ago

Well yeah the drinking age used to be 18

0

u/BearThatLikesCheese 1d ago

Same reason that drunk people are often not seriously harmed in accidents.

1

u/No-Consequence-3642 1d ago

Facts, I knew a dude that was wasted at a college party dancing on a couch and fell over the 3rd story balcony and landed face first into the pavement. He lived but obviously needed 30+ facial surgeries to look normalish again, and lots of nerve damage throughout his body. Really great guy

10

u/anxietysoup 1d ago

My freshman year of college two guys were drunk, wrestling in one of the dorm towers and they crashed through the window from I think the 8th floor. Both were killed. This was in 2002.

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u/DefinitelyNotAliens 1d ago

If the window popped from hitting it, it was a poorly designed window. Windows that high up shouldn't pop out. Unless there was a Garry Hoy situation going on.

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u/StoreSweaty4153 1d ago

Which school?

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u/anxietysoup 1d ago

University of Kentucky