In a freakish run of accidents allegedly fueled in part by alcohol, at least four Washington State University students have fallen from local buildings in the last 2 1/2 months, according to reports.
Griffin Healey, 19, became the fourth victim when he fell backward from the second floor balcony of a fraternity house around 1 a.m. Sunday morning, the Moscow Pullman Daily News reported. He had emergency brain surgery and was put in a medically induced coma, KIRO TV reported.
Witnesses said they had seen Healey drinking earlier, AP wrote. Booze played a part in three of the accidents, police said in the story. A Pullman police spokesman indicated that the department was not launching a criminal investigation.
The previous three reported falls occurred between Sept. 14 and Oct. 10, according to the Spokesman-Review. One student fell three stories in an accidental fraternity plunge. Another dropped three stories from an apartment complex while trying to climb to the second floor. A third managed to survive an 11-story plummet from a WSU dormitory when his momentum was broken by tree limbs and by landing on grass.
The dorm student, Luke Ettensperger, broke his arm and hip, the Daily Evergreen wrote. Alcohol was not a factor in his fall, the Spokesman-Review reported.
WSU, based in Pullman, Wash., said it was creating a task force to address alcohol and drug abuse.
Adding to the alarming pattern, a 21-year-old at nearby University of Idaho was said to have been drinking before he suffered facial fractures in a fall from his fraternity's roof on Sept. 12, another AP report said. That would make at least five student falls within 2 1/2 months in a concentrated region.