Student survives four-story fall at fraternity
18-year-old falls through skylight at party
Tami Forrester—The Tech
An 18-year-old MIT student fell four stories through a skylight at MIT fraternity Phi Sigma Kappa during a party shortly after 11:30 p.m. Wednesday night. The student, who asked MIT to not release his name, was taken to Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is alert and has no life-threatening injuries, according to a statement released by the MIT News Office yesterday, and “student life officials are gathering further information about the circumstances surrounding the events that evening.”
According to Boston.com, witnesses told Boston police that prior to the fall, the student was “jumping up and down” on the plexiglass skylight which then broke. City inspectors were at Phi Sig throughout Thursday, according to New England Cable News, and a number of license premise violations were issued.
The building’s owners were cited for illegally knocking down walls between 485 and 487 Commonwealth Avenue (Phi Sig owns both adjacent properties), constructing an unsafe and illegal roof deck, “using an existing rooftop as a roof deck on top of an unprotected roof membrane,” and not installing rails or any other protection on the roof, NECN reported based on information from the Boston Inspectional Services Department. A spokesperson for the department said to NECN that she did not know the date of the building’s last inspection.