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Lambeth stairs break apart beneath student

Lambeth Field residents received a jolt yesterday as a chunk of concrete fell from a flight of stairs in apartment building 467.

Third-year College student Seth Evans said he was carrying laundry down the stairs from his second floor suite as the stair gave way underfoot.

Evans, who was not injured, said his front foot was one step below, thus keeping him from falling with the stair.

"I'm so glad they're fixing it; I could be dead or paralyzed right now," he said. "I guess I'm lucky."

Lambeth residents from the third floor had noticed a crack in the staircase earlier that day and were planning on reporting it to the Housing Division offices this morning, said Lisa Manning, second-year College student and third floor resident.

Residents said they tried to warn Evans about the crack, but were too late in doing so.

"As we were shouting to him he stepped through the crack," she added.

After being informed of the incident at about 3:45 p.m. by Evans, second-year College student and Lambeth Resident Coordinator Brad Pollard reported it to Systems Control.

Once Systems Control learned of the seriousness of the incident, they were very cooperative, Pollard said.

Roger Deane, Housing Division emergency callbacks official, received the call around 4 p.m. and said he responded to the report as quickly as he could.

"I was on campus when I got the call and was here [at Lambeth Field] in five minutes," Deane said.

He said he went about repairing the flight of stairs between the first and second floor immediately.

A similar incident occurred last year in the Lambeth Field Residence Area as well, he added.

Although nothing happened to the stairs themselves in the previous occurrence, the ceiling underneath the steps gave way, Deane said.

Residents claim that many of the staircases in Lambeth are in poor condition and have been for some time, and commented that neither last year's or yesterday's incident surprised them.

"When I walked up the stairs [in apartment building 467] they looked pretty insecure," Pollard said.

The stairs in building 467 are generally considered even worse than those in other buildings, Manning said.

Residents said yesterday's incident did not boost anyone's confidence in the stairs.

"The consensus is we're kind of scared to walk down steps now," Manning said.

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