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News ArticlesKU athletes injured in deck collapseSource: Lawrence Journal World, 9/23/03 Story by Janet Reid Herzet lives in the same apartment complex where, shortly before 1 a.m Sunday, a deck overloaded with late-night partiers came crashing to the ground at 925 Ark. "At first I didn't know what had happened," Herzet said. "I just saw fire trucks, ambulances and policemen." Emergency crews were called to the apartment, which is rented by KU football player Kevin Long. Neighbors estimated 60 people were at the party, which included many KU student-athletes. The city's neighborhood resources director, Victor Torres, said he heard reports that anywhere between 20 and 50 people were gathered on the 6-foot by 12-foot wooden deck when it collapsed. According to a Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical report, the deck also was supporting a keg of beer and a cooler. The deck was about 12 feet off the ground. Police said two people suffered minor injuries: 22-year-old Courtney Steinbock, a senior on the KU tennis team, was treated at the scene for minor knee injuries, and 20-year-old Lindsey Weinstein, a junior on the KU softball team, went to Lawrence Memorial Hospital after saying she had the wind knocked out of her. She was released Monday, according to a nursing supervisor at LMH. A city inspector was called to the scene Sunday morning to try to determine why the deck, built in 1997, came down. "Our first concern was that there was no building permit," Torres said, "but we have located the permit." Torres said the deck, which was designed to hold 50 pounds per square foot, simply collapsed under the excessive load. Nancy Boswell lives across the street from the apartment. She wasn't home the night of the collapse, but said she wasn't surprised to see the splintered wood from the deck covering the lawn. "Everything was in the yard when I got home," Boswell said. She said she and her husband, Bill, have called police at least four times in recent months to complain after being awakened by loud parties at the same apartment. "They're drinking, they were rapping very, very loudly, and the language is atrocious," Boswell said. "Two weeks ago, there were probably 35, maybe 40 (people) packed on the deck, and it was pretty loud." Boswell said she was relieved nobody was seriously injured when the deck collapsed and hoped the incident would be a lesson to the students involved. "Maybe this will be a wake-up call, and maybe we can have our quiet neighborhood back," Boswell said. Long, a quarterback/tight end for the KU football team, did not return phone calls seeking comment. KU Sports Information also declined to comment about the incident. |
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Something was bound to happen at the second-floor apartment
where a deck collapsed beneath partying Kansas University athletes,
neighbors said Monday. "
I'm surprised something hasn't happened before," KU student
Trint Herzet said. 
