Fatal accident in Austria: balcony detaches and kills man (68). © FW Schruns
With friends, a 68-year-old actually wanted to renovate a balcony on a residential building in Austria. Suddenly, a concrete slab fell and buried the man beneath it.
Bregenz – Particularly tragic: The fatal accident happened during a break from work. The man (68) passed under the balcony of a residential building in Austria. At that very moment, the concrete slab of the balcony came loose and crashed down on him, the Vorarlberg police said on Wednesday evening. The four-meter-long and 12-centimeter-thick concrete slab buried the man underneath.
Austria: Concrete slab from the balcony beats man (68)
With the help of two jacks, his work colleagues lifted the heavy concrete slab to recover the unconscious 68-year-old underneath, police said. The injured man was flown by rescue helicopter to the Feldkirch State Hospital. Shortly thereafter, however, the man died of his serious injuries.
Fatal accident in Austria: balcony detaches and kills man (68). © FW Schruns
Balcony kills 68-year-old: police speak of structural defects
The concrete slab had only a small support on a wall ledge and had not been professionally installed during the construction of the house in the 70s, according to the police.
The victim was working with three friends on a balcony of a private home in Tschagguns, almost 70 kilometers south of Bregenz on Lake Constance. The men had erected scaffolding and wanted to repair brittle areas. When the 68-year-old walked under the balcony during a break from work, the plate suddenly crashed and hit him with full force.
After the tragic accident, the Tschagguns fire brigade with two vehicles and 15 emergency personnel, the Schruns fire brigade with two vehicles and 14 emergency personnel, as well as a rescue team with two vehicles and eleven emergency personnel, including three emergency doctors, were involved in the operation. The Federal Police was also on site with two vehicles and five emergency personnel.
In Tyrol, a fully occupied night train had to be evacuated after a fire in a railway tunnel. 33 people were injured. (ml)
