Light Pole Falls On UWM Student
MILWAUKEE - The plaza, between Golda Meir Library, Bolton Hall and the Art Building at UWM was a busy place Monday afternoon. A rally was underway complete with poetry reading, speeches and passion. But the plaza fell silent in an instant when a light pole toppled onto a student.
"It just fell over pretty quickly actually," said rally participant Rachel Matteson. "It fell right on top of a girl."
"And the pole like hit her back and sort of rested on her backpack," said eyewitness Desiree Brown. "Her chair bent and all the weight was on her. No one heard it. It didn't make a snap or anything!"
The 19-year-old student had been eating a dish of ice cream before the pole slammed into her. A group of young men quickly lifted the pole off of the woman and helped her to a grassy plot nearby.
"She looked kind of relaxed," said first-responder Lindsey King who works in the Student Union. "People were holding coats in front of her face to keep her shaded."
An ambulance took the young woman, whose color had drained from her face, to an area hospital to be checked out.
UWM engineers were inspecting light poles on campus, according to Vice Chancellor Tom Luljak. Luljak added that banners flying on the poles had been removed. One of those banners may have caught the wind, like a sail, causing the light pole to topple.
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