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A 19-year-old student was killed and two others were badly injured when a brick pillar collapsed at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Ore., on Monday night, just hours after the start of the fall semester.
Six students were sharing three hammocks attached to free-standing masonry columns when one of them buckled and fell toward several students, according to Portland Fire and Rescue.
“We are working to contact the students’ families and will report more information as it becomes available,” the college wrote in a statement. “We are deeply saddened by the shocking loss of a member of our community.”
Hammocks have grown in popularity on college campuses, leading some institutions to worry about student safety. The University of Central Arkansas erected two “hammock farms,” groupings of sturdy wooden columns designed specifically for hammocks, after students had taken to hanging their hammocks from a set of Corinthian columns that the university worried were not “structurally sound for hammock use.”
