A Syracuse University female student was injured early Saturday morning when she fell down an indoor stairwell from the fourth floor of Shaw Hall to the basement, Public Safety Interim Chief Tony Callisto said.

The student was taken to University Hospital. She was treated for serious but not life-threatening injuries, Callisto said. He said he does not know when she will be released.

It appears she was trying to slide down the banister of the stairway when she lost her balance and fell backwards between the stairways, Callisto said.

Lisa Berry, a sophomore who lives on the fourth floor, said she was told the girl, a sophomore, was given stitches in the back of her head and treated for a fractured arm.

It appears alcohol was involved with the incident, Callisto said.

Berry said she saw police officers confiscating alcohol from the girls’ room in which the girl had been.

The girl was not a fourth floor resident, but she had friends who lived on the floor, Berry said.

Berry said at around 12:30 a.m., she was in her room with three boys who live on her floor when they heard a scream and loud bang-like noises from the hall. She said her friends ran to see what had happened, and then she called 911 and the campus emergency operator.

Alex Conway, a sophomore who was in the room with Berry, said he ran down the stairs and was the first one to be with the girl. When he got to the basement, Conway said the girl was not moving at all. She landed with her coat hood underneath her head, which may have helped cushion her fall, he said.

Within about 30 seconds, she began coughing and regaining consciousness, Conway said.

The girl’s two friends who had been with her were crying hysterically, Conway said.

Conway said he also called 911 and stayed on the phone with dispatchers, updating them on the girl’s condition with the help of his friend Robert Cave, who stayed with the girl when Conway had to move to get cell phone reception.

‘I was definitely yelling at them on the phone to get there as fast as they could,’ Conway said.

Conway said after the accident, he and his friends figured out the noises they had heard had been the girl hitting everything she could possibly could have on her way down during the fall.

‘The thing I keep thinking about is that sound,’ he said. ‘It was really terrible to hear.’

Conway said the next day it was hard to walk down the stairs because there were still pieces of her coat that reminded him of the accident.

‘You can’t forget it,’ he said. ‘It was really haunting.’

Published on October 21, 2006 at 12:00 pm