Cal Poly student dies in stairwell collapse
July 10, 2015
A 26-year-old Cal Poly graduate student died in a staircase collapse at a Folsom apartment complex last week.
Shaun Xiang “Chris” Yuan was a master’s student in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences, according to a statement released by the university. Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong said he was deeply saddened.
On July 3, Yuan, a San Francisco resident, was visiting a friend at the Folsom complex. He was walking with his friend on the stairwell when it collapsed. [KCRA]
Yuan’s friend, Jeff Miao, survived. Miao said he barely made it out of the collapse.
“There was nothing breaking down. The whole section just collapsed, and he fell and the stairs landed on his body,” Miao told KCRA. “It’s just shocking that this has happened.”
An attorney for Yuan’s family said the apartment complex management knew the stairs were dangerous and needed to be fixed. A similar stairwell collapse occurred at the complex in 2014, and only 12 of the 22 stairways at the complex has since been fixed.
The stairway that collapsed last week had rotten wood and inadequate support for its very heavy steps, attorney Mary Alexander said.
No one was injured in the 2014 collapse.
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