On Jan. 30, around 1 p.m., a railing fell off a hotel balcony on the fifth floor at the Moana Surfrider in Waikiki, Hawaii, nearly missing a passerby before it fell onto the beach.
“When I went to the bedroom balcony and looked down, I saw where it landed, and I thought ‘Thank God’ because two feet either way it probably would have killed somebody,” a guest told Hawaii News Now.
The railing didn’t directly hit anyone, the Honolulu Fire Department told Hawaii News Now, but one person was treated for minor injuries by Ocean Safety and “Another person suffered a minor injury while escaping the falling railing.” Two people refused transport to the hospital, Emergency Medical Services told Hawaii News Now.
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The Honolulu hotel caution-taped off a portion of the beach. It’s unclear what detached the railing. Lance Luke, a construction engineer, took photos of the fallen railing. He said corrosion was likely the problem.
“I could see horizontal rebar that was pretty corroded,” Luke told KHON2. “So I’m pretty sure that this is not the only unit like that.”
In a statement from the Moana Surfrider to Hawaii News Now, Dara Young, director of public relations for the Waikiki Collection, said the hotel is “looking into an incident that occurred involving a balcony in our Tower Wing. We take this matter very seriously.”
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Waikiki Beach in Hawaii’s capital city is an extremely popular tourist attraction, generating 41% of the state’s tourism revenue in 2015.