‘It was raining glass’: Man injured after downtown Austin building window shatters
AUSTIN (KXAN) – J.E. Aranda and his wife headed into downtown Austin on Saturday, March 15, to have dinner and check out South by Southwest.
“We had parked the car and were walking across the crosswalk on Guadalupe and Sixth Street,” Aranda said.
As they crossed the street, Aranda recalled looking up and admiring the nearly complete “ATX Tower.” Then he saw that something was off.
“The window on the edge of the building started to peel off,” he said. “It was raining glass,” he added. “I’d never experienced something traumatic like that before. It was very, very, very troublesome.”
According to the City of Austin Development Services Department (DSD), the outer pane of one double-paned glass window on the building fell during high winds, while the inner glass window remained intact. DSD said the structure was currently under construction, and city building inspectors would perform additional inspections following its completion.
Glass fell from the same project site one week later, on March 22. DSD said city inspectors are still looking into that incident.
No severe injuries were reported after either of the incidents. Aranda said that glass fell in his and his wife’s hair and eyes. He and his wife also endured several scrapes from glass shards, with one lodging into his leg, he said.
“We're on antibiotics,” he said. “I have an upcoming appointment with an eye specialist [because] of the scratching and blurriness.”
The company building the tower, Ryan Companies, told KXAN it was aware of Aranda’s injuries.
“Ryan Companies is aware of an individual who claims to have been injured on March 15. From our initial investigation, strong winds exceeding 30 miles per hour that day likely caused debris from a neighboring property to strike our project site, causing a damaged glass panel. The safety of our community and our workers remains our top priority,” according to a Ryan Companies spokesperson.
Aranda said he feels he and his wife are lucky to be alive.
“We believe in our heart there was a lot of major, major injuries that were prevented that day just from the scope of timing,” he said.