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Thursday, November 20, 2008 9:25 PM CST
EIU probes accident at Dvorak
Two students hurt when panel falls
By NATHANIEL WEST, Staff Writer
nwest@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON — Two Eastern Illinois University students were injured when a large copper panel toppled to the stage in the newly renovated Dvorak Concert Hall at the beginning of Eastern Symphony Orchestra rehearsal Wednesday night.
“One (student) was knocked to the floor and he started screaming,” said Elaine Fine, who plays the viola in the ESO and witnessed the accident. “We were all very afraid, very worried for him.”
According to a statement released by EIU on Thursday afternoon, both students were taken to Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center. One of the students was released that night, while the other is being treated by a hand specialist, said the statement.
In an e-mail to ESO members, Department of Music Chair W. Parker Melvin identified the two students as Pat Rheingruber and Trent Mason. Melvin said the crashing panel knocked out one of Mason’s teeth and chipped several others, while Rheingruber was slated to undergo hand surgery at Springfield Memorial Hospital. Fine said she was told later the hand injury required almost 60 stitches.
The university said the incident is being investigated, and the locks to Dvorak
Concert Hall have been re-keyed “pending written certification that the space is safe to re-enter.”
EIU officials said a copper door panel in the area of the stage “fell from the wall, striking two ... students.”
Fine said the accident occurred at 7 p.m., just as ESO rehearsal was about to start. She reported that about 60 to 70 musicians were in place on the Dvorak stage at the time.
“All of a sudden, it seems somebody was trying to open the panels that were above the stage so you could hear the speakers” of the organ. “When the door opened, it fell off its hinges,” said Fine.
She said the panel fell about six or seven feet, landing on a grand piano near the rear of the stage. “It hit one student on the head and it hit another student on the hand,” she said, noting that one of the students apparently was leaning against the piano.
Dvorak Concert Hall was essentially gutted as part of the mammoth $60 million renovation and expansion of the Doudna Fine Arts Center. Part of the original building, Dvorak was unused for about six years.
While much of the fine arts center re-opened before classes commenced in late August, work on Dvorak was not finished until late September.
Officials and witnesses praised the actions of university police and Charleston Fire Department paramedics Wednesday.
Their response “was immediate and impressive,” said Melvin.
“They got (the students) where they needed to go right away,” Fine said.
EIU said activities scheduled for Dvorak have been reassigned to other locations or canceled.
No one from the EIU administration returned phone calls to the JG/T-C on Thursday.
Contact Nathaniel West at nwest@jg-tc.com or 238-6860.
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Tree Hugger wrote on Nov 21, 2008 10:38 AM: