Two kids were sitting on a sill, leaned back and fell out, in a dorm here (more than a decade ago.) It seems simple to install a safety bar that could be unlatched (eg, lift and swing out of the way,) for emergencies. But we have to wonder if some would unlatch it anyway.
Or we could acknowledge that sometimes, accident happen or people do stupid things and not all events are preventable. I imagine the window building code is sufficient for the safety of 99.99% of adults, and that special populations of disabled, elderly, or young children have other requirements met through appropriate regulations. There will always be further safety measures which are theoretically possible, but the codes provide guidance as to what should be sufficient. Adults can always manage to defeat any safety device if motivated to do so.
Accidents happen and people do stupid things but in this case in small dorm rooms where beds are put against windows (heck it’s shown in the pictures) with extremely low sills so a bed is above sill height and no guard is a foreseeable problem. And I doubt anyone here will give college students an “A” grade for safety consciousness.
It’s a window seat in front of a window that opens all the way to the seat height. He leaned back and fell out. Sober he may have been able to catch himself, but this is an accident that happens to sober people too. It remains that having a seat in front of an open window is a design flaw with inevitable results. A seat design should not come with a death rate attached.
Some of these responses are mean beyond belief. Good for Washington State Cougs for rallying around this so quickly.
I watched the videos in the dorm pages linked. Despite my belief that you can’t account for every possible mishap, It’s hard to really opine further without seeing the exact bench/window. Sounds like removing the bench would be an easy solution.
Maybe you should argue for a change in the building code then, if it is so dangerous. My dorm had them for 300 years and hadn’t had a problem. Perhaps they are unsafe for all and should be banned nationwide in residences, but college students are not a special needs population that requires special building codes that don’t apply to young adults not in college.
The window sills in the pictured rooms are clearly not 36 inches from the floor and they open all the way. I wonder if buildings of a certain age are grandfathered out of code enforcement, or if Wazzu’s city/county relies on voluntary compliance.
Dos–yes, not putting in a bench seat would be a start. But pix show low sills with a dorm bed pushed up against the windows which creates the same problem. Not having a seat allows sitting on an open sill if there is no bed.
We can talk about being stupid but stuff happens. I could see this scenario in my own house–low window sills with built in bench in a bedroom… And I locked the windows to not open from bottom (you can pull them down from top) and put up a barrier… Not on my watch. The university should do the same in this case. Especially since it is not the first case of this happening. It is not a hard fix.
My sills in my house are just as low (not historic construction). Many old buildings - and new - have low sills. Big windows = low sills. I don’t think they are a rare occurrence.
Maybe have a rule, no beds in front of windows if it is a concern?
However, given the litigious society we live in, I’m sure the university will take steps to fix them. Surprised they haven’t fenced in the Grand Canyon yet. 
My family room has 10 windows across 3 walls, all about 15 feet above ground. I never open them all the way, a habit I got into when my kids were little and I was afraid a toddler could fall out. Looking at the photo where the windows are open and the bed is up against them freaked me out a little bit. As a parent, I certainly would’ve made the same comment to my kid if I had moved him/her into a room like that. And I would make them move them bed (I could easily see a laptop, etc easily sliding out the window from the bed.
Seeing these pictures makes me glad D’s room faces an exterior hallway, sort of like a motel. She’s on the fourth floor but her windows and door open to the outside where there is a hallway running the length of the floor.
There were several incidents of falls/suicides (two died, two survived) from Bancroft Hall at the Naval Academy (two occurred while my husband was a student there). After the last one, in which the (drunk) midshipman died, safety devices were installed on all the windows.
At points with lots of people-traffic they certainly have.
https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/02/35/13/4e/general-view-of-grand.jpg
Seriously, about the Grand Canyon in the public viewing areas.
I don’t see how you can stop anyone from sitting on a sill, without some block. But in the photo, the windows running the lrngth of the bed are problematic. I can see a kid trying to read in bed, leaning back and forgetting there’s no wall.
Adding: the fence in the first pic would still give me the willies…that sort did, in fact.
One critical reason for those guards all around NYC is because the housing safety laws mandate them for all residences in which children under a certain age(I believe it was below the age of 12…but not sure) are residents. Failing to do so will result in legal sanctions and serious liability on the landlord’s/homeowner’s part.
My last few apartments in the NYC area didn’t have them because the last residents living there had no children and the buildings tend to be populated mostly by residents without children.
Cathy to Wonder Woman? Quite a transformation!
@hebegebe it’s been a great month!
@hebegebe Don’t you go changing on me, Calvin!
When my DS moved into his dorm a few weeks ago, his high lofted bed was against a very large window, and because of a radiator the bed did not sit against a wall. There was no guard rail on the interior side, so rolling towards the wall would have led to him rolling out of bed and falling 7 feet into a window or radiator. I thought it looked hazardous, and I moved the bed to another wall.
Had I not been there for move in day, his dorm would have stayed like that.
Residential building code is 24" high sills, so most older houses will still be fine. Tempered glass is now required if the sills are lower than 18". But things that are not to current code are generally grandfathered in if they were legal when they were built. There’s no requirement to correct it, unless specific laws are passed. (For example after a horrific dormitory fire in NJ dormitories were required to have sprinklers.) That said, I think colleges and universities can and should do sometimes do more than the minimum that code requires.
Those window guards weren’t required in NYC until Eric Clapton’s son ran through an open window to his death in 1991. I’m sure they’ve save plenty of lives since.
I will never, ever forget when a kid fell out of a window when I was at college. He had placed his lofted bed against the window, and rolled out (the story was he had removed his screen, but I am not sure). Of course, I moved in that dorm the following year.
Don’t get me started on the dangers of elevators. The year before I went to school there was an incredibly tragic accident involving elevators in my first dorm. The dang things have made me nervous ever since.
I would never want my bed against a window or so that I could fall out of a window or onto a radiator. I can’t understand why colleges think such situations are OK. One doesn’t have to be drunk to roll off a bed that is poorly situated and it doesn’t take a lot to make it safer.