A University of Georgia student is recovering after falling from an eighth-floor apartment window while dancing on a sofa, surviving a fall that could have easily ended much differently.
Kristin Sargent, a 21-year-old senior studying finance and marketing, fell from her apartment at the Rambler Athens on Saturday night. Witnesses told police that she had been dancing on a couch or air mattress near an open window when she fell through the screen and landed on the pool deck below.
First responders found Sargent near the pool. Police said evidence at the scene suggested she struck a metal bench during the fall, with the bench's armrest broken and blood found on its cushion. She was rushed to the hospital with multiple serious injuries and remains in intensive care.
Despite the eight-story fall, Sargent is awake and talking with her family and friends. Her father, Richard Sargent, said she told a friend, “Hey, I'm alive. I can't believe it,” while recovering in the hospital. He described his daughter as a fighter and said the family feels incredibly fortunate that she survived.
The incident happened after the University of Georgia's football team defeated Oklahoma, when students were celebrating around the apartment complex. Authorities are investigating the circumstances of the fall.
The apartment complex has also reminded residents that its windows are equipped with safety limiters and warned them not to tamper with or remove the devices.