911 audio has revealed the moments after a 21-year-old University of Georgia student miraculously survived a fall from the eighth-floor window of a building.
Investigators said Kristin Sargent fell from an eighth-floor window at the Rambler Athens apartment complex in Athens, Georgia, while “dancing on a couch or air mattress” just after 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. She was reportedly near an open window when she fell through the screen. Emergency personnel found Sargent on a second-floor courtyard pool deck.
“It appeared from the scene that the victim had struck a metal bench as she fell, as the cushion on the bench had some blood on it, and the armrest of the bench had broken off,” the Athens-Clarke County Police Department wrote in a report, according to KHON News. “All information gathered thus far suggests that this was an accident. The investigation is ongoing.”
Although they did not reveal the severity of Sargent’s injuries, police stated that she was expected to survive. She is currently recovering in intensive care.
“She was talking to one of her friends and saying, ‘Hey, I’m alive. I can’t believe it,’” her father, Richard Sargent, told WSB-TV News. Kristin Sargent’s sister also expressed gratitude that her sister is alive, according to Fox 5 News.
Richard Sargent speculated that perhaps his daughter was celebrating the Georgia Bulldogs’ victory over the Oklahoma Sooners when the accident happened.
“University of Georgia just won a football game. I bet there were a lot of kids here who were 21 years old who were super happy,” he told WSB-TV News.
He added, “She’s a good fighter, and so she’s going to be okay.”
911 call audio reveals what happened in the moments after she fell
“We’re on the eighth floor. My friend just fell out of the window,” Fox 5 News reports a caller told dispatchers. “She’s on the ground. She fell out of the window. We were dancing, and she just fell out of the window.”
The dispatcher asked if Sargent was moving, and the caller responded, “Is she moving? Is she moving? No, she’s not.”
“Can you tell if her eyes are open up?” the dispatcher then asked the caller, who replied, “No, I don’t know. I’m looking down at her on the floor. She’s not moving.”
Another resident of the Rambler Athens also called 911, telling the dispatcher, “I just saw someone fall out of, like, the eighth-floor window and land on the grass by the pool. They look, like they’re unconscious, at least.”
Reactions from the community after the accident
“Our thoughts are with our resident, and we are wishing for a speedy recovery. We are continuing to gather information and review the circumstances surrounding the incident,” a spokesperson for Rambler Athens said in a statement.
Additionally, building management warned tenants via email not to tamper with or disable the safety limiters that should be installed on all apartment windows.
“I do know a couple of people that live here. As far as I know, the windows did not open all the way for something like that to happen,” said another student, Skylar Smith. “I’m super grateful that she lived and that she’s awake. It’s a miracle, honestly. I hope that they get some safety measures put up on these windows.”
As Kristin Sargent continues to recuperate in the intensive care unit, her father says Piedmont Healthcare and the UGA community have shown tons of support. Numerous letters of support and best wishes from students and Kristin’s friends appear on a large poster inside the apartment building where she fell.