For the second time this month, glass panels have fallen from the W Austin Hotel. This comes a month after an Atlanta woman died falling through the window of the W Hotel in Midtown.
Three panels fell from the 31st, 29th and 22nd floors, a hotel spokesman said. No one was hurt, but five parked cars were damaged.
Almost 1,000 glass panels on each balcony will be replaced. This comes two weeks after two other glass panels fell more than 20 stories into the hotel’s pool area, leaving four people with minor injuries.
Last month a woman died at the W Hotel in Midtown Atlanta when her and a friend crashed through a 10th story window.
Witnesses told police 30-year-old LaShawna Threatt and a second woman were ``play wrestling'' in a room at the W Midtown Hotel early on May 28 when they crashed into a window and fell through it.
Threatt’s father has sued for negligence on the part of the hotel and seeks unspecified damages.
“When this case was originally filed,” WSB Legal Analyst Ron Carlson said, “the chances of the plaintiff proving that this tragedy came solely from bad windows seemed remote. Now the odds of demonstrating structural defects of W Hotel windows has gone up exponentially.”
The hotel says the building underwent structural reviews that included the windows when the company took ownership in 2008.
Carlson says Threatt’s father’s case will hinge on if an Atlanta judge will allow the falling windows in Texas be considered as evidence.
"If the judge decides to do so, and that determination will be made in advance of any trial. It may bring about a settlement in any case. At the very least it will cause the price to go up -- perhaps way up if more windows keep falling down."
Last year, a third-floor window broke after what’s described as “almost incidental contact.”
Management said earlier this month that the Atlanta and Austin incidents are unrelated.
“At the W Austin, a panel of glass broke on balcony railings on two unoccupied condo residences located above the hotel,” a W spokesman told the Journal-Constitution. “As such, these are two completely separate incidents, at two very different types of buildings and locations (balcony railing versus window). Teams of experts are currently investigating each event independently.”