Teacher injured in fall dies
Woman who taught at Little School suffered severe head injury when balcony railing gave way
A young teacher who tumbled from the second-story balcony of her downtown Charleston home earlier this month has died.
Courtney Harbaugh, 24, died at 6:22 p.m. Friday at Medical University Hospital, according to the Charleston County Coroner's Office. Harbaugh had been in the hospital since her fall Nov. 15.
"She was a really nice girl, very outgoing," said Chad Robinson, who lives on the bottom floor of Harbaugh's building on President Street. "She had a lot of friends."
Robinson was sitting outside that day. He said Harbaugh's dog got sick on her balcony, and she asked him to pass up the garden hose so she could wash it down.
She leaned over the railing and reached out with a broom, and just as Robinson was about to hand up the hose, the railing gave way, he said. Harbaugh fell to the sidewalk below, severely injuring her head.
She was unconscious, and a physician who was visiting her rushed downstairs and started chest compressions, Robinson said.
"We were calling her name, but she never responded," he said.
Parents and colleagues from the Little School at Grace Episcopal Church, where Harbaugh taught a class of toddlers, had rallied around her. They took cards to the hospital and gave her family from Columbia a place to stay locally.
Harbaugh was a graduate of the College of Charleston and was in her third year of teaching at the church school on Wentworth Street.
Her grandfather, Bob Oswald, described her as a bubbly person. The family said no memorial service is planned in Charleston. A wake and funeral will be held in Columbia. Caughman-Harman Funeral Home is handling arrangements.
Officials with Central Property Management, which manages Harbaugh's rental home, said the railing broke loose from the columns that held it in place. They said the company had not received any complaints about the stability of the railing.
On Friday night, Robinson pointed up to the balcony. Nearly two weeks after the accident, the railing had not been replaced.
Reach Nadine Parks at 937-5573 or nparks@postand courier.com.
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Comments
This article has 15 comment(s)
Posted by jbr1039 on November 30, 2008 at 3:42 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Now cracks a a noble heart. Good night sweet princess,
Let flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
Good bye Court.
Posted by CedarPosts on November 30, 2008 at 5:08 a.m. (Suggest removal)
A Pointless Tragic Loss.
Central Property Management and the owner of the building should be ashamed of themselves.
Posted by justjerry on November 30, 2008 at 7:21 a.m. (Suggest removal)
What makes it sad is that there are hundreds if not thousands of rental properties downtown with unsafe conditions like this. Hopefully the family will get a settlement from the owner and property management company that they can use to set up a foundation for a cause that was near to this poor girl's heart.
Posted by Neponset on November 30, 2008 at 7:22 a.m. (Suggest removal)
First, these folks will be real sorry when the ambulance chasers get thru with them.
Second, there is a lesson to be learned. During my shipyard experience, I would often go down to the big dry docks to do ship checks. The dry docks are about 3 or 4 stories deep and a temporary barrier is set up to keep folks from taking the big step. This barrier consists of stanchions and chains - there were signs on the chains between each stanchion and it read “do not lean on the chains”. In our case - “do not lean on the railing”.
Posted by SomeTruthPlease on November 30, 2008 at 8:33 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Neponset-the owners of the building are attorneys. You can find that information in the parcel search function of the Charleston County website.
Posted by moonpie on November 30, 2008 at 8:40 a.m. (Suggest removal)
difference neponset, yours was a construction area this was a residential area.
horrible tragedy anyway you look at it. please no one suggest we need another law on the books to combat this. the lawsuits will be enough to scare the homeowners and rental mgmt companies to inspect on a regular basis.plus i bet their are some inspection criteria already.
Posted by eatmorecollards on November 30, 2008 at 9:53 a.m. (Suggest removal)
All those houses downtown that are rented to college students should be inspected annually by SC-DEHEC and the fire department. I would guess that enough fines could be levied to support this.
Posted by Neponset on November 30, 2008 at 10:27 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Some
I don’t care who owns this building, this tragic event has “law suit” written all over it.
Posted by burton on November 30, 2008 at 10:42 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Tragic story! My condolences to the family. When it's your time to go, it's your time to go. I hope some good can come from this though. Another thing, what's up with not replacing the railing yet?
Posted by coolfreaknbeans on November 30, 2008 at 10:48 a.m. (Suggest removal)
What terrible news. I had hoped and prayed this young woman would pull through. I hope the family DOES sue the crap out of the responsible party. Let a lesson be learned in order to protect others. Landlords so often sit back collecting rent and doing nothing to repair or maintain the property. Pure greed and laziness. I hope her family and friends find peace and resolve.
Posted by Neponset on November 30, 2008 at 11:04 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Burton
My take is that the legal team (representing the family of Ms Harbaugh) does not want the railing repaired/replaced, until their structural engineer/construction consultants, have had a chance to study what went wrong.
Posted by mkris on November 30, 2008 at 12:05 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Shouldn't the management company have done regular inspections of the property and caught the deteriorating conditions? Especially since they should have been aware that people and renters do lean against railings?
Posted by walleyedwoman1215 on November 30, 2008 at 7:51 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The LEO community has a saying, "There are victims and there are victims." This young lady, by all accounts, was not a high-risk victim who did drugs, turned tricks, hustled for rent or drank away her paycheck. There was a reasonable expectation of safety in that rental property. I hope her family gets major bucks and endows a chair at the C of C.
Posted by tzucatcher on December 1, 2008 at 12:01 a.m. (Suggest removal)
First, my condolences to the Harbaugh Family!
This will be an interesting case to follow. First the house is owned by attorneys who have made their money off of personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits. They have made mincemeat of guys who are just like they are now. The money they made was used to purchase the house. They formed an LLC then became slumlords. They better hold on to their briefs. If you would like to confirm this go to charlestoncounty.org and do a property search and then go to the secretary of state website and check out the LLC.
Posted by Rggr on December 1, 2008 at 11:37 a.m. (Suggest removal)
This is a very sad story and there will probably be a lawsuit.
I don't want to condemn the owners and rental company yet though. The management company should inspect the property before renting it. After that, they're not supposed to be on site unless notified by the tenant of a problem or if they know of something wrong, they give the tenant notice. It's quite possible that this would have passed an inspection and simply been a horrible accident. I doubt she would have leaned against a railing known to be weak.
Either way, my thoughts are with her family. That's a very tragic loss.