Officials release few details on man's 'life-threatening' fall at PPG Paints Arena

Officials remained largely tight-lipped Tuesday after a spectator at a Pittsburgh Penguins game suffered life-threatening injuries after falling an estimated 35 feet from the upper concourse inside PPG Paints Arena a day earlier.

Around 7:15 p.m. Monday, a man fell from the 200 level of the stands during a Penguins match-up with the St. Louis Blues, Pittsburgh police said.

He struck a person in the suite level below him, then fell to the “lower bowl,” or the venue’s 100 level, according to authorities.

First responders rushed the victim to the hospital in critical condition, Eliza Durham, a police spokeswoman, said. He suffered “life-threatening injuries,” Durham said, declining to elaborate.

The man’s name, condition and details of his injuries were not available Tuesday.

The fall occurred as the Penguins scored its second goal in the first 55 seconds of the game, according to Mark Nitowski, who watched the game from loge box seats “about 20, 25 feet above the lower bowl.”

“Everybody was cheering and I caught something falling — just out of the corner of my eye,” said Nitowski, 67, of Lower Burrell, a retired journalist and communications professional who has freelanced for TribLive. “It was kind of a shocking situation because you don’t expect it.”

The man was unconscious but appeared to be breathing after the fall, Nitowski told TribLive.

“To hear that guy was still alive is amazing, given how far he fell and what he went through,” he said.

Pittsburgh-area attorney Rob Peirce said falls happen fairly regularly at sports stadiums and other entertainment venues, though not all of them involve serious injury.

“When you bring large numbers of people together into a tight environment, and there’s alcohol and other beverages being sold … that increases the odds that something is going to happen,” said Peirce, who has handled personal injury cases since 1995.

It remained unclear Tuesday if alcohol played a role in the fall.

On April 30, a Pittsburgh Pirates fan who had been drinking alcohol fell 21 feet from the Clemente Wall to the right-field warning track at PNC Park.

The fan, Kavan Markwood, said he fell while celebrating an Andrew McCutchen double. Markwood called TribLive while still hospitalized and described his injured back and neck as “broken everything.”

Olga George, a spokeswoman for Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, said PPG Paints Arena would have been constructed to conform to building safety codes.

But Peirce said that doesn’t necessarily guarantee spectators will be free from injury or that minimum safety requirements are adequate.

“The fact that it might comply with the building code doesn’t say … there isn’t a safer option for patrons,” Peirce said.

A spokeswoman for Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato referred questions to the region’s Sports and Exhibition Authority, which declined comment.

The Penguins did not respond to multiple phone calls or emails. In a prepared statement released late Monday, the team said it was “closely monitoring the situation.”

“Our concerns remain with the individual and his family at this time,” the team said.

Penguins captain Sidney Crosby echoed that Monday night.

“I just want to say we just found out that someone fell tonight, so you know, it doesn’t feel right to be talking about points when we hear something like that,” Crosby told reporters.

The Sports and Exhibition Authority, which owns and leases Acrisure Stadium, PPG Paints Arena and PNC Park, referred questions Tuesday to the Penguins.

Aramark, the vendor contracted to serve food and drinks at PPG Paints Arena in the city’s Uptown section, declined to speak with a TribLive reporter.

“We are aware of the situation and are committed to working with PPG Paints Arena on their investigation,” Chris Collom, an Aramark spokesman, told TribLive in a prepared statement.

Pittsburghers and sports fans, however, didn’t hesitate to weigh in this week on the incident.

“PPG arena Pittsburgh death stairs strike back,” one man posted to Facebook.

The incident was the third of its kind in recent months. In addition to the falls at PPG Paints Arena and PNC Park, this past Saturday a worker at Acrisure Stadium was hospitalized with severe injuries after falling about 50 feet from the main scoreboard, according to Pittsburgh police.

The man fell from the scoreboard to a mid-level catwalk around 10 p.m. as he was setting up a remote camera system.

He injured his liver and spleen and “shattered both of his legs,” according to a GoFundMe campaign in his name.

As of late Tuesday afternoon, that fundraiser had collected more than $57,000 in donations.

Efforts to reach the organizer or the family of the man who fell were unsuccessful.