“On the one hand I’m grateful, on the other hand I wonder how something like this can happen,” says Elisabeth Maier. The 42-year-old singer of the Sierning party band “Seven Up” was hit on Saturday at the HLW Steyr graduation ball shortly after midnight on the stage of the Steyr town hall by a suddenly falling chipboard on the neck right next to the ear. Two high-school graduates, a 19-year-old from the Perg district and a 20-year-old from the Amstetten district, were also struck by the approximately one and a half by one and a half meter acoustic panel. While one escaped with a fright, slightly injured, the second suffered a severely bleeding head wound. The ball with the motto “The circus is over – the greatest show” was then canceled immediately.
“We are happy that nothing more happened,” says HLW director Ewald Staltner. He was an eye and ear witness to the accident that happened during the midnight interlude: “Among the ball guests was an emergency doctor who immediately took care of the injured. And one of our class teachers, who also works with the Red Cross in the crisis intervention team, took care of the shocked classmates.”
After that, together with the ball committee, he calmly ended the event and cleared the hall. “Up to this point, the mood was really great. Everyone was happy that they were finally able to celebrate a ball again after the corona restrictions,” says Staltner, “but that was over in one fell swoop.”
Luckily his singer didn’t suffer any vertebral injuries, says bandleader Franz Bräuer: “We just had a break and left the stage. But Lilly wanted to watch the high school graduates’ midnight interlude and take pictures.” The record fell right over where the keyboardist, Elisabeth Maier’s husband Reinhard, was sitting. “Fortunately he wasn’t there, it would have hit him hard.”
However, the singer also suffers from considerable pain, whose neck and shoulder area is now adorned with a large hematoma: “I was allowed to leave the hospital just like the student that night,” says Maier, “I hope I’ll be fit by the weekend, there we have a performance at a wedding.”
Steyr’s Mayor Markus Vogl (SP) was shocked: “We immediately closed the town hall. It could be material fatigue, but experts will have to investigate that in the coming days.”
Two student balls that were also scheduled for Wednesday and Saturday in the town hall have already been relocated: “I have agreed with the mayor of Enns that the balls can take place in his town hall. We will set up a shuttle service for this.” He hopes that the Steyr town hall will be available again by the time of the dance school ball, which will take place on June 18th.
Source: Nachrichten
