25 hurt in collapse of concrete awning at North Carolina high school

Reporting from Olin, N.C. —  A concrete canopy collapsed Saturday on a group of band students who had gathered outside a North Carolina high school shortly before a competition, leaving 25 people injured, authorities said.

Dr. Howard Bell of Iredell Emergency Medical Services confirmed the injury total to reporters after the awning collapse outside the entrance to North Iredell High School in Olin, about 55 miles north of Charlotte. At least one student was taken to a Winston-Salem hospital with potentially life-threatening injuries, authorities said, without elaborating.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with our students, and we understand that some of the parents may have been injured as well,” Iredell-Statesville Schools Superintendent Brady Johnson said.

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Iredell-Statesville Schools spokeswoman Susie Wiberg said the students were standing under the awning as a band competition was about to get started inside the school. Wiberg said a box truck hit one of the canopy supports and the awning then fell, hitting the students underneath it. A driveway leads up to the canopied entrance.

Wiberg said emergency personnel rushed to the school, located in rural Iredell County near a major north-south route, Interstate 77.

“The EMS folks got there pretty quickly,” Wiberg said. “They were wonderful.”

Richard Campbell, a band member from South Iredell High School, told WBTV in Charlotte that he witnessed the canopy collapse and aftermath.

“I was standing toward the building and I heard it snap,” Campbell said. “And I ran out toward the grass and saw people trapped underneath there.”

The band competition was canceled.

Emergency personnel remained on the scene late Saturday, dismantling the damaged section of canopy. Band members could be seen inside a high school stairwell staring out of a window and looking down at the debris.

Other band members, some dressed in red T-shirts and others in black polo shirts, were spotted walking between the school building and the adjacent library. Students talked among themselves and with state Highway Patrol troopers but they declined a reporter’s request for comment.

Hours after the accident, the truck remained parked in front of the high school as a Highway Patrol enforcement team inspected it for possible mechanical problems, authorities said. The only evidence of damage to the truck was a mangled section of trim on the top of the cargo section on the right side. The area around the canopy and drive was cordoned off by yellow tape.

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