FLOYD, Va. – A ceiling collapsed Tuesday in one of the Floyd County Courthouse courtrooms, narrowly avoiding injury as a scheduled trial had been continued.
“I said to everybody, look what’s happening, and we all just looked there, and then everything started falling,” said Kelly Weeks, a paralegal who witnessed the incident.
Weeks was present during the collapse and noted the fortunate timing.
“It was very frightening because we didn’t know what was happening and if the whole ceiling was going to fall in or not,” Weeks said. “Eric and I were probably from here to the camera distance where it started falling on all the juror chairs.”
Commonwealth’s Attorney Eric Branscom, who was also in the courtroom, emphasized the potential danger.
“Nobody in there going into the courtroom wears a hard hat, and that’s what was needed yesterday,” Branscom said. “Somebody should have had the forethought that something was going to fall through, particularly into the courtroom.”
The Floyd County Administrator responded to the incident in a statement:
“Of course, we always want all of our workplaces to be safe and all work to be done well. Having said that, we are pleased that no one was hurt during this unfortunate incident. This work was being done by a third-party contractor. We and our architect have been in direct contact with the contractor and their owner. We will get the ceiling repaired as soon as possible.”
The statement continues on to confirm five ceiling tiles fell along with general debris, while noting the actual roof to the courthouse remains intact.
Branscom said that if a trial had been in session, the judge, jury, law council, and others would have been directly in the danger area.
He added that the courtroom is already a stressful environment, and better planning is needed to avoid similar incidents in the future.