A Portland Woman Was Injured After a Large Metal Panel Fell From the Aerial Tram and Hit Her in the Head

It’s the first mishap in the tram’s 11-year history.

Portland Aerial Tram. (Christine Dong)
By Elise Herron

The first mishap in the Portland aerial tram's 11-year history didn't endanger riders, but rather someone walking underneath it.

Yesterday morning, The Oregonian first reported, a woman was struck in the head by a metal panel that fell from the tram.

"It just came down on her, she literally didn't see it coming," the woman's father, Dan Sprauer, told The Oregonian. "She said it hit like a ton of bricks."

A responding firefighter said the panel fell around 130 feet, striking the victim as she was walking down the stairs of the Gibbs Street Pedestrian Bridge between Oregon Health and Science University and the OHSU Center for Health and Healing.

The 21-year-old's injuries did not require medical treatment.

Dylan Rivera, a Portland Bureau of Transportation spokesperson, tells WW the metal panel "measures five by seven feet, and is decorative, not functional or needed for operations."

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