A guest staying inside the room from where the railing fell spoke with Hawaii News Now. They did not want to be identified but said they were walking into the room when they heard a loud crash. The person added that they were leaning on the rail just hours earlier.
“5:30 this morning, I was on that railing on my phone talking. We live outside of Orlando so it’s five hour time difference and I was talking to my office,” the person said.
“When I went to the bedroom balcony and looked down, I saw where it landed and I thought ‘Thank God’ because two feet either way either, way it probably would have killed somebody,” they added.
HFD said that one person was being treated by Ocean Safety when they arrived. Another person suffered a minor injury while escaping the falling railing. A section of the beach was cordoned off. At this point, it’s unclear exactly what caused the railing to give way. In a statement from Moana Surfrider Hotel, the director of public relations for the Waikiki Collection, Dara Young, said:
“We are looking into an incident that occurred involving a balcony in our Tower Wing. We take this matter very seriously. The safety and security of our guests and employees is our top priority.”