PITTSBURGH — As fans inside PPG Paints Arena celebrated a second Penguins goal, Abby Kendall was watching a nightmare unfold.

A man a couple of rows in front of her seat in Section 234 on Monday had attempted to jump sideways from one row to the next while moving toward the staircase separating sections 234 and 201, she said, rather than asking people between him and the stairs to stand.

He couldn’t catch himself on the seats in the row in front of him, she said. Or the next. Or the next.

“He was always on his feet,” Kendall told the Post-Gazette on Thursday, three days after the man was left in critical condition when he ultimately fell from the upper bowl into the walkway behind the lower bowl. “He just couldn’t get his balance, couldn’t get stopped.”

The man’s fall began about halfway up the section and carried him all the way over the railing in the front row headfirst, Kendall said.

She thought he went over the railing at nearly the exact moment Anthony Mantha scored a goal 55 seconds into the first period to give the Penguins a 2-0 lead over the St. Louis Blues.

Her husband saw a goal. She saw a man tumble over the railing.

From there, he fell to the suites level and hit a fan there before falling another level to the walkway between the FNB Club and the lower bowl, police said.

“My husband yelled, ‘Yes!’ and I was like, ‘What? No! I just saw a guy fall over the edge.’ And he’s like, ‘No, the Pens just scored,’ ” Kendall said.

He was taken to a hospital in critical condition, police said Monday.

The Penguins and Oak View Group, which manages PPG Paints Arena, said in a joint statement Thursday that their “collective thoughts continue to be with the individual injured during Monday night’s game and his family.”

Police referred questions about the incident to the Penguins, who had not provided an update on the fan’s condition as of Thursday evening.

The statement said “the patron was not using the designated staircase at the time of the incident and the safety barrier remained intact.”

At least one pane of glass was missing from in front of the seats in Section 234. The glass shattered after the man’s fall, Kendall said, but it did not collapse. Crews removed the shattered pane after, she said.

How the investigation could unfold

The investigation into the incident will be thorough, a former arena executive told the Post-Gazette, and will likely extend all the way back to the building’s construction that began more than a decade and a half ago.

“I am confident that they will certainly go back and do a thorough investigation as to all of the protocols, from staffing to facility design to railing heights, to anything else that may have contributed to this, including the … injured person’s knowledge as well,” said Larry Perkins, formerly the assistant general manager and vice president of the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Penguins and Oak View Group statement said the investigation is ongoing.

“Guest safety at PPG Paints Arena is always our top priority. In response to this isolated incident, we are reviewing all details from the game,” the statement said.

The incident Monday was at least the third fall with serious injuries at a Pittsburgh sports stadium in the past six months.

Kavan Markwood fell about 20 feet over the right field wall at PNC Park during a Pirates-Cubs game on April 30 and was hospitalized in critical condition, taking his first steps several days after the incident.

On Saturday night, Keith Keller fell about 50 feet from the main scoreboard at Acrisure Stadium while installing a remote camera system ahead of Sunday’s game between the Steelers and Packers. He was also taken to a hospital in critical condition, where a friend said he is “doing remarkably well” but faces a long recovery.

“It just seems to be freak occurrences that just so happened to be in the same city during the same rough time period,” said Gil Fried, a University of West Florida professor who focuses on sport administration and venue safety. “The only similarity between the two instances of fans falling over the railing could be attributed to railings that could be higher to protect fans.”

The Penguins and Oak View Group said that all “safety barriers were constructed in accordance with building and safety codes and have been properly maintained. The facility is inspected annually and remains safe for all guests.”

Improving protection

Fried has served as an expert witness for hundreds of lawsuits involving stadiums, arenas and other venues.

The International Building Code, which Pittsburgh adheres to, requires 42-inch guardrails in most cases. It can be a minimum of 26 inches when “the fascia or railing would otherwise interfere with the sightlines of immediately adjacent seating,” according to the code.

That “line-of-sight” exemption allows venues to have those lower guardrails than what’s mandated, Fried said. He has written about the dangers of having arena guardrails that are too low, arguing against those exemptions.

“We’re still going to keep having these deaths and serious injuries as long as we don’t have a public outcry that says, ‘Why aren’t you raising this to make it safer?’ ” Fried said.

The rail along the right-field wall at PNC Park, for example, measured 36 inches — exceeding code requirements of 26 inches — per the stadium’s architect of record.

Guardrails at the end of staircases and walkways are required to be higher by the code, and the barriers at the end of the staircases at PPG Paints Arena are several inches higher than the railings on either side of the stairs in front of the seats.

The front rows in the upper deck also include glass that extends above the metal railing.

Fried advocates for all arena guardrails to be at least 36 inches high, with 42 inches providing an additional layer of protection.

The line-of-sight exemption, as he calls it, is meant to enhance the viewing experience — a fan can comfortably see the action from their seat without having to duck or lift up to see what’s happening through a barrier.

Fried compared raising arena guardrail heights to extending the netting in Major League Baseball.

Starting in 2020, MLB teams were required to extend netting down the foul lines to protect fans from foul balls.

Bob Gorman saw the debates over netting play out firsthand.

He and a colleague documented deaths at baseball games over decades and frequently had attorneys calling for their data on ballpark incidents. He believes their research played a part in the move to mandate netting extensions.

Now, protective netting is a largely ignored part of attending MLB games.

“You’re aware of it when you first sit down, but after that, you’re not even aware the net’s there,” said Gorman, co-author of the book “Death at the Ballpark.”

He identified 25 fatal falls at major league ballparks from 1969 to 2017. At least two of those were ruled suicides.

He believes higher railings could prevent some falls.

“​​I can’t help but believe they couldn’t do something like Plexiglas or something, if they were really worried about the height of the railing obstructing views,” Gorman said. “They could do more.”

The Texas Rangers raised front-row railings at Globe Life Park, their home stadium at the time, to at least 42 inches after a fan fell over a 33-inch rail while attempting to catch a ball for his son, according to USA Today.

A ‘surreal’ experience

Railing heights will likely be a part of the investigation into the fall at PPG Paints Arena, but the height of guardrails and steepness of stairs would have been approved before the arena could open, said Perkins, a former president of the International Association of Venue Managers.

The questions he would ask in the investigation “start from the very beginning” — from policies and procedures to drawings of the venue and more.

“So it would be no different than the authority [with] jurisdiction going in and doing a thorough investigation,” Perkins said.

Kendall often sits in the upper deck at PPG Paints Arena and says people frequently climb over seats rather than asking someone to stand up so they can pass.

She doesn’t see the staircases at PPG Paints Arena as particularly steep.

“They’re like every other stadium,” she said. “They’re not freaking me out.”

Kendall said she won’t be scared of sitting in the upper deck moving forward, although she saw people “grasping onto the railing, holding on for dear life,” as they ascended the stairs after the incident.

She has been reliving the moment of seeing the man fall every day since the accident.

“It kind of was surreal,” she said. “I just felt shaken by the whole thing.”

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