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April 9, 2004 07:42 AM EDT
WASHINGTON, DC - A Maryland woman broke her neck and pelvis and suffered a severe concussion late Thursday afternoon when she stepped on an overripe banana in the dark underground parking garage of the Westin Grand Hotel in Northwest Washington, authorities reported this morning.
Emergency medical technicians were called to the second level of the garage at 5:43 PM Thursday after a hotel guest notified the desk clerk in the lobby that there was a woman "screaming down there on the floor between two cars."
In a prepared statement, Captain Jane Heyslen of the District of Columbia Fire and EMS said, "Miss ****** ********, forty-one, was transported to George Washington University Hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. She was stepping into her car when she stepped on the banana, which had evidently been dropped or placed just under her car door."
When asked about the possibility that the banana had been intentionally put outside Miss ********'s car door by someone wishing to harm her, Capt. Heyslen said, "I won't comment on that. The police are investigating."
Lt. Dave Peters of the Metropolitan Police Department's Public Relations Office would say only that "Miss ********'s car had a politically provocative bumper sticker on it and we are investigating the possibility that this banana-dropping was a hate crime." He declined to comment on the bumper sticker's message.
Reached for comment at GWU Hospital this morning, Miss ********, who has a monthly parking contract at the hotel, said, "I can't believe the police are investigating this. It was just a banana."
Mr. Jack Williams, supervisor of the hotel's janitorial staff, had no comment, but the hotel's general manager, Ms. Linda McGinley, said, "I'll be reviewing Mr. Williams' garage-cleaning procedures. Something like this should not be allowed to happen. Thank God Miss ******** wasn't a guest of the hotel -- can you imagine the lawsuit?"
Asked if she intended to bring a lawsuit against the hotel, Miss ******** stated emphatically that she would not and that "the notion is ridiculous.
"It's not the hotel's fault that I slipped on a banana. It was probably dropped by some little kid whose parents were in too big a hurry to catch their plane.
"No one strategically dropped it there because of my bumper sticker," continued Miss ********. "Besides, I'm a certified klutz. I don't need to step on a banana to break my neck."
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