“I miss them so much”, she said of the friends she lost, who had “grown up together”. None of this needed to happen.
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She lost teeth and had lacerations to her liver, kidney and spleen.
They were Eimear Walsh, Olivia Burke, Niccolai Schuster, Eoghan Culligan and Lorcán Miller and Ms Burke’s cousin, Irish-American Ashley Donohoe. I had a collapsed lung and broken ribs.
She suffered major injuries and says her birthday will forever be a reminder of the loss of her best friends.
She told a U.S. state committee that she could have never have imagined how a summer in California with her friends could have ended. She also needed open heart surgery.
“My life has changed forever”.
She added: “I can not believe why you are even debating this Bill”.
Her mother Angela said she was angry her daughter’s life had been so severely impacted by the negligence of others while the families of those who died had been left with “incredible grief”.
“Now my birthday will always be their anniversary”, she told the assembly appropriations committee, which is considering new laws to introduce greater transparency on building standards.
Six young people, most of whom were on J1 visas, died in the balcony tragedy on 16 June 2015.
The Berkeley balcony, which collapsed last summer killing 6 students, had been built by a firm which paid out multi-millions for defects, that were never made public.
Politicians were discussing new legislation that will require building contractors to report previous convictions for poor safety records.
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A victim of last year’s Berkeley balcony collapse is speaking out about the worst night of her life and what the state can do to prevent future catastrophes. It must clear the committee by this Friday in order to move forward.
