Family of man who fell nearly 20 feet from sidewalk in Pittsburgh stops work to preserve scene

PITTSBURGH — An attorney for the family of a Coraopolis man has filed a court order to stop repairs on a Pittsburgh street where they say he leaned on the railing, it gave way and he died after falling onto the pavement below.

Brandon Boburka, 22, died after falling nearly 20 feet from West Carson Street in Pittsburgh on May 16.

>>>RELATED: 22-year-old dies after fall from Pittsburgh street

“This was a kid who was just starting life,” Michael Zagari said. “This scene doesn’t look exactly how it looked the night he fell.”

Zagari said the court granted them an emergency injunction to stop all repair work at the scene to preserve evidence.

“Let’s face it. Railings exist for one reason: to prevent people from falling and, clearly, that railing fell,” Zagari said. “The condition of this railing, it is completely corroded and destroyed.”

He said evidence was almost erased when workers started to replace the railing. Zagari said what’s even more alarming is that the rest of the railing hasn’t been blocked off.

“Of course we want this area to be protected and safe for everybody else, but that can be done without destroying evidence. We should have fences all the way up and down the sidewalk completely blocking it off,” Zagari said.

He said the next step in the process is to get experts to take a closer look at the railing and to determine exactly what happened that night.

Channel 11 reached out to several city and state agencies who were named in court documents, but nobody responded to our request for comment.

Emergency crews respond to building fire on Carson Street

Cox Media Group