LITTLE ELM — A Little Elm woman fell to her death while trying to get Christmas decorations out of her attic over the weekend.
Police said Dedra King's husband found her dead Saturday afternoon inside their garage in the 1500 block of Fieldstone Drive.
Police spokesman Capt. Rodney Harrison said the 54-year-old was trying to climb a wooden pull-down leading to the attic. "The ladder was not structurally sound," he said. "It gave way because it was obvious there was a crack that we could see."
Harrison said one of the ladder's support beams snapped.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission reports 160,000 people are injured in ladder-related accidents every year. Yet the National Safety Council reports only 380 Americans actually died from ladder falls in 2008, the most recent data available.
Police said King hit her head on the concrete floor and had been climbing into the attic by herself. Officers said her husband discovered her a few hours later.
"It doesn’t take a great distance to fall, and you can be very, very injured," Harrison said.
Earlier this month, Jens Gardner, 52, was electrocuted after his ladder tilted into power lines. The maintenance worker had been trying to hang Christmas lights at a Grand Prairie event center.
E-mail jbetz@wfaa.com
