Son’s Deadly Fall Prompts Mother to Become Activist

As Joy Kutzke would later learn, 7 inches might have saved her son’s life.

Kris Kutzke, a gregarious 20-year-old UCLA student, was walking onto the balcony of a fourth-floor Westwood Village apartment when he tripped on the metal threshold of the sliding glass door, fell forward and pitched over the balcony railing.

In the days that followed Kris’ death, his grieving mother came to a disturbing conclusion: If the balcony’s railing had been higher, as required under state building code, Kris’ stumble might not have been fatal.

The railings at the Westwood apartment complex were 35 inches high, but state law required a 42-inch railing. Los Angeles building inspectors were allowing contractors to install lower barriers, 36 inches or less.

One former Cal/OSHA official says that, citywide, thousands of buildings have substandard, and potentially dangerous, railings.

Kutzke vowed to force Los Angeles to fix the problem railings, spending hours writing letters, phoning politicians and lobbying their staffs. Her effort started the day after Kris’ funeral in July 1999. Nearly four years later, Kutzke is still fighting.

“Do I stop now?” asked Kutzke, an administrative assistant for San Diego County. “My son is dead. Who else is going to speak for him?”

Kris Kutzke, one of two boys in the family, was a math whiz who played the drums, the guitar and the piano. His family was thrilled when he got into UCLA, certain his future was bright. A heavyset “bear of a guy” who loved to perform card tricks, Kris always traveled with a large group of pals.

“Kris had a personality that drew people to him,” said Kutzke, her grief still palpable in a recent interview. “This was a great kid. We were so proud of him.”

Kutzke said her son was starting his senior year at UCLA when the accident occurred. He was attending a small party at the apartment, in the 500 block of Midvale Avenue, where one of his friends lived. Although he had been drinking, his friends told authorities that he was not drunk.

In his memory, his mother has been dogged. Although Kutzke’s persistence has produced some changes at Los Angeles City Hall, progress has come slowly. And she worries it won’t come at all if she doesn’t keep up the pressure.

“What am I going to do? Wait in the wings for it to happen to someone else?” said Kutzke, who lives in San Diego. “I would not have been able to live with myself if I did not try to do something.... I know it’s too late for my son. But if I can save one other life, it would be worth it.”

In addition to the problem with the railing, Kutzke said, she later learned that the metal threshold that her son had tripped over was 2 inches high -- 1 1/2 inches higher than allowed by city code.

Kutzke filed a lawsuit, charging negligence, against the property owners. She prevailed in court, receiving a $750,000 judgment two years ago.

In the weeks that followed Kris’ death, Kutzke also learned that her son was not the only person to have fallen from a balcony at the Midvale apartment complex. Eleven months earlier, two other students -- a man and a woman -- had lost their balance while sitting on a fourth-floor railing. The man suffered a severe brain injury. The woman spent two weeks in the hospital with a broken pelvis and internal injuries.

Kutzke said that accident should have served as a warning that the railings needed to be retrofitted. They were not.

Under the state’s 1985 building code, exterior balcony railings must be at least 42 inches high -- more than waist-high on most adults.

According to L.A. Chief Inspector Wayne Durand, some Los Angeles building inspectors had been making exceptions for apartment balcony railings, citing a provision in the city’s code that allowed guardrails in individual dwelling units to be built at 36 inches.

Last September, the City Council approved a resolution -- at Kutzke’s urging -- ordering building inspectors to make sure that railings in apartments built over the last 18 years meet the 42-inch requirement.

Seven months after the council issued its order, housing officials are slowly starting to issue orders for apartment owners to upgrade balcony railings. Higher barriers were put in place only recently at the building where Kris Kutzke fell.

Durand said “it might take several years” for the city to bring apartment buildings into compliance. “It’s just not a simple thing,” he said. “It sounds easy -- just another 6 inches. But there’s a lot of structural design in a guardrail. It has to be engineered.”

Durand also said inspectors need to be reminded to look for the violations. “I’m sure there will be some inspectors who don’t understand or forget to check,” he said. “It will take ongoing training or affirmation.”

Councilman Jack Weiss, who represents Westwood Village, has become Kutzke’s strongest advocate. He has called on the city’s Housing Department and the Building and Safety Department to make a progress report on their efforts. Officials are scheduled to appear before the council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee today. “We need them to explain their game plan,” Weiss said.

Jerry Hildreth, a former Cal/OSHA criminal investigator and an expert in building safety issues, estimates that there are more than 3,000 buildings in Los Angeles with dangerously low guardrails.

“Walk around Westwood,” Hildreth said. “This is considered the cream of the crop of apartment complexes, yet everywhere you look the railings don’t meet code. It’s a major problem. It’s upsetting and it’s totally unnecessary.”

Kutzke said she hopes to set up a database to track the problem properties and to identify how many people have been injured or killed in balcony falls in Los Angeles.

Forcing change, Kutzke said, is her way of honoring her son’s life while finding meaning in his death.

“We need to make this right,” Kutzke said. “I will spend the rest of my life working on this. I need to know, when I put my head down on my pillow at night, that I have done something to make a safer environment.”