Lofts in dorms are proving to be dangerous, after at least two Iowa State students fell from theirs over the past three days.

Sarah Low, freshman in animal science and resident on the first floor of Barton Hall, fell from her loft Monday afternoon. She fell onto her head and elbow and sustained an elbow injury, according to the Department of Public Safety accident report.

“I was studying, and I leaned over to pick up something, and I fell off [my loft] onto my head,” Low said late Monday afternoon.

DPS received the call for assistance at 12:32 p.m. on Monday, and an ambulance and a fire vehicle were dispatched to Low’s room at 162 Barton Hall, said Loras Jaeger, director of DPS.

She was treated in the emergency room at Mary Greeley Medical Center and released in the afternoon.

“I have a broken elbow,” Low said.

She said the girls who live near her responded to her cries for help and called for the ambulance.

Low said she is “not at all” scared of her loft after the accident.

“It was a stupid thing to do,” she said. “I won’t do it again.”

Jaeger said occasionally DPS officials do hear about problems with people falling out of their lofts.

“We tend to have some incidents of that at the start of the school year every year,” Jaeger said.

“Lofts can be dangerous — there’s no doubt about it,” he said.

Jerry Stewart, assistant director of DPS, gave concurring statistics.

“We generally have a couple [loft incidents] a year,” Stewart said. “Some of them are sleeping-related — at home, it’s usually not an issue.”

He said some people roll around a lot in their sleep, so when they are in a bed high off the ground, they may roll off the loft and onto the floor.

Dana Ellis, sophomore in biochemistry, fell out of her loft in Meeker House on fourth-floor Friley last weekend.

Meeker House resident assistant Theresa Daniels, senior in civil engineering, said she does not believe such incidents occur very often.

“I don’t think it’s a big problem, but I think people should be aware there is a risk,” Daniels said.

Despite the incidents of students falling out of lofts, Jaeger said there has been no discussion of outlawing lofts in dorms.

Becky Adair, ISU risk manager, said risks involved with lofts “is an issue that we should look at.”

She said she feels the university could either put more stringent rules and guidelines on loft use or outlaw the beds all together. She said some institutions and campuses have banned lofts.

“It isn’t an issue we’ve looked at as long as I’ve been doing this,” Adair said. She has been risk manager at ISU since 1992.

“It’s probably an issue we should re-evaluate periodically,” she said.

Adair said it is important to examine the frequency of incidents against other situations.

“We have to look at what the potential risks are and the frequency of incidents,” she said.