Everybody was screaming, "I'm going to die"

A summer Saturday night house party, who pauses to think whether the porch you're venturing out onto is safe enough? Over the weekend in Chicago, twelve people died and fifty seven others were injured when a porch in Lincoln Park collapsed. Investigators are looking to see is the 13'x20' porch was built properly, but speculation is that there were simply too many people on the three story porch structure - reportedly dozens. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that most of the deaths were "caused by 'compressional asphyxia,' meaning they suffocated under the crush of timber and bodies. Many of them were trapped between the floors of the porch."

Apparently Chicago has a history of recent porch collapses. According to the Times, Chicago's building commissioner said that they may consider "maximum occupancy for porches."