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Family to sue radio station over water death
AP on Bakersfield Californian ^ | 1/18/07 | Aaron C. Davis - ap

Posted on 01/18/2007 5:09:34 PM PST by NormsRevenge

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To: fr_freak
As asinine as this contest may have been, it was her decision to participate. If she can't be expected to be responsible for herself, why should these guys be responsible for her?

Answer honestly. Did you know that drinking too much water could kill you before this? I doubt she did either.

If whatever release she signed didn't include to possibility of sudden death, (which I doubt the idiot DJs or the program manager had a clue of) their ass is grass. And way would a radio station put people's life at risk if they had a clue they could possibly cause multiple deaths? They did not know what they were doing. They put multiple people at risk. Only this one woman died. It could have been more.

61 posted on 01/18/2007 9:57:33 PM PST by Ditto
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To: NormsRevenge
I wouldn't have been surprised if one of the replies had been:

Because of conservatives, our political culture has created a permanent underclass in our society and this underclass is so desperate that they will undertake any risk to help their children better themselves. Shame on our society for forcing this poor women to risk her life to provide for her children because her children's peers made her children feel like second class citizens because they didn't have a Wii .

62 posted on 01/18/2007 9:57:40 PM PST by Amerigomag
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To: Amerigomag
"On a lighter note, I've tried as hard as I can to rationalize the deceased's motivation to commit suicide in exchange for a piece of electronic entertaiment equipment for her minor children."

Most folks don't know the seriousness of the matter and have no idea what they're doing. The radio station created an event that was an attractive nusiance and had the legal duty to find out and know and then to inform the contestants of all the hazards and then to protect them from the serious injury and harm their event was likely to cause. See #60.

63 posted on 01/18/2007 10:01:08 PM PST by spunkets
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To: Ditto

The DJs announced that they didn't give a shit, so their ass should be mulch.


64 posted on 01/18/2007 10:03:18 PM PST by spunkets
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To: NormsRevenge
What a tragic story. It made me look back on some of the inventive pranks and foolish stunts that we pulled in our younger days.

I'm particularly reminded of my senior year in college: a friend and I dropped a fake paternity suit on another buddy (it's a long story). We did a good job, too, with authentic looking legal documents through the assistance of law students that lived in the same dorm.

Fortunately, no one committed suicide, or beat the crap out of the perpetrators. Instead, the "victim" played out his role the next day, seeking "advice" from our advisors in the ROTC department.

It still comes up at our reunions, even 30 years later.

In today's environment, who knows what could have happened?

65 posted on 01/18/2007 10:13:03 PM PST by Night Hides Not
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To: gridlock
And this is waaaaaay beyond negligence. This is knowing, willful, malicious, etc. You can't waiver you way out of that.

Bingo. The station's insurers will settle for a significant portion of the policy limits, perhaps the entire policy limit. No attorney is dumb enough to let this case get to a jury, not with the sort of things that would make it into evidence.
66 posted on 01/18/2007 10:16:15 PM PST by July 4th (A vacant lot cancelled out my vote for Bush.)
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To: spunkets

That shows "For Water: LD50 Oral Rat: >90 ml/Kg."

So for a 130lb rat, I think that would be about 1.401969192 gallons.


67 posted on 01/18/2007 10:24:10 PM PST by Jonx6
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To: indcons
BTW, I saw the "winner" on Larry King yesterday. She indicated that she had fun participating in the contest and might do it again!

Is there any indication if the winner had eaten anything? I was out in the sun a few months back and started drinking a lot of water. I started too feel woozy and light headed. At first, I thought it wasn't enough water. A friend noticed and got me some food. Suddenly I realized I needed salt. I was handed a can of chips. I still felt weird after that, but not as bad as I had.

68 posted on 01/18/2007 10:26:03 PM PST by HungarianGypsy
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To: Ditto
Answer honestly. Did you know that drinking too much water could kill you before this? I doubt she did either.

Truthfully, I really didn't know this. However, I survived drinking at least two gallons of Konigsbacher Pils in a three hour period. I was hungover the next day, but it was damn fine beer.

There was another night (12/30/79, to be exact), where I lost count after 12 shots of Jagermeister (and continued on for a few more hours) and several litres of Holsten Pils, and I survived that.

Accordingly, I would not have been too concerned about the possible effects of water intoxication. Lucky me (for not being able to participate in this contest)!

69 posted on 01/18/2007 10:26:53 PM PST by Night Hides Not
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To: spunkets
attractive nuisance and had the legal duty to inform

2 very liberal concepts.

Care to guess when the nuisance doctrine was embellished in the US and who appointed the judges which turned long standing common law on its head?

70 posted on 01/18/2007 10:30:17 PM PST by Amerigomag
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To: NormsRevenge
tried drinking a gallon of water some time back in preparation for a procedure,, 2 gallons is an unbelievably huge amount of liquid to attempt to hold so to speak,

Had to do this once before. Very painful to hold. The thought of 2 gallons seems as if it should be impossible.

71 posted on 01/18/2007 10:32:18 PM PST by HungarianGypsy
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To: July 4th

Maybe they'll settle, but only if they lose a motion for summary judgment based on the release. Parties to a contract can waive their right to sue if the other is negligent, but the release must be specific as to that point. I haven't seen anything that suggests the station targeted the decedent more for her own demise than any other contestant, and I'm not sure even that would get the station past summary judgment.


72 posted on 01/18/2007 10:34:11 PM PST by Kryptonite (Keep Democrats Out of Power!)
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To: Amerigomag

How about telling me? I'd enjoy hearing your account.


73 posted on 01/18/2007 10:36:26 PM PST by Kryptonite (Keep Democrats Out of Power!)
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To: BunnySlippers
Yeah, but have you hear the replay of the radio show?

People called in to say that it may cause death. The DJ was callous and said it didn't matter.

And the release form most likely said the same thing, and the decedent, by signing the form, said she knew that it may cause death and that it didn't matter to her.

74 posted on 01/18/2007 10:39:42 PM PST by Kryptonite (Keep Democrats Out of Power!)
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To: Jonx6; Oztrich Boy
"So for a 130lb rat, I think that would be about 1.4gals

You're right. Thanks.

LD50=(90g/(3785g/gal))(kg/2.2 lb)(130 lb) =1.4 gal

75 posted on 01/18/2007 10:49:05 PM PST by spunkets
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To: NormsRevenge

At some point, the 11 year old is going to suffer greatly -- far more than the other children, since he will realize that his mother died trying to win him a cool toy.

The mother made a stupid choice, but she would never have attempted the stunt unless the radio station prompted her to try.

It's a tragedy all around. Her children will pay the price, no matter how much money they receive from the radio station.


76 posted on 01/18/2007 10:56:19 PM PST by MediaMole (9/11 - We have already forgotten.)
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To: Amerigomag
Re: attractive nuisance and had the legal duty to inform

"2 very liberal concepts."

Ridiculous!

"Care to guess when the nuisance doctrine was embellished in the US and who appointed the judges which turned long standing common law on its head?"

The nuisance doctrine comes from old English common law and was observed in the US before the Revolution. Each State recognizes and follows it, as does the US since the Signing of the Constitution.

In this case I used the term nuisance, because it applies to the station's offer of the deadly contest in the community of listeners. I used the term attractive, because it applies to it's attractiveness. It was in an attractive invitation with a hidden risk of death. It would only be inappropriate to use it if the contestants weren't enjoying their lives.

The duty to inform is Biblical, so is the concept of nuisance. They are both contained in the 2nd of the 2 great commandments. Even under caveat emptor, risk could not be concealed, and common law contained the concept of negligent action. The station can not say that there was no way no know ahead of time, because all they had to do was call a doc to get some info.

"who appointed the judges which turned long standing common law on its head?"

I don't know. The king?

77 posted on 01/18/2007 11:25:42 PM PST by spunkets
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To: NormsRevenge
Family to sue radio station over water death

Family to sue NASCAR over teen's auto death?
78 posted on 01/18/2007 11:27:59 PM PST by aruanan
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To: aruanan
" Family to sue NASCAR over teen's auto death?"

NASCAR provisions for it's sanctioned events and doesn't promote illegal activities like teens racing on the streets. The woman here didn't just get an idea from the station. The station sanctioned an event to promote itself for finacial gain. The DJs were also promoting their "reputations".

79 posted on 01/18/2007 11:41:12 PM PST by spunkets
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To: art_rocks
Did the radio station have a responsibility to have a doctor present? People have died as the DJs stated.

No. It was a contest - not a cholesterol screening,

Did the station have a responsibility to check the health and well being of the contestants after the contest?

No. It was a contest. Contestants are assumed to be responsible enough not to commit suicide for a stupid contest on the radio. Also, a medical examination after the contest is pointless without having conducted a medical exam of all contestants prior to starting the contest period. Without the pre-exam, there is no data to compare against in a post-exam, making a post-exam pretty pointless in and of itself.

However, here are the questions you should ask: Should the DJs have submitted their idea to the station management BEFORE going ahead with the contest? If the station management was unaware of the nature of the contest, does that make the station culpable in the death? If the young woman felt ill, why was she willing to ignore a critical bodily function just to win a stupid electronic toy? Was the young woman ALWAYS a moron, or were their other aspects in her life that contributed to her being a moron (such as chronic drug use, or an underlying medical condition she may or may not have known about)?

Despite how harsh I might sound, I'm sorry that she is dead. However,at the very most, the DJs themselves might be culpable in her death from the perspective that they didn't have station authority (if, indeed, they didn't) to stage that particular "contest".

Still, I believe that the individual has the responsibility to attend to their own safety first over the desire to win the latest electronic gadget. "Self-preservation is supposed to be a primary driving force in humans; hers was, apparently, missing or latent.

80 posted on 01/18/2007 11:51:27 PM PST by DustyMoment (FloriDUH - proud inventors of pregnant/hanging chads and judicide!!)
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