We will have to agree to disagree about this. You see that football program as infallible and a worker’s death as a cost of doing business for them—regrettable, but paling in comparison to the needs of “the program”. I see it as an unforgivable abrogation of their obligation to protect people that got completely ignored in their zeal to video tape a practice on a windy day when anyone with an IQ above room temperature wouldn’t have even considered asking him to get up in an lift in those conditions. The worker’s own twee t about it _”oh well, i guess I’ve lived long enough” it pretty clear that he wasn’t given a choice. His last tweet—”Holy ____ this is terrifying” is clear that he did not have an option to come down.
Even one of the players wrote about how they lost sight of what was important. While I’m sure “the program” relies on fans like you to keep their sequaky clean image in the face of preventable deaths and rapes, those looking at the facts and the problem of universities that are little more than life support for an athletics program say otherwise.
The late Mr. Declan’s family is entitled to their opinion of fault, but the fact that ND was fined at all says that they were in fact at fault. If ND wasn’t at fault, no fine would have been imposed. Any other organization would have paid many, many times the pittance for a human life ND got fined, but we all know how important “the program” is and how it’s just not acceptable for anything to hurt it.
As I said, we’ll never agree on this topic. We both see each other as wrong and hopelessly myopic. Enjoy the game.
For the record, I was incorrect int he amount ND paid, it was 55k for Declan Sullivan’s lost life and some other miscellaneous fines for improper maintenance. In the official report, Indiana OSHA found that ND failed to concern itself with worker safety and failed to properly inspect and maintain its equipment. From the official report: In a statement, IOSHA said that “Notre Dame did not establish and maintain conditions of work that were reasonably safe for its employees that were free from recognized hazards that caused or were likely to cause death or serious injury.” The report specifically cites:
“• Knowingly exposing its employees to unsafe conditions by directing its untrained student videographers to use the scissor lift during a period of time when the National Weather Service issued an active wind advisory with sustained winds and guests in excess of the manufactured specifications and warnings. $55,000 fine.
• Not properly training the student employees in the operation and use of scissor lifts. $5,000 fine.
• Not doing annual, monthly or weekly inspections on the scissor lift for more than a year. $5,000 fine.
• Not having a scissor lift service as required by the maintenance schedule in the operator’s manual. $5,000 fine.
• Not having an operator’s manual kept in a weather-proof box. $5,000 fine.
• Missing some warning labels and having some labels that were weathered and faded. $2,500 fine.”
In addition, part of the family’s statement not only points up that for all of the apologizing, their son is still in fact dead and the hands of those who put football over life, and “the program” is in fact changing its procedures. too bad they didn’t change them before the guy died. From the family’s statement:
“We appreciate the thorough investigation by the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration (IOSHA) concerning the circumstances surrounding the death of our son, Declan. This report is an important step in preventing future accidents, but its findings do not change the fact that Declan is not with us.
Our family supports the efforts by the University of Notre Dame to halt the use of hydraulic lifts to film football practices and install remote-controlled cameras. We are confident that Notre Dame will address the additional issues raised in the IOSHA report.”
One last thought...”the program” failed to inspect that equipment for safety for more than a year. Want to guess how often players’ helmets and pads are inspected by “the program”? I’m willing to bet on “at least once a week”. It is surely more often than they inspected that lift.
As for “scurrilous” and “slander”, when the OSHA report says they KNOWINGLY did things that they KNOWINGLY knew were LIKELY to cause serious death or injury in a finding of facts, my comments are neither scurrilous nor slanderous. That’s the inspectors’ report’s words, not mine. Do you think they would have sent their star quarterback up in that lift in those winds? Hell no, that night have injured a player. It’s really tough to spin that in any way but them knowingly sending a guy up to a dangerous height in high winds in equipment that hadn’t been properly inspected or maintained or even adequately training that worker. That’s being totally indifferent to human life and no, I don’t see any other way to spin that.
And yes, of COURSE they showed all kinds of regret and concern after the guy died. This was a serious, serious situation that required immediate action as it might harm “the program”.
As I said, enjoy the game.