Posted on 01/17/2007 7:32:59 PM PST by NormsRevenge
Homicide detectives are investigating the death of a 28-year-old mother of three who died after taking part in a radio station's water-drinking contest.
The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department decided to pursue the investigation Wednesday after listening to a tape of the Jan. 12 morning radio show obtained by The Sacramento Bee, sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Tim Curran said.
On the tape, disc jockeys on KDND-FM's "Morning Rave" show joke about the possible dangers of consuming too much water, at one point even alluding to a Northern California college student who died during a similar hazing stunt in 2005.
During the show, a listener calls in to warn the DJs that the stunt is dangerous and says someone could die.
"Yeah, we're aware of that," one of them says.
Another DJ laughs: "Yeah, they signed releases, so we're not responsible. We're OK."
"And if they get to the point where they have to throw up, then they're going to throw up, and they're out of the contest before they die, so that's good, right?" another one says.
Jennifer Lea Strange was one of about 18 contestants who tried to win a Nintendo Wii gaming console by determining how much water they could drink without going to the bathroom. The show's DJs called the contest "Hold your Wee for a Wii."
"Hey Carter, is anybody dying in there?" a DJ asks during the show. "We got a guy who's just about to die," the other responds, and all the DJs laugh.
"I like that we laugh about that," another says.
"Make sure he signs the release. ... Get the insurance on that, please."
Strange took part in the contest during the morning in the radio station's studio and was found dead that afternoon. The Sacramento County coroner said preliminary autopsy findings indicate she died of water intoxication.
Other contestants said Strange may have ingested up to two gallons of water. Several hours into the contest, Strange was interviewed on the air and complained that her head hurt.
"They keep telling me that it's the water. That it will tell my head to hurt and then it will make me puke," she says.
"Who told you that? The intern?" a DJ asks.
"Yeah," Strange responds. "It hurts, but it makes you feel lightheaded."
"This is what it feels like when you're drowning," one of the DJs says. "There's a lot of water inside you."
Eventually, Strange gave in and decided to accept the second-place prize, tickets to a Justin Timberlake concert. She commented that she looked pregnant, and a female DJ agreed.
"Oh, my gosh, look at that belly. That's full of water," a male DJ said. "Come on over, Jennifer, you OK?" the DJ asks. "You going to pass out right now? Too much water?"
Strange tells the talk show hosts that she could "probably drink more if you guys could pick me up."
On Tuesday, KDND's parent company, Entercom/Sacramento, fired 10 employees connected to the contest, including three morning disc jockeys. The company also took the morning show off the air.
Station spokesman Charles Sipkins said Wednesday that the company had not yet heard from the sheriff's department.
"We will, of course, cooperate with their investigation," Sipkins said.
He added that the station also is examining the circumstances surrounding Strange's death.
"We're trying to do everything we can to deal with it in a respectful and responsible way," he said.
Curran said sheriff's investigators will be interviewing all radio station employees who were involved in the contest and everyone who was working there on the day of the contest. He said the investigation will take several weeks.
Lucy Davidson, who placed first in the radio station contest, told Larry King Live on CNN Wednesday that she was very sick after participating.
"I was barely able to make it home. My head was as big as probably three basketballs. It was very, very painful," Davidson said.
In a prepared statement last weekend, Strange's husband, William, described his wife's generous nature and outgoing personality.
"Friday, Jennifer was just her bright, usual self," he said. "She was trying to win something for her family that she thought we would enjoy."
On Wednesday, attorneys for the Strange family said they planned to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the radio station on behalf of her husband and three children. Details of the suit were to be announced Thursday.
Would you set up a contest knowing that participants could be injured or die? Would you be OK with that? Or would their signed waivers or poor judgement remove any misgivings or concerns?
For me the answer is no and that is how I would vote if I was on the jury.
if these cretins do go to jail every fellow prisoner is probably going to "wii" on them some time or other
lmfao.
an adult signing a release does so for him/herself, his/her heirs and assigns. This family will have a helluva time establishing liabiilty from the little known so far.
What about sports?
Possibly the dumbest thing I read on FR so far in 2007.
Sports are great. A little common sense goes a long way. We're trying to avoid death and maiming, not bruises. So soccer - yes, jousting - no. And if a participant dies from a rare or freak medical condition I hope their relatives and/or a jury would recognize that as promoter I did everything possible to avoid it (physical exam, etc).
A lot of sports can be organized safely. I lead groups in whitewater canoeing and I take my kids hiking, backpacking, rock climbing, swimming and other activities as well as encourage them to play soccer, volleyball, paintball, laser tag, etc. I find that some activities preceived to be risky, like rock climbing, are not really so. I take my kids' friends rock climbing without asking for a signed waiver because I will make the activity safe for them.
But I would not promote sports where people could be killed or maimed like boxing or race car driving. Just my opinion. And I won't avoid responsibility in the activities I arrange by asking for a waiver.
I think, since I'm not a lawyer, that the radio station can be faulted for not having medical personnel their to monitor the people.
The DJs knew someone could die and it doesn't appear they made sure adequate medical personnel were their to check the conditions of the contestants.
The radio station is not 100% responsible. We don't know what they told the contestants about the dangers of drinking too much water. We don't what medical advice they gave if the contestants felt bad.
It doesn't appear that the radio station had any procedure to inform or provide the contestants with medical screening, and replacement salt and minerals.
I bet the lawyers will argue this like a drunk who is still given more alcohol by a bar.
By that reasoning, maybe we should sue Nintendo. If they didn't make the game, and if they didn't name it "Wii", there never would have been a contest.
OK. Suppose you buy a ticket to a show where a motorcyclist is going to jump 16 buses. When he gets to the top of the ramp, he looks like he's going to chicken out, so you stand up and chant "you can do it, do it, do it". Your neighbor is yelling "don't do it, it's not worth it", and you and those around them chant louder to drown out their warnings.
He drives back, takes off, lands on the 16th bus and dies.
Are you liable? You PAID him to do something so dangerous that you knew he could die, and then you encouraged him to go on with it, yelled that they could accomplish the task when they couldn't, and dismissed and blocked those who were trying to warn him not to go.
BTW, I think the reason they joked about dying was because they were convinced you couldn't die from drinking a little water. They knew about the college kid, but said they didn't believe the story, that there was probably drugs involved but it was being white-washed.
Their joking was entirely consistant with people who had HEARD something, but didn't believe it, and wanted to make fun of it. I don't think they believed it was possible for a person to VOLUNTARILY INGEST enough water to kill them. They thought if it was dangerous, the contestants would throw up, and they had warned the contestants of that.
However, I have come to the conclusion that they were negligent, if only because they knew enough to at least get a professional opinion, and it sounds like their advice, while being believed by them (making them not deliberately negligent) could easily have been construed as having been INFORMED ADVICE, when in fact they hadn't been informed at all.
A lot of contests have the possibility that people could be injured or die. For example, in San Diego they have had contests where people had to ride a roller coaster continuously. While people DO ride coasters a lot without injury, it is always a possibility that you could be hurt, especially with repeated rides. So they get a waiver.
Of course, skiing is dangerous, people die skiing, but people run ski contests. Lots of stuff can be dangerous.
We all know now that this "water poisoning" isn't a "only a few poeople fall ill to it" kind of thing, but I don't think the station or the DJ's believed it at the time.
No, a person cannot normally sign someone else's legal rights away, they have no power to do that. She can sign away her own right to sue, but not her family's. The radio station would have needed every one of them to sign a release.
The release may say that but it's not enforcible. The woman had no legal standing to sign someone else's legal rights away.
But the case here isn't that murky, is it? The radio guys, with the full weight and medical and legal expertise of a corporation behind them, set up a contest in which they took people off the street and put their health in serious danger. No medical personnel were provided; it seems from what I've read that they didn't even give these people a ride home --- the winner, Lucy Davidson, said she barely got back to to her place, and was horribly sick for the next several hours. Misleading information about the danger and how their body would react was given to the contestants. When told by others, on tape, about the potentially fatal consequences of what they were doing, the radio guys blew it off and went on as though nothing was said.
If this were just two idiot friends who didn't know better deciding to kill time one night by seeing who could drink the most water, I doubt there'd be a finding of liability on the survivor if one of them died. But in the case here, it's a radio station staffed by at least ten people, with the full weight and medical and legal expertise of a corporation, let it be repeated and stressed, who set up a contest that required planning and preparation, the dangers of which could have been easily discovered. The tape, which has them being told of the risks and acknowledging their awareness of it but doing nothing about it, just damns them to deeper ignomy.
So lets say we agree on monetary damages.
Do you think any of the disc jockeys deserve to go to jail for this?
I'm trying to think this thru. I am not a lawyer, but 'standing' might vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
Does the family have legal standing to sue? On what grounds?
If Mrs. Strange signed a release on behalf of herself and her heirs and assigns, acknowledging risk, including injury and death, and willingly participated in the activity I don't see how they get standing. That boilerplate language isn't in these releases for nothing.
If I take my 2 year old to McDonalds for a "Happy Meal" and s/he decides to eat a small part of the enclosed toy, which comes in a bag warning that small parts are dangerous for children under 3, but I let him/her eat it anyway, and the child chokes and dies, do I have standing to sue McDonalds ?
In that case, of course, there's no release I'd have signed.
But I had been warned.
I think this family would find some interesting legal hurdles, but believe the station owners will settle quickly to get it behind them to avoid the cost of litigation and bad PR.
It'll sure be interesting to watch. In the meanwhile, I do pray for her family, it's such a shame those kids lost their mother and the husband his wife.
I suspect one or two of them might. The ones who seemed to be aware that the activity was dangerous but thought releases wiped their hands of it. They look bad right now, and I bet it's their conversation which prompted the sheriff to change course and launch a criminal investigation.
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