Posted on 01/18/2007 5:09:34 PM PST by NormsRevenge
Lawyers for the family of a woman who died after drinking nearly two gallons of water in an on-air radio contest said Thursday they will file a wrongful death lawsuit to make an example out of the station and attempt to curb the recklessness of shock jock radio.
"We believe we can get a judgment that people across the country will have to pay attention to," said Roger Dreyer, a personal injury lawyer who accused radio station KDND-FM of knowing of the dangers of the water-drinking contest but continuing anyway.
He charged that the contest that preceded the death of 28-year-old Jennifer Lea Strange, a mother of three from the Sacramento suburb of Rancho Cordova, was nothing more than a ratings stunt designed to boost profits.
"Outrageousness at any cost has become the industry standard - the trashier and more humiliating the better," Dreyer said. "It's time to stop the recklessness."
Dreyer said the lawsuit would likely be filed within days, after a private memorial service for Strange this weekend, and following a determination by lawyers about which station employees - and perhaps which companies in addition to the station - should be named in the suit.
He would not specify how much in damages the suit would seek.
Charles Sipkins, spokesman for KDND's parent company, Entercom/Sacramento, declined to comment on Dreyer's remarks since a lawsuit has not yet been filed.
Thursday's announcement followed revelations Wednesday that the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department had launched a criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding Strange's death.
Authorities decided to pursue the investigation after listening to a tape of the Jan. 12 "Morning Rave" show that was obtained by The Sacramento Bee. On the tape, disc jockeys can be heard joking about the possible dangers of consuming too much water. They even alluded to a Chico State University student who died during a hazing stunt in 2005 after drinking large amounts of water.
At one point a listener called in to warn the DJs that the stunt could be fatal.
"Yeah, we're aware of that," one of them responded.
Another DJ laughed: "Yeah, they signed releases, so we're not responsible. We're OK."
The object of the contest was to see how much water contestants could drink without going to the bathroom. The top prize was a Nintendo Wii gaming console. The DJs called the contest "Hold your Wee for a Wii."
Several hours into the program, Strange was interviewed 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 said.
"This is what it feels like when you're drowning," responded one of the DJs. "There's a lot of water inside you."
Eventually, Strange gave up and accepted the second-place prize, tickets to a Justin Timberlake concert.
Dreyer, senior partner of the Sacramento law firm Dreyer, Babich, Buccola & Callaham, said he had requested a copy of the release DJs spoke of on the radio but had not yet received it from Entercom.
Sipkins declined to comment on the status of that request.
KDND on Tuesday fired 10 employees connected to the contest, including the three "Morning Rave" disc jockeys. The company also took the show off the air.
Dreyer said the family is devastated by the loss of Strange, whose children are ages 11 months, 3 years and 11 years old.
"They're without their mother," Dreyer said. "One of their motivations in coming to me is they don't want to see this happen again."
If you were to poll 100 people about the dangers of drinking too much water, a good percentage of them (just a guess...at least 10%, all of whom post at DU) wouldn't know that too much water can kill you. If you replaced the water with gasoline, 100 out of 100 people would know that's a risky proposition, and none would participate.
The radio station had to know that there were risks involved, and should have had all participants sign a waiver, stating in bold print: CONTESTANTS HEREBY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT TOO MUCH WATER CAN CAUSE PERMANENT INJURY, UP TO AND INCLUDING DEATH! PARTICIPANTS ACCEPT ANY AND ALL LIABILITY FOR THEIR OWN ACTIONS.
To me, this is no different than an Irish bar having a whiskey drinking contest on St. Patties day. If somebody dies from alcohol poisoning, the bar is liable.
Actually that shows the amount was an LD50 dose. Which is classified as a lethal amount.
DJs going down
Yes.
" Do you assume that the contests you participate in might actually kill you?"
Yes.
In this context, headache and vomiting are two of the four symptoms that you are starting to die. The other two are light-headedness and slurred speech, both of which she specifically mentioned in one of her exchanges with the DJ.
Four for four and the station is making jokes instead of driving her to the emergency room. This will be found to be both criminal (involuntary manslaughter) and civil (gross negligence) offenses by the radio station.
The radiostation and the DJs there are toast. Stick a fork in them, release or no release (which is meaningless here, given the circumstances of the case.) If the parent company is in the money, it'll try to settle for a spare change, but my guess the family will choose to go to court. It's panic time at headquarters.
Given this mother's astounding lack of common sense, I think her children's life expectancy may have been extended by her death. Even if she just wasn't aware of the dangers of excessive water-drinking whne she decided to participate, she'd apparently been listening to the proceedings on the program, wherein a caller warned that this could be fatal and one of the DJ's responded with "Yeah, we know". When she started having a nasty headache, wouldn't it have been a good idea to call 911 or flatly order the DJ's to do so? Would she have thought to call 911 if one of her children started feeling really sick shortly after doing something that she'd been warned could be fatal?
Too bad the caller who gave the warning didn't follow up with a call to police and/or 911 after the smart-ass response from the DJ.
Honestly, it is in many circles, and should be in all normally intelligent and literate circles. The case of a little adopted Utah girl being killed by her mother administering "forced water drinking "therapy" on the advice of some quack behavioral therapist was heavily publicized all over the country just a couple of years ago, and more recently major newspapers and sports programs have carried prominent coverage about this as part of coverage of marathons, in which runners have died after following advice to "drink plenty of water to avoid dehydration".
I remember in medical school we studied this. A nephrologist told us that this kind of death happens at Oktoberfest in Germany. People not dying from drinking too much beer, but because they get too much water volume in their systems.
The water drinkers were being kept apart from the broadcast, in a different room.
Prayers for the woman and her family.
Manslaughter might be the charge, but it'd be a prosecutorial reach. Reckless endangerment with a grave indifference to human life is what happened here.
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.
2 gallons is a lot of water.
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. That she failed to accomplish one of her two goals is another great irony of this sad tale.
I 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,
I hear ya on the comments, btw, duly noted, and all too frequently on display. I had pondered having the thread yanked.
Here some questions that will be answered in court.
Did the radio station have a responsibility to have a doctor present? People have died as the DJs stated.
Did the station have a responsibility to check the health and well being of the contestants after the contest? Or is just sending them on their way good enough?
I think the station will have a hard time answering what they should have done during the contest and after for the safety of the contestants.
"This is what it feels like when you're drowning," responded one of the DJs. "There's a lot of water inside you." Knowing that they were "drowning" the contestants, what provisions did the station have for a medical professional?
Or a larger person.
That's reckless homicide in CA and can be considered 2nd degree murder there if the wanton indifference, or gross negligence is willful or depraved. Notice their comments on the show. The act was the offering of the contest, which the defendants failed to consider any consequences in particular regarding the contestants, which is the important consideration. They only considered their own measly little assess, so they created the "waiver". In fact they refused to consider the consequences of their actions, either on their own, or when challenged, by at least one caller and then again when the woman got sick during the event.
I don't see 2nd degree murder as a stretch at all. The radio station is a business and they're required to consider and cover the particulars of what they're doing with due care, due notice of risk to the participants, and a cert of insurance for the event. Obviously there was no due care and in fact they simply admitted on the air that they didn't give a shit. They had waivers they said, and additionally indicated and implied with glee, that it was not there responsibility whatsoever. That makes the gross negligence willful and IMO depraved. I think a 2nd degree murder charge is appropriate and I think so would a jury of reasonable folks.
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