Autopsy: Az. Airport Death Accidental

ap ^ | 11/09/07 | PAUL DAVENPORT

[TornadoAlley3]

PHOENIX (AP) — A woman who died in police custody during an airport layover was intoxicated on a potent mix of alcohol and antidepressants and accidentally strangled herself on her shackles, an autopsy released Friday concludes.

[afortiori]

The lack of “misconduct” as a cause of her death does not end it.

Her family will undoubtably say the airport authorities “knew or should have known” that she was at risk due to her intoxication, and it was negligent not to take better care of her (e.g., observe her detention).

[mimaw]

Seems to me the negligence was on the part of her family sending her off alone.

[afortiori]

Indeed, “comparative fault/contributory negligence” (not sure of the Arizona regime) will likely be a factor that the defense will raise in order to reduce or eliminate any award of damages.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

You got that right. Yet I have not heard a journalist get within a mile of uttering that fact. Sending a human time bomb like that off to rehab which was two flight segments away (via airports that all have cocktail lounges), without some supervision was the critical fact in her death. TSA and Phoenix police do not need to be trained as psychiatrists or substance abuse specialists. The critical error was on the part of her family.

[gridlock]

The Dead Woman is a Person Who Matters (PWM) in New York.

The rules are different for PWMs. If this woman was an anonymous nobody, there probably would have been no inquiry. But when a PWM dies in police custody, somebody has to pay.

[CaptainK]

The airport authorities should counter that the family knew or should have known that she would never make it to her destination sober and therefore should have accompanied her, or sent someone in their place.

[NativeNewYorker]

I have yet to meet a single person of any political persuasion here who is in the least bit sympathetic. Everyone says her family is at fault for not escorting her.

[CindyDawg]

I don’t think anyone thought it was intentional.

[afortiori]

To be the devil’s advocate, once you take custody of a person your duty of care goes through the roof.

It’ll be interesting to see what level of government “immunity”, if any, applies to the airport authorities. If it were pure negligence standard against a private party, they’d be cooked.

Also, I’d say it depends on the pre-arrangements made by the family. Airlines may be treated as common carriers, and they are known to take supervision of minors and others.

Nevertheless, it seems the conditions and her conduct during detention will be viewed as the proximate cause, not her acting-out beforehand.

[csvset]

I said choke yourself; now lean forward and choke yourself!

Sorry, but, that's the first thing I thought of.

This woman's family is AFU for letting her run around unescorted while she's supposedly on her way to rehab!?!

[BurbankKarl]

Actually, it was Bush Derangement Syndrome.

[afortiori]

I think you have established one element of “but for” causation, but it’s unlikely a court will go that far back to trace the “proximate” causation necessary to find negligence on either side of the “vs.”.

I think the act of detention by the airport authorities is going to be deemed as a superseding cause, especially since the handcuffs were the instrumentality of death. It's from that point on they are likely to look at fault.

[purpleraine]

I don’t know what the woman did or didn’t do, but I think if you have someone in restraints, you’re supposed to have a visual on them. If I recall correctly.

[gridlock]

I have yet to meet a single person of any political persuasion here who is in the least bit sympathetic.

That really doesn't matter. When the PWMs want something, they get it, and public sentiment doesn't enter into it.

[Malsua]

I have yet to meet a single person of any political persuasion here who is in the least bit sympathetic. Everyone says her family is at fault for not escorting her.

I told ya not to backtalk me and ya went ahead and did it anyway so now I gotta hit ya. This is all yer fault.

Take someone into custody in restraints, you are responsible for their well being. Period, end of story. I don't care that she's a member of a commie dem family in NYC. I don't care that she flipped out. If you restrain someone you are responsible for their health. Blaming the woman or her family is asinine.

Should someone have escorted her, yes. Should USAIR be punished for overselling flights, HELL YES. Should the authority that held her in custody be punished, definitely. People need to lose their jobs when someone under their complete control dies.

[Grizzled Bear]

Seems to me the negligence was on the part of her family sending her off alone.

---

I don’t enjoy saying this but my impression is that there was no friend or family member willing to tolerate her antics on the flight.

That’s sad.

[afortiori]

You instantly become a Person Who Matters when a trial lawyer sees there’s a deep pocket anywhere near your injury.

That’s the downside of being a Person Who Matters if you’ve saved money or built something.

Ask John Edwards.

[gridlock]

These people have money that makes whatever they might squeeze out of the airport look like chump change. The ambulance chasers are pretty good lawyers. But there is a whole ‘nother breed of shark out there who doesn’t even have to chase.

[VOA]

Sending a human time bomb like that off to rehab which was two
flight segments away (via airports that all have cocktail
lounges), without some supervision was the critical fact
in her death.

It's sad the deceased family didn't watch a few episodes of
A&E's "Intervention" series.

BUT...if they did, they didn't get the idea of how someone should
get to a rehab/recovery center.
In the company of (preferably) two or more people that understand
how to do one of these very serious "road trips".