she died of water poisoning from a radio show contest - "hold your pee for a wii" the prize for drinking the most water without peeing is a wii.
imo unless this ridiculous lawsuit stuff stops, america is never going to get better. its a serious contributing factor to the health crisis imo. we need tort reform!
do you blame the radio station? was it the mom's fault?
let me just leave you with this - if your childhood friend told you to jump off a bridge, would you do it?
imo the radio station should know if there contests are safe and should know at what point excessive water drinking is dangerous. the avg person wouldnt know and seeing this was a contest the radio station put forth than they should have found out. that being said 16 milllion is ridiculous.
and it also depends on if a waiver was signed so idk.
wanted to add ridiculous lawsuits imo are more something a n avg. person would know, ie your coffee is hot. or if someone robs your house and hurts themselves they can sue you is ridiculous, but i had no clue about water poisoning till this happend. maybe im the only one who didnt know and in that case my ignorance is no excuse.
-- Edited by 3s_a_crowd on Saturday 31st of October 2009 09:29:26 AM
wanted to add ridiculous lawsuits imo are more something a n avg. person would know, ie your coffee is hot. or if someone robs your house and hurts themselves they can sue you is ridiculous, but i had no clue about water poisoning till this happend. maybe im the only one who didnt know and in that case my ignorance is no excuse.
-- Edited by 3s_a_crowd on Saturday 31st of October 2009 09:29:26 AM
Tracy you are definitely not alone in that. There are many people who had no idea about water intoxication until this story happened.
I remember hearing about it and had mixed thoughts, but only because I knew about it. I do think the radio station should've done a little more research on what could have happened because there ARE people out there who didn't know the danger of it.
But on the same token, I'm sure the participants knew about the contest prior to the actual day, so they should've researched it as well, kwim?
wanted to add ridiculous lawsuits imo are more something a n avg. person would know, ie your coffee is hot. or if someone robs your house and hurts themselves they can sue you is ridiculous, but i had no clue about water poisoning till this happend. maybe im the only one who didnt know and in that case my ignorance is no excuse.
-- Edited by 3s_a_crowd on Saturday 31st of October 2009 09:29:26 AM
I had NO clue either. And I do remember that during this contest a nurse called in to talk about it and that she was worried for that contestant. So, that was probably a good bit of evidence at the lawsuit.
she died of water poisoning from a radio show contest - "hold your pee for a wii" the prize for drinking the most water without peeing is a wii.
imo unless this ridiculous lawsuit stuff stops, america is never going to get better. its a serious contributing factor to the health crisis imo. we need tort reform!
do you blame the radio station? was it the mom's fault?
let me just leave you with this - if your childhood friend told you to jump off a bridge, would you do it?
I think this is a tough one... sort of.
As for whether or not the woman should've assumed the contest was safe... given today's litigious society, I don't think it would be unreasonable to think that the radio station's legal team would've checked everything out before greenlighting the contest, KWIM? It's not prudent thinking, and obviously not smart thinking, but I don't think it's unreasonable thinking. I don't think she was an idiot for assuming it.
So to the childhood friend question... I don't know, it depends. If my childhood friend is a civil engineer and she's telling me the bridge is going to break and it's my best option for survival... then yes. But what I do know is that if I trust my childhood friend, I'm not going to blame her later if she didn't have perfect clarity into the future. I mean, it's not like these people were trying to kill anyone.
That said... the thing I've never understood is how a jury comes up with such a figure. When she has dependents, I guess you can offer up something to help with future practical expenses. But how do you put a pricetag on someone losing their mother? Wife? Daughter? It just has never made sense to me... in my mind, it's insulting to even try.
And I do agree with you that tort reform is paramount if this country is ever going to make any substantial changes. Politically, however, I'm concerned that's never going to happen... because the political party calling for change and the lawyers are essentially one in the same.
she died of water poisoning from a radio show contest - "hold your pee for a wii" the prize for drinking the most water without peeing is a wii.
imo unless this ridiculous lawsuit stuff stops, america is never going to get better. its a serious contributing factor to the health crisis imo. we need tort reform!
do you blame the radio station? was it the mom's fault?
let me just leave you with this - if your childhood friend told you to jump off a bridge, would you do it?
I think this is a tough one... sort of.
As for whether or not the woman should've assumed the contest was safe... given today's litigious society, I don't think it would be unreasonable to think that the radio station's legal team would've checked everything out before greenlighting the contest, KWIM? It's not prudent thinking, and obviously not smart thinking, but I don't think it's unreasonable thinking. I don't think she was an idiot for assuming it.
So to the childhood friend question... I don't know, it depends. If my childhood friend is a civil engineer and she's telling me the bridge is going to break and it's my best option for survival... then yes. But what I do know is that if I trust my childhood friend, I'm not going to blame her later if she didn't have perfect clarity into the future. I mean, it's not like these people were trying to kill anyone.
That said... the thing I've never understood is how a jury comes up with such a figure. When she has dependents, I guess you can offer up something to help with future practical expenses. But how do you put a pricetag on someone losing their mother? Wife? Daughter? It just has never made sense to me... in my mind, it's insulting to even try.
And I do agree with you that tort reform is paramount if this country is ever going to make any substantial changes. Politically, however, I'm concerned that's never going to happen... because the political party calling for change and the lawyers are essentially one in the same.
i was actually happy to see this award. The $16.5M doesn't mean crap, her family will be lucky to walk away with $1M after appeals are exhuasted, legal fees etc.
However, I do think that the radio station breached their responsibility by putting contestants in harms way without properly allerting them to the possible consequences of participating in this contest.
I will agree that tort reform is needed in many areas, but I fell this ruling was a sound one...regardless of the number, which will be widdled away over time.
