Man dies while playing disc golf

[Allurex]

I didn't read the whole thread b/c of there's a lot of dribble that I'd rather just not read so I don't know if this has been mentioned or not.

B-tier played Rosedale (the park in question) on Sunday morning. I wasn't there, but the website lists the tee time as 8:00am. I think that they try to get all the other rounds done early so people can go to Swope and watch the final 9. Anyways, the storms rolled through hard and heavy late Saturday afternoon which must have knocked the line down.

Surely others that were there can comment more directly about the situation on the ground but I'm wondering if the morning round went off? If this hadn't happened would someone in that round have encountered the downed wire? I imagining that the PDGA would be liable if that were to happen for not ensuring safe playing conditions.

I'm assuming that the friend of the guy who was killed called the police and that's when the power company and city became aware of the situation. But that's an assumption. If they knew that a line was down in the park earlier and did nothing to remedy the situation or at least prevent access to it, then that seems like a major liability problem for the power company. It's a shame all around, though.

FWIW, I do believe that all entrances to the park are closed at a certain time at night so technically if anyone were to park down the street and walk in they likely would be trespassing, so that may affect the power company's liability on the issue.

No no no the B-tier did not play Rosedale Sunday morning, no one did. Pool C (advanced men) got our Saturday round delayed because of the rain, and were unable to resume it Sunday morning because of this incident.

Any rounds that were scheduled for Rosedale on Sunday were moved to waterworks.

 

[Pwingles]

Why would a power company be concerned about a park not having power? Really? OMG the bathroom lights dont work and the street lights dont work so now people could get mugged...

Like I said, the power company is more worried about homes/buisnesses having power. Think about if they went and fixed a down power line at a park first and someone broke into a buisness or home and stole a lot of stuff. That wouldnt look good on the power company would it? Alarms wont work without power. Yes the power company is concerned about that line he stepped on. But if he broke the city laws of that park, he was responsible for whatever happened (death)

I can tell just by the way some of you respond to this that you dont work hands on at all. I have worked with power for 3 years and work near them now instead of on them. If you have ever noticed driving down the interstate the 100s of power trucks you pass, its because of storms like this. They call for backup (sometimes 6-7 states away) so they can get it all restored in a timely fashion. Its just common sence people.

Do you really think that power line ONLY had power going to the park itself...
That power line being down WAS the cause of loss of power to homes and businesses close by, so yeah this falls under whatever sense of priority you were putting it under. Even though you have no clue what youre talking about.

Bottom line, the line was down in a public park/ residential area. It was both a major danger and an inconvenience to the people without power that to me would warrant it being a large priority.

Like i said, storm rolled through at 3:45-4 and at 3AM they hadnt even killed the power to that line yet or tried to fix it. That is outrageous.

 

[Donald Duck]

In one of the news reports it says that police are checking to see if there was a call about the line being down on Saturday, this guy was killed on Sunday morning. If they knew about the line being down on Saturday then it should be 100% the power company/parks fault. I cant believe something like this happened.

 

[Osmo]

Its absurdly outrageous that they didnt do anything about it for up to 12 hours.

Thats not just irresponsible.

Thats CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE.

Someone is going to pay for it, and i dearly hope it is not the tax payers as usual.

 

[justactnormal]

No no no the B-tier did not play Rosedale Sunday morning, no one did. Pool C (advanced men) got our Saturday round delayed because of the rain, and were unable to resume it Sunday morning because of this incident.

Any rounds that were scheduled for Rosedale on Sunday were moved to waterworks.

Gotcha, thanks for letting me know. I had to help the in-laws move on Sunday, so like I said, I had no first hand knowledge of who played what when on Sunday. That's just what was scheduled. I'm glad they didn't play Rosedale b/c of the incident there.

It's a sad situation all around, though..... preventable, that's what makes it so needless, IMO.

 

[agibson]

In one of the news reports it says that police are checking to see if there was a call about the line being down on Saturday, this guy was killed on Sunday morning. If they knew about the line being down on Saturday then it should be 100% the power company/parks fault. I cant believe something like this happened.

The TV news piece linked earlier seemed pretty certain that it was reported to the power company ~12 hours before the incident. They said that authorities were checking to see if it was (also?) reported to 911.

I don't know if the story has the sort of legs that would keep reporters on it, but it would be interesting to know if anything comes of it...

A real tragedy.

 

[Osmo]

Although I get WHY the posts were deleted. i think its wrong to delete them. There was nothing wrong about discussing the points of who is responsible. No one was cursing and being rude. Trying to micro manage a thread is just wrong. Let the threads be liquid as they should. Let the conversations flow where they will. If that means the discussion changes to whos responsible for the death then so be it.

 

[zenbot]

No one was cursing and being rude.

That's entirely not true and exactly why the posts were deleted.


I agree that liability is an important part of the discussion. If it can be continued in a respectful manner then we're all good.

 

[tbird888]

I agree that liability is an important part of the discussion. If it can be continued in a respectful manner then we're all good.

Would it be possible to move that, um, discussion to the Landfill?

 

[Osmo]

That's entirely not true and exactly why the posts were deleted.


I agree that liability is an important part of the discussion. If it can be continued in a respectful manner then we're all good.

well rude can be interpreted differently. i felt no one was being overly rude personally. as for cursing, since curse words are censored here that shouldnt have been an issue. I myself had posts deleted and i didnt swear or say anything rude.

That said, RIP.

 

[agibson]

I see a lot of the worst of the jokey stuff got deleted. That seems pretty OK to me - or it could have been moved to a separate land-filled thread.

There are definitely still posts here that speak to liability.

 

[zenbot]

I see a lot of the worst of the jokey stuff got deleted. That seems pretty OK to me - or it could have been moved to a separate land-filled thread.

There are definitely still posts here that speak to liability.

There are because they didn't contain or quote other posts containing insults.


Feel free to discuss liability. When my in-box starts filling up because people can't mind their manners is when stuff gets moved.

 

[Pwingles]

^ hmmm

Update sorta, not really
http://www.kansascity.com/2013/06/17/4298900/kck-utility-investigating-power.html

 

[bradharris]

^ hmmm

Update sorta, not really
http://www.kansascity.com/2013/06/17/4298900/kck-utility-investigating-power.html

Sounds like they are already working to answer many of the questions raised here. I doubt criminal charges will be filed, but there will certainly be litigation. Hopefully the power company can settle with the family to avoid the drawn out legal process.

 

[agibson]

Interesting tidbits like

A volunteer working at a disc golf tournament at the park said he called 911 about the power line at 4 p.m. Saturday. Tournament officials checked the course later in the day, noticed the line remained down and called the BPU directly three times just after 10 p.m. — more than five hours before the electrocution.

And the park apparently is open until midnight. So, even if this fellow was breaking park rules at 3:20 AM, a glow round at 11:00 PM (also with a long-reported live wire...) would have been legit.

 

[zenbot]

I think the issue is that, technically, the park closes at midnight. So, you could argue that he was trespassing.

I still don't feel that satisfactory because the line was also down while the park was still open.

 

[hipster]

Surprised the course was not closed and guarded if it was known that a power line was down. If its well known that some locals play this course at night, seems reasonable to have someone there to keep people away from the dangerous area. RIP Dger

 

[Pwingles]

What Zen said
Basically, this would be a much much bigger issue had this happened at say, 8:30, but that may have not been sufficient time to fix i so idk. Either way ~12 hrs is long enough, im sure

 

[bradharris]

I think the issue is that, technically, the park closes at midnight. So, you could argue that he was trespassing.

I still don't feel that satisfactory because the line was also down while the park was still open.

I doubt that the trespassing angle will be enough to remove liability. The park is still a public space, and a downed, live wire is obviously a very serious hazard to the public.

The fact that the first person to encounter it happened to be there after hours does not absolve the power company of any responsibility.

About a year ago I sat on a jury for a liability case (medical malpractice) which resulted in a patient's death. When it comes to liability, the law is not definitely not black and white.

 

[bradharris]

Also, when considering the trespassing angle, there's a huge difference between forced entry (ie, breaking into a locked building) and using an open space after hours.