What a way to die! This poor woman from Sacramento participated in a radio station contest and ended up dying for a Nintendo Wii. Can you say "lawsuit"?

Or, alternatively volenti non fit injuria (to a willing person no injury is done) aka voluntary assumption of risk

How can they start such a contest in the first place? At least someone should know that water is toxic in large quantities. At least bring the woman to a hospital.

Lawsuit for what? If I was a judge I would toss that right out of my court room. Its unfortunate and tragic because this woman had kids but she did it voluntarily. No one forced it down her throat. I don't like to speak ill of the dead but my god where has the common sense gone? If I could bottle up and sell it I'd be 10 times as rich as Bill Gates.

That doesn't matter in today's overly litigious society. There are lawsuits and jury awards all the time in favor of people who willingly do things that harm them. Remember, everything is always someone else's fault.

Ah, yes, thank you, terp! Where have those dirty words "personal responsibility" gone nowadays? In a society where we refuse to accept personal responsibility for our own actions, the obvious end result of this poor woman's own lack of good judgment is a lawsuit.

What's next? Is there going to be a safety sticker put on all water bottles sold in America that says it may be toxic to the human body in large quantities?

And the drama continues. Today, the DJ's and seven other individuals were fired by Entercom, the owners and operators of radio station KDND, which held the contest resulting in the death of Jennifer Strange.

I heard on the news this afternoon that the DJ's put calls on the air that cautioned against this and that someone could die, an idea they gaffawed. I'm sure there will be a thorough investigation of this distasteful matter, including potential criminal charges for all involved.

Please tell me her name wasn't really Jennifer Strange.

Yes, her name is Jennifer Strange. You can read the story to see that it's not a twisted joke.

Ten have been fired from the radio station.

Proof of profound stupidity on the part of the radio hosts: The Bee article above also has audio of the DJs' conversations with Jennifer Strange.


Good luck getting another job. What a shame.

I hope their next job in front of a microphone is to ask "Would you like to super-size that?".

And now we have the inevitable lawsuit against the radio station and probably others involved. Yes, this is as strange a case as a lawyer would likely get! (No pun intended.)

I am sorry this woman died but all the news shows now are saying stuff like 'This woman was just trying to wina game for her family". Here's a novel idea. Save some money and buy it. It's not like she entered thsi contest to win something like college tuition for her kids. It was for a freaking video game! Not to get too deep and serious, but it's like these people that will wait in line for days, skipping work, to buy their kids these games. Are we as a society, so materialistic?

That said, the radio station is liely going to have to pony up a boatload of money. Think of all the video game consoles thye'll be able to buy now.

Exactly! Now each of her children will be able to have a Wii. It's win/win.

I agree with George 100%! If it's not athletic shoes,it's Wii systems,or the most expensive jackets.This has all gotten out of hand!

This is a new twist in this story. The attorney for the Strange family is asking the FCC to revoke the radio station's license. Essentially, calling it the "death penalty" of fines, the attorney is saying that the FCC send a message to radio station owners that this behavior never be tolerated under any circumstances.

After reading this, I almost want to agree. Almost. Whatever happened to individual responsibility in our society? Is she completely blameless for the choices that she made in this? Come on!

I think the decedent's relatives may have a case. The radio station urged the decedent to do something to her body that was unnatural, and I think the relatives would be allowed to have a jury decide whether it was reasonably forseeable that she might be injured by the contest, and that the radio station, in promoting and supervising the event, had a duty of due care that they arguably breached. The counterargument will be that the decent also should have understood that she was doing something unnatural to her body, and that she breached a duty to take care of herself. Because of the unequal positions between the decedent and the radio station, which had other options for games and was in a better position to consider the risks soberly before they launched the contest and then advise the decedent of those risks, I think the decedent's family wins more often than not.

But really, would you expect the contestants to research the physiological and medical effects that a massive consumption of water might have on the human body? I'll wager most people, even generally well-informed people, would not have considered death by water poisoning to be a risk. I was only aware of it because a similar tragedy occurred to a runner in the 2002 Boston Marathon.

The DJs also were warned by a caller that this stunt could be dangerous, and they laughed it off. I'd be curious to see the text of the "release" that the contestants signed -- seems unlikely it covered this scenario, though.

Now, we have the inevitable lawsuit filed by the family. It's funny how this works, but I have been listening to a couple of radio talk shows about this and several callers have voiced the same question I asked. Where was this woman's own common sense?

Yes, the radio station was negligent and did act in a rather callous manner. That still doesn't subtract from Ms. Strange's own responsibilities. It takes two to tango, as the old saying goes. She did have a choice and chose poorly.

Sorry UCLAfan, I can't agree with you on this one. That's the same argument people like to use when a woman jogging at night is raped. "She knew the risks. She shouldn't have been out there alone."

Please.

Well that's a flawed analogy. A rape is a forced attack. Nobody jumped on her and forced water down her throat. A radio station offered a contest and she willingly entered. A more appropriate analogy might be bungee jumping or skydiving where there are some assumed risks. Bottom line is both parties hold some culpibilty in this case. But the radio station is more liable in that they should have involved some medical personnel to advise them. They aren't soley responsible, but more than the woman herself. I mean how many here who aren't medical professionals can honestly say before this case that they knew about water intoxication?

I'm holding out for the martini drinking contest.Then you won't care if you wet your pants.

Thank you, GTF, for your insightful analogy. I'm not saying that Ms. Strange is entirely responsible but at the same time, neither is the radio station. I'd put it at around 50-50, as no one had held a gun to her and ordered her to drink all of that water. She willingly did so in an attempt to win something. All she had to do was stop.

Yes, the radio station had at least one medical professional call in to say it was dangerous. The DJ's should have known at that point to stop. They didn't and now we have the current situation. What a hell of a bad situation all around! And all one needed to avoid this, on both sides, was simple common sense.

And Eddie, I'd rather hold out for the daquiri contest.

I come from Personal Responsibility Land, so I think the radio station is morally responsible for what lead to the woman's death. However, I don't think they should be held legally responsible and ordered to pay her family a damn dime.