Family of "Wee for Wii" Victim Awarded $16m

[Insanum]

/facepalm.

Im putting this one down to natural selection.

 

[101194]

"all the stupid people Where do they come from"

 

[MystRunner]

I bet you five dollars she had to sign a release waver before competing in said competition that probably somewhere in fine print labeled what could possibly happen. Said waver is probably the reason the family didn't get as much as what they were hoping for in the lawsuit.

 

[sigmaofhell]

the winner was wearing a dipper, pee all you want they dont need to know lol. but come on people wee for wii, i just stood in line for 5 hours. still better then dying

 

[slackbheep]

The people who held the contest were sort of being idiots. While I do feel sympathy for these children who have to grow up without their mother... What the HELL?

You know what? If you're too stupid to realize that by not evacuating your waste you are poisoning yourself, you are too stupid to be raising children.

 

[epsilon246]

Well at least it's less idiotic than that woman who sued for tripping over her OWN child in a supermarket.

 

[epsilon246]

people really need to learn that the dose makes the poison. you can die from anything if you get it in large enough quantities.

This is true. And to verify the "everything", vitamins minerals taken into the body (especially those that are not fat soluble), everything else if you stand underneath it.

 

[TheLefty]

That's a pretty screwed up contest. I'm sure it was meant to be harmless but and maybe the whole "Wee for a Wii" thing seemed clever but really it's just gross. Yes I know this is out of taste but I couldn't help notice their last name in all of this.

 

[Wintermoot]

what a idiot! if she waited a few months the console would be bundeld with sunday paper! that contest sounds idiotic

 

[lm2f]

Water... Poisoning? What is that and how does someone go about getting it?

IIRC, water can dilute the electrons (at least I think it was electrons) of your body, pretty much causing you to shut down for good. As you might expect, it takes a large quantity of water to get the diluting effect.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonicity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=TW&hl=zh-TW&v=EA_ss8ZkjAM

Basically the amount of solutes in her blood becomes lower than the concentration inside the cells after ingesting large amounts of water, and water begins to diffuse across the membrane until the cell bursts.

 

[Britisheagle]

I dont even know what to think of this. I dont know whether to congratulate the winner, feel sorry for the woman who died or just be amazed that anyone would do this in the first place for a Wii. Feel sorry for her family but at least they won the claim.

 

[Danpascooch]

Yes, she is an idiot, but the people who held the contest are just as or more effing stupid

Every so often you hear stories of people dying because of over consumption of water at some stupid ass contest, you think people would freaking learn and stop putting these stupid ass contests on

 

[Danpascooch]

I've been reading some articles about this elsewhere (ABC news, Baltimore Sun, amongst other news sites), and a couple significant things should be noted: first, the contest was never cleared by the radio station's legal team. Second, the deejays never warned contestants of the danger, and in fact said the opposite (this quote from abcnews.com):

"Can you get water poisoning and, like, die?" asked the female disc jockey.

"Not with water," a male disc jockey replied. "Your body is 98 percent water. Why can't you take in as much water as you want?"

A number of people called in to warn the radio station about the health risks, and these risks were still never shared with the contestants. When Jennifer Strange was taking part in the contest, she was complaining of pain, and the deejays responded by laughing at her.

I think all of this suggests pretty clearly to me that the radio station did need to be held liable for its irresponsibility in running the contest. There was no research and no warning, and they were further to the public basically saying, "Don't worry this is perfectly safe!" when telling people to take poison.

This doesn't absolve Strange's liability for participating in the contest, but her lack of information resulted in the most final punishment possible, a far more dire punishment than she deserved (the threat of water intoxication is not common knowledge; to her it probably sounded like an easy way to get a Wii for her kids at a time (2007) when getting hold of a Wii was really hard). That the radio station was sued for a mere $16 million is a drop in the bucket comparatively speaking. But better that they be held accountable for their part in the fiasco. After all, if some public entity held a contest of "Win Russian Roulette and win a prize!" they're still being irresponsible and encouraging deadly behavior. No, someone with common sense would not participate in a contest like that, but that doesn't remove responsibility from the people encouraging the bad behavior in the first place. Neither side has to be "right" or "wrong" in a case like this.

THANK YOU, too many people are blaming only the victim and not the radio station, from this description, the radio station sounded unbelievably irresponsible

 

[NotAPie]

Should've diluted the water with beer.

Or Brawndo. (Thank Yahtzee for watching this in the office and reminding us about our ELECTROLYTES)

Argh! I swear I saw that in a comedy movie!
Well not the video but the drink.
Damn! I forgot what it was called.
OnTopic: Wait what!? I...I don't even know what to say!

 

[Kross]

Argh! I swear I saw that in a comedy movie!
Well not the video but the drink.
Damn! I forgot what it was called.
OnTopic: Wait what!? I...I don't even know what to say!

Idiocracy [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/]

Pvt. Joe Bowers: What *are* these electrolytes? Do you even know?
Secretary of State: They're... what they use to make Brawndo!
Pvt. Joe Bowers: But *why* do they use them to make Brawndo?
Secretary of Defense: [raises hand after a pause] Because Brawndo's got electrolytes.

 

[The DSM]

Natural selection: Even the gene pool needs some chlorine.

£16 Million? some people will make money out of anything.

 

[Doktor Merkwurdigliebe]

Darwin Award awaits.

 

[infinisynth]

So did she end up winning the contest?

 

[NoSeraph]

No, she was offered concert tickets to drop out, and she did.

If anyone's interested, the radio station and its insurance company are fighting it out to see who has to pay her.

I hope that whoever ends up having to pay does appeal the award. It's rather extreme.

 

[mrx19869]

the woman is in full fault here..