Tennessee Tech: Student Wins $7.2 Million in Suit Against Phi Gamma Delta
 

See

http://www.herald-citizen.com/view/f...atest_articles

A TN Tech student won a lawsuit against Phi Gamma Delta The $7.2 million awarded and the incident that led to the suit are reported above ^^.

I don't see how the fraternity is at fault, but that's a moot point.

It is an incredibly unfortunate situation.

How does someone get a neck injury like that if they don't hit the side or bottom of the pool? It seems so random to me.

There's definitely not enough information there to form an opinion either way. It was a terribly unfortunate freak situation, but that doesn't mean Phi Gamma Delta didn't owe some sort of duty which they breached. Premises liability cases (which I'm guessing this is) have a pretty low threshold for liability when you invite folks onto your property.

I saw a story on a news show like 60 Minutes, at least 20 years ago about Slip and Slide being incredibly dangerous for adults, because the force of the person's weight slamming into the spine when the person goes into "slide" mode on their stomach can cause these exact kinds of injuries. It is only designed for kids. Not sure of what happened here, but it's likely he suffered the spinal cord injury before he even got into to the pool. The danger of this kind of activity has been out there for a long time. Very sad for the fraternity, but the advisers should have shut this idea down immediately.

I consider myself to be a pretty well-educated, risk averse adviser. I don't think I would have even thought that a slip and slide would be dangerous to adults unless I read what you wrote just now. It wouldn't have even occurred to me.

This. It makes sense after reading, but it never would have crossed my mind that this activity would be dangerous for (sober) adults.

Even with a wooden ramp into a kiddie pool at the end? (Per the article)

Yeah, that's where I was really shaking my head. The dangers of a Slip and Slide for adults aside (I didn't know that either), I can't imagine how anyone thought the wooden ramp and kiddie pool were a good idea.

And what a parent's nightmare -- the closer my kids get to college, the more that's the lens through which I read stories like this.

Agreed. How many teen movies show new college freshmen doing this? I can think of at least three off the top of my head. I wouldn't have known either.

Well of course that, but the article states the injury likely occurred before the ramp and the pool. It was a freak accident, but I guess the duty of the landowner to the invitee is strong enough to prevail here. Guess we'll all be paying higher insurance premiums this year.

If they were using the actual Slip and Slide brand product, there would have safety information on the box which indicated that it is not for adult use. But they could have just been using a big sheet of plastic, and calling it a Slip and Slide. Of course that doesn’t excuse them from the fact they were sponsoring a risky activity, it just might explain how they wouldn't have known about the issue.

The dangers of Slip and Slides to adults has been known and documented for about 20 years:
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml93/93076.html

I went to TTU and was present the morning this incident occurred... We had held many slip and slides similar to this in the years before and even throughout that week- nothing was different until the accident.

It's always a risk with things like this, the gentlemen of Phi Gamma Delta are great men- I know them personally, I also know the man injured in this event- he is also a great man.

It's one of those things that 1 out of 10,000 is going to get hurt- it just so happens... this time it was a very serious incident. I do believe FIJI did everything in their power to help him the best they could that day.

Don't forget what happened at Florida Southern 4 years ago.

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