Unregistered MudRun participant sues when paralyzed

luv2run wrote:

I spoke with an OSHA investigator years ago and he said there are no accidents. If a person is injured someone is responsible. In this case, it was the runner. (If dozens of others had been hurt, then I could see blaming the RD).

On the above: I asked about lightning strikes. The OSHA guy said something to the effect of: the person should have been aware of weather conditions and taken precautions.

This is true. I work in the field of Occupational Safety and I always jokingly say we are all a bunch of monday morning quarterbacks.

codger wrote:

By taking the "donated" number is there implied consent to the waiver, even though he didn't actually sign one.

Virginia courts, based on precedent, don't recognize the waiver.

This case should be thrown out immediately. The plantiff was negligent when he broke the rules and jumped in the race without registering. These type of lawsuits are ruining America and if they keep coming, it will cost $500 to enter a marathon to cover the race's insurance. Totally ridiculous!

The lawsuit should be thrown out because there was nothing wrong with the mud pit, not because he didn't register. If there had been a rusty nail in the mud pit or something, he would've been right to sue, regardless of whether he had registered.

Exactly. Trespassing 101. The waiver and participant rights cover the person registered and to whom the number / registration applies. Case dismissed.

How much was this clown fueled up on alcohol? Had a simular incident in Michigan last summer at Warrior Dash 5k. Guy was all fueled up on alcohol decided to participate in one one of the last few corrals to start. Did the same thing, attempting a show-boat head first dive. Wonder how long til he decides the race is at fault.

These mud/color runs make me sick

I feel really terrible for this guy. The situation he must now live with sucks balls.

Tough mudders are a mockery of our sport. The only time you used to see people navigating obstacle courses was on TV in the 1980s and 1990s on TV shows. Hopefully they will come out of fashion and people will get back to running just plain old regular road races.

Even a fit 14-16min 5k kid like most visitors to this website might end up paralyzed in a tough mudder. These events are stupid and need to be stopped.

Notice now on facebook that if you put down running as one of your interests, a bunch of ads for tough mudder events start appearing on the side of the page. they hype all these tough mudder events up like they are mainstream and there have been lots of stories of participants with permanent spinal damage. These events mostly attract the cross fitter type who is bored with being a 22-30min 5k finisher.

The fact the man ran a 30min 5k before suggests the man was at least built with a high degree of function

This is my favorite sort of LetsRun thread.

I love how the article mentions his marathon and 5k times, which have nothing to do with the case, at all.

He ran an almost five and a half hour marathon like 19 months before the mud run.

A 30 minute 5k on asphalt doesn't mean anything when it comes to a mud run. One would naturally assume that running/crawling thru mud is harder than running on concrete/asphalt.

Glycerin Runner wrote:

Exactly. Trespassing 101. The waiver and participant rights cover the person registered and to whom the number / registration applies. Case dismissed.

Totally irrelevant. The waiver does not matter legally (in Virginia). The fact that the person was not registered is unlikely to matter.

bangalangadanga wrote:

here. i'll win the case for the defendant.

the event purchases insurance for this sort of thing.

people subsidize that purchase with entry fees.

this guy did not buy insurance for the event.

this guy has no claim to any insurance funded by the participants and the mud run organization.

sorry. buy insurance next time.

But .. but ... but ... shouldn't pre-existing conditions always be covered? IE you can buy "insurance" after the fact?

These specialty races seem to be getting a bit out of hand. There was one recently where you had to run through some sort of electroshock obstacle...basically looked like intentionally running through an electric fence. At the same time, I've seen XC courses with stream crossings that were essentially mud pits and probably posed the same hazard of a man made one...or worse.

I get at least one call a week from organizers of these types of events asking for assistance. I wouldn't touch them with a 10 foot pole!

It's never the participants fault (according to the lawyers. If a runner tripped over his own feet because he turned his head, some lawyer will find a way to make it the organizers faul.

Hammerschmidt wrote:

But .. but ... but ... shouldn't pre-existing conditions always be covered? IE you can buy "insurance" after the fact?

YES but look at it this way. My COBRA ran out after I lost my job. I tried to buy insurance right before my COBRA ran out and was denied. That is NOT "after the fact"...that's called capitalism at its worst....insurance company sees im not going to be profitable anymore so at the moment they are allowed to reassess my risk, they drop me from the plan, at no fault of my own.

We are in agreement. I was attempting to say that his claim would be "legit"...IF...the claim of negligence on the building of the pit held up. But, in review, I didn't make that too clear. thanks for the clarification.

I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know all the legal technicalities that apply here.

Just this: if the guy is still recovering from a marathon and is still feeling the effects of it, a mud run, involving obstacles and unsure footing in places would put him at greater risk of injury.

I can imagine that if a friend gave him the number, he might have felt compelled to prove to himself or his friend or someone that he wasn't too much of a wimp to do the race. But whatever his reason, not too wise a choice. But he probably is all too aware of that now.

This plaintiff is a gold digger, pure and simple. As an unregistered runner, he had an accident and fell where thousands of others had passed safely. Of course, "someone" is to blame, and as usual in gold digger cases, the plaintiff is innocent at a lamb, but anyone with deep financial pockets is guilty.

In the future, the plaintiff will have lots of medical bills to pay, so is looking for money to not only cover those expenses but to live in luxury as well. His lawyer has decided to ask for an outrageous amount of money in the hopes that a sympathetic jury will reward something (even if significantly less than $30 million) that will still be outrageous enough to make for a good payday.

What is being sought is not justice but $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

"The race organizers’ attorney says the suit lacks merit, but his case claims the organizers engaged in questionable behavior, like encouraging the racers to enter the mud pits headfirst (which is how he was injured)"

Above is from another article. If he has video of race crew going all "boot camp" at the pits yelling for people to go in head-first, he may have something there. And yes, I agree his bandit status should preclude his ability to sue, but apparently that's not the case in VA.