[Jason]

http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles...00010000000001

I voted "NO" I don't blame the radio station. She signed up for it. It's her fault for not knowing what the consquences were. Sucks she had kids tho..

[Mastodon]

I actually smacked my forehead with my hand while reading that.

When your body tells you to pee, you fucking pee!

[7 Strings of Hate]

i vote yes, there is no justification in a radio station to conduct a contest in which someone could die if it known that its possible, in an eating contest, if a contestent chokes to death, its not the contests fault he cant swallow properly, but letting contestents drink water in such amounts that it is priorly known there may be serious problems let alone death, thats wrong.

[HighGain510]

No offense but that's the worst reasoning I've ever heard. The real question here would be: if it was known previously that drinking that much water would kill you, why sign up for the contest? It's not the station's problem to be the contestant's physician, if it was dangerous she shouldn't have joined in the contest to begin with! I vote no, she's a dumbass for competing in a potentially lethal contest. She is at fault, period. If they had used duct tape to attach a hose coming from a 20 gallon tank of water to her mouth and also pinched her nose until she drank, then yes, it would have been their fault. This was a contest and she was a willing participant, no one forced her to join.

As for your flawed logic above, it is known that eating too quickly without properly chewing each bite slowly/carefully can cause a person to choke, so how is this situation any different? It is known that if you drink WAY too much water and do not release it, you can do serious damage to your body up to and including death. It is HER fault for performing the action, doesn't matter if someone dangled a prize in her face to make her do it! It is sad that she is leaving behind three kids, and even worse is that I have a feeling they were probably the reason she was competing in the stupid contest. Worst of all, she died for a fucking $200 video game system that, although it is scarce right now, will be easily had within the next 6-9 months!!! Stupid DJ's, and even more stupid contestants. The contest was called "hold your wee for a Wii" but it sounds to me like the contest was populated by a bunch of Wii-tards.

[ohio_eric]

First off the science. Here's what water intoxication is and what it does. Here's the Wikipedia article.

Second the title is fucked up. Her last name was Strange. The title makes it sound like she was some kind of freak.

Anyway if this condition is known and can be easily researched, oh like I just did, then the radio station fucked up majorly. It's be like making the contestants eat large quantities of salt, which also screws up your bodies ability to function, as the salt/water balance is important to healthy functional body. So the radio station made an insane error. Sure she may have been overzealous in doing something like this but what if she hadn't researched it and wanted to get the Nintendo for her kids? People make mistakes. But if a radio station is going to ask people to do stunts for prizes they must make sure that contest is safe.

[Mastodon]

"They told us if you don't feel like you can do this, don't put your health at risk."

[ohio_eric]

Originally Posted by Mastodon

"They told us if you don't feel like you can do this, don't put your health at risk."

Did they fully explain the risks though? That's the $64,000 question.

[distressed_romeo]

I haven't got a much sympathy for anyone involved; the radio station was really irresponsible to let that contest go ahead with such a cursory warning about the risks, but at the same time the woman was an idiot for entering the contest and then taking it so far.

People, on the whole, are just stupid.

[DelfinoPie]

They're both at fault...but the radio station moreso. If they had researched it and found out that it was potentially life threatening then they wouldn't of held the contest (or atleast thought of a way to moderate what was going on in the contest to make it safer).

[JJ Rodriguez]

I vote yes, I never heard of this water intoxication, I had no idea drinking lots of water and not pissing could KILL you. I'm guessing this woman didn't either. And even if you think it's her responsibility to look it up, or that she knew before hand, it's like the radio station saying "go out and eat rotten meat, the person who doesn't puke gets the prize". Even though you know you can get E-Coli from shit like that, you're trying to reward people for endangering themselves, which I think makes the radio station liable.