2 dead & 6 injured as teens take after hours sled ride down Winsport bobsleigh track

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by peter12

So obviously most people missed the point of my post. I was talking about responsibility. This wasn't a horrible accident, but an extremely risky activity. Furthermore, at least two of the guys knew enough to have an accurate assessment of the risk. Let's give credit where it is due. These boys weren't cattle that go through a hole in the fence.

But back to glory days.

Well the plan wasn't to slam into a wall. That happened accidentally. This was an accident by definition:

an unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury.

[peter12]

No, but if you are suggesting they weren't exposed to the hazards of the track at some point during their employment, then you are exercising some pretty sentimental thinking on their behalf.

They did something incredibly dangerous without proper planning and it cost two lives.

Very, very sad. Also very preventable.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Is anyone even mentioning "glory days"?

Stop peter'ing up the thread with your peter crap.

[peter12]

I mean, yes, it was a "tragedy." This place...

[Hockeyguy15]

Originally Posted by peter12

No, but if you are suggesting they weren't exposed to the hazards of the track at some point during their employment, then you are exercising some pretty sentimental thinking on their behalf.

They did something incredibly dangerous without proper planning and it cost two lives.

Very, very sad. Also very preventable.

How do we even know what they knew?

It's not a large leap to think that two 17 year olds in customer service wouldn't be privy to the ins and outs of the course.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

How do we even know what they knew?

It's not a large leap to think that two 17 year olds in customer service wouldn't be privy to the ins and outs of the course.

No kidding. I worked there for a season as a lifty. I barely knew how to run the lift by the end, let alone the bobsled track.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by peter12

No, but if you are suggesting they weren't exposed to the hazards of the track at some point during their employment, then you are exercising some pretty sentimental thinking on their behalf.

They did something incredibly dangerous without proper planning and it cost two lives.

Very, very sad. Also very preventable.

Oh come on, you're always on about using your head above sentimentality, so use yours. We don't know what their job title was, how long they worked there, what they did/didn't have access too. They could have done some two month summer student welcome at the front desk a year ago.

Very sad also very preventable. Neither of those exclude it from being a tragedy.

Originally Posted by peter12

I mean, yes, it was a "tragedy." This place...

This place?

This place is no different than how anyone else or how any other group has reacted to this tragedy. There are plenty of thread you could throw around the "Oh CP.." tag but this isn't one of them. Besides polak's gate...gate Calgarypuck is fairly lockstep with any other group.

[Bagor]

Originally Posted by peter12

No, but if you are suggesting they weren't exposed to the hazards of the track at some point during their employment, then you are exercising some pretty sentimental thinking on their behalf.

Zero sentimental thinking here. It's a logical critique of your statement.

You are the one that suggested that two of them would have had the information available to conduct an accurate risk assessment when clearly that is not the case.

When in fact the complete opposite to your statement is far closer to the truth in that if they had the information available that there was a barrier on the course they would not have set foot on the course.

[Hockeyguy15]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

Oh come on, you're always on about using your head above sentimentality, so use yours. We don't know what their job title was, how long they worked there, what they did/didn't have access too. They could have done some two month summer student welcome at the front desk a year ago.

Well it was in the paper, they were "hill ambassador's" last winter.

[Minnie]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

We don't know what their job title was, how long they worked there, what they did/didn't have access too. They could have done some two month summer student welcome at the front desk a year ago.

.

Yeah we do. Their family released a second statement that outlined their duties at the hill. Nothing that indicates they had anything to do with the luge/bobsled track. There's a post somewhere earlier in the thread, with the info in it.

ETA: from the linked statement on page 10 (well, pg 10 for me):

Winsport Customer Ambassador, working at base of hill, welcoming guests, scanning tickets, helping

[FireGilbert]

I must have slight dyslexia as whenever people quote Sliver I sometimes read it as Silver. My mind then thinks someone is posting a Nate Silver quote and I'm like that's an odd thing for a respected statistician to say.

[JiriHrdina]

It's pretty clear if they knew the gate was there they would not have gone down. How is it possible to draw any other conclusion?

[jayswin]

Because peter12

[metallicat]

And how many people would have actually gone down to somehow scout the entire track before going down to ensure it was clear? Nobody. There's sure a lot of Monday morning quarterbacks here.

I think I lived a lot more boring of a life than most people here. I wasn't a risk taker, and I didn't do a ton of stupid crap that almost got me killed. But I am not going to sit here and condemn anyone for having done so, nor am I going to condemn these kids for doing what they did. They were out trying to have a good time, and it had dire consequences. The survivors have to live with it and it won't be easy.

[Alberta_Beef]

nm

[calgaryblood]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

Well it was in the paper, they were "hill ambassador's" last winter.

That seems similar to "sandwich artist" at Subway. What does that title even mean?

[surferguy]

I will assume if they knew the gate was there they would have started at the top of the luge instead

[pylon]

Originally Posted by peter12

So obviously most people missed the point of my post. I was talking about responsibility. This wasn't a horrible accident, but an extremely risky activity. Furthermore, at least two of the guys knew enough to have an accurate assessment of the risk. Let's give credit where it is due. These boys weren't cattle that escaped through a hole in the fence.

But back to glory days.

Glory days? I'm 41 frikkin years old and there are still days I sit there at my desk and shudder for a moment over a corner I took too quick on my motorcycle and just kept right side up, or some stupidly dangerous location I hiked into to take a picture or cast a line the weekend before.

I'm no 'extreme' adventurer, but it's called living. I'm sure in hindsight on this statement would be 20/20 lol.... But I still tend to believe I'd rather bite it before 50 doing something I love, than make it to 80 as a frail old man, that lived in a bubble and read a lot of great books and built ships in a bottle.

Different strokes for different folks sure. But there are hundreds of risky activities that end in disaster. The only thing that really separates this one, was it was committed on private property at a very high profile location. If this was a couple kids jumping dirt bikes on some random farm, it's already old news.

[Tinordi]

Tragic youthful exuberance.

Yes it was a stupid thing to do. That does not take away from the loss for the family or for the future of the dead and maimed.

A stupid decision that everyone wishes they could have back. A terror for all parents knowing how thin the thread can sometimes be.

RIP

[Resolute 14]

From Reddit, this was either yesterday or today's Sun comics. A case of very unfortunate timing: