Story here…
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/4767955/detail.html
This is just the epitome of tragic. I wish one of the reports had had a better picture as our local news did. The tent was DIRECTLY under the power lines, and the tent POLE was tall enough to reach them.
These were boy scouts, boy scout LEADERS. Isn’t that in the top ten of rules of camping for boy scouts? Don’t set your tent up under powerlines?
I’m both sad and angry at this. Such a waste.
I fell exactly the same about this. It’s terribly sad, but damn it if that’s not a very good candidate for a Darwin Award. I’m not laughing, though.
I’ve never been to a jamboree, but a certain number of scouts and possibly leaders die every year at each one- it is statistically certain. When so many thousands come together, parking cars and tents in a field for weeks, they are forming a small civilization temporarily.
Car accidents are one thing, but this is, as you say, pretty ridiculous.
Deaths every year at jamboree? Do you have a cite for that or are you just making an assumption based on a modestly large number of people? That isn’t even true of aircraft carriers which have far more hazardous conditions. Not even then does every cruise have a death. Maybe it’s time to retire the “a good time had by all” headline.
Just something scoutmaster told me. Disregard unless proven.
My son is at the Jamboree, and I was more than a bit worried at the initial reports. While I was relieved that neither he nor anyone else from his group was injured (or even anywhere near the injured parties), I still feel sorry for the victims and their families.
For comparison to cruises and air flights and so forth, it’s worth noting that the Jamboree has 40,000 to 45,000 people there, for almost two weeks. That is larger from some towns.
They don’t have deaths “every year” because, among other reasons, the Jamboree is only held every four years. They do have occasional deaths, though; accidents, heart attacks, etc. From one AP press release:
I don’t have a cite about the 2001 Jamboree, but I would have expected reporters to mention any deaths at the 2001 event (if they had occurred) in articles about the current one, before they would cite 1997 stories. (I’m well aware that does not prove the absence of 2001 fatalities.)
“larger than some towns”, not “larger from some towns”. I even previewed, but unfortunately failed to catch the typo. Apologies for that.
My dad is there now as a subcamp commissioner. I’m curious to talk to him to find out what news they got about the whole situation.
I remember reading in one article about someone who died of a heart attack a few jamborees back. I’d figure in any population of 40K people statics will eventually catch up with you and result in a few things like that.
I attended the 1981 as a camper and 1985 as staff. Hurricane Bob was the biggest event I remember.
Injury surveillance at the 1985 National Boy Scout Jamboree
I was at that one! 8.5 injuries per 10,000 person-days (179 injuries over 9 days) seems awful low for almost 25,000 12-18 year old boys. I can’t imagine another setting for that many kids in which I wouldn’t expect more injuries.
enginerd,
i believe those were just the injuries that required referral visits to the onsite army hospital.
i would guess that there were a lot more bumps and bruises that didn’t require a hospital visit.
I don’t know about “every year” but in our news report, they did recount a few tragedies from years past.
The whole thing just made me cry, but even as sad as it is, I was thinking “what were they thinking”?
One of the men had three sons, they came home almost immediately after it happened. And according to our local news, they SAW it happen. Just so damn sad.
Out of 25,000 kids, I don’t expect many of them go a day of scout camp without bumps and bruises. Fewer than 200 hospital referrals in a week and a half of roughhousing still strikes me as awfully low.
I was a boy scout as well and I too thought the same thing, they should have known better than to erect such a large tent under power lines. I felt incredibly sad but the incredulity hit me before the tragedy. I hope this is not being callous.
It was definitely a terrible tragedy. Definitely preventable. As was this…
Now that (the heat problems) I’m not surprised about at all. As prepared as you get, and as much as you tell everyone to drink water and watch for signs of heat exhaustion, it’s hard to get kids to slow down and to drink. Not all of these Scouts come from parts of the country where they have experience with those kinds of temperatures, and the temps in Va have been really high lately. Even at an average summer camp in warm areas, leaders routinely have to deal with dehydration symptoms.
They didn’t say how serious the symptoms are - and I’m sure people are going to be encouraged to go to the medical areas at the first signs of heat problems, with the tightened safety rules. I’m glad to see no one was hospitalized or died.
I was at a Jamboree at Ft. A.P. Hill before. I don’t remember the year but Steven Spielberg was there that year.