A must have for every St. Louis Cardinals fan! One of our best selling caps, the Franchise is a fitted, garment-washed cap featuring team logo on front in raised embroidery, along with team secondary logo on back.Any given morning, a sports fan can wake up, turn on ESPN, and learn of a serious injury suffered by a player on their favorite team. The down-time this athlete experiences can devastate his or her supporters. These setbacks are unfortunate yet fairly common. Whether Sid Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins suffers a high ankle sprain or Richard Zednik of the Florida Panthers lacerates his carotid artery, or Deion Sanders formerly of the Cincinatti Reds catches a fly ball with his head, injuries are not surprisingly part of the game.
Yet other injuries are often overlooked - the injuries to sports spectators. Sports journalist Bob Gorman comments that, "No one knows the number of balls hit into the stands during the course of a game, but one estimate puts it at thirty-five to forty in the average Major League contest."1 At least thirty-five deaths have occurred as the result of these errant balls and bats in major league parks. Unconfirmed information suggests that at least one significant injury occurs per game.
It has been estimated in various journals that within a span of 26 years, five deaths occurred as the result of injuries sustained from broken bats, balls flying up to 120 miles per hour into the stands, or other objects exiting the ball field in baseball stadiums. Due to unpublished information, one is left only to guess at the number of associated injuries.
The Internet Journal of Law, Healthcare, and Ethics takes a stab at guessing in its statement that, "One recently published study by Milsten gives the incidence of injuries to Major League Baseball (MLB) fans from foul balls as 35.1 injuries per every million spectator visits. The paper gives limited detail regarding the actual injuries."2 Suppose a ballpark receives 10 million visitors in a season. According to this estimation, approximately 350 injuries would occur.
The journal also reports that, "A study by Milzman found that during 127 hockey games, there were 122 people injured by pucks, 90 of which required stitches."2 Of these 122 injuries, about 55 required hospitalization. These statistics are not surprising given that in both baseball and hockey, the majority of traumas occur to the head or face. Loss of sight in an eye and fractures to the skull name a couple of the injuries that have been sustained by hockey spectators.
Injuries to fans have been known to result in lawsuits. Oftentimes public arenas are absolved of any legal responsibilities, ruling that fans attend these contests at their own risks. Such was the case for Brittanie Cecil, a 13 year-old who was struck by a puck and later died of complications resulting from a blood clot. When family members attempted to sue the arena, the court ruled that fans attend games aware of the inherent dangers.
Response of Authorities
Baseball stadiums and hockey arenas go to great lengths to reduce the risk of injury or death due to flying balls or pucks. Oftentimes, public announcers caution fans to be alert for such objects, warnings are printed on the back of ticket stubs, and warnings flash on the scoreboard. Additionally, nets are strategically placed in areas commonly receiving these objects such as behind a goal or backstop.
The New Jersey Baseball Spectator Safety Act of 2006 requires baseball stadium owners to use warning signs and to take other safety measures in enhancing the protection of their spectators. While the safety risk is still assumed by spectators, there are now mandated safety standards for those under this law. Placing netting behind home plate, for example, would meet such requirements.
Hockey arenas, being just as dangerous as ball parks, also enforce safety standards. The height from the base of the rink wall to the top of the safety glass is a minimum of five feet. Due to the injury reports for hockey game spectators, one can conclude that this is not a sufficient safety measure to prevent all risks. The NHL has therefore mandated that rinks be fortified with netting behind each goal to diminish the chance of a puck reflecting into the stands and striking a fan since this is the most common site for these frozen rubber disks to exit the ice rink.
What You Can Do
Whether you are the parent of a young baseball or hockey player, avidly attend professional sporting events, or you own or manage a stadium or rink, the following summarizes your options to help prevent injuries to spectators:
Ensure that spectators are aware of their dangers and pay attention at all times by making public announcements before and during the event.
Place warning signs in highly visible areas.
Print warning labels on the back of ticket stubs.
Fortify the stadium or rink with safety netting, particularly in high traffic areas.
Fans can choose seats behind safety netting or in a section of the stadium or arena with a low probability for an errant object to land.
Fans should always pay attention to the action at hand and be alert for objects headed their way.
Sporting events are too much fun and a great part of the fabric of American recreation to allow the risk of srious injury to keep fans away. Following these common sense steps can help ensure spectator safety at sporting events.
Paul Galla
2 http://www.ispub.com/ostia/index.php?xmlFilePath=journals/ijlhe/vol4n2/sport.xml
Paul Galla, President (U.S. Netting
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