General

[jchen76]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/05/us/05paintball.html

Need a login. Here's a snippet.

After their son asked for a day at a Northern California paintball park for his 10th birthday, Mark and Colette Contois did their homework, questioning friends and searching the Internet before deciding that with the proper equipment, the sport was safe.

The Contoises did not come across any information about a hazard they would encounter that afternoon in 2004. A 14-year-old player inadvertently detached a valve, launching his gun’s carbon-dioxide-filled cylinder as an unguided missile. It struck Ms. Contois, who was watching from a picnic area off the field, in the back of the head. She never regained consciousness, and died at the scene.

.... more on the website.

The nutshell is the Contoises won a 8 million dollar settlement from National Paintball Supply about the use of older CO2 cylinders and valves. The Contois are now on public crusade against the use of older cylinders.

I think I read this incident on a forum, wasn't the cylinder in questions not re-torqued correctly after a DIY modification that caused the container to fly out?

[Drum]

8 million! Wow... couldn't happen to a more deserving group of people, if you ask me (NPS) but I find myself wondering how it was that they tied liability to NPS over an old bottle.

Either NPS was selling older valve designs (presumably those without any feature to keep the valve from unscrewing from the tank when the tank was being removed from the gun) or they did something specific to the actual tank involved and that was sufficient to make NPS responsible to the victim.

I guess I will go and click the link and read the article now that I have commented on it.



Edit: Here is a quote from the article that bears some specific significance to us here;

And despite industry efforts to improve equipment, older, far more dangerous guns and parts remain in use, a problem that Mr. Contois says the companies have done too little to warn about.

Scary-ish.

[incynr8]

WARPIG - World And Regional Paintball Information Guide
UPDATE: Paintball Tank Malfunction Leads to Death of Woman :: PAINTBALL: :: News, videos, reviews, tournaments & pictures by Pbstar.com

[Mr. Furious]

As I've said many times before: Many people do not respect the potential for serious injury and or death that comes along with compressed gas cylinders.

I respect the guy for not only going after money but demanding that awarenes be raised and now going after KEE again because they are not complying.

[A.C. Basbas]

Originally Posted by Drum

Either NPS was selling older valve designs (presumably those without any feature to keep the valve from unscrewing from the tank when the tank was being removed from the gun) or they did something specific to the actual tank involved and that was sufficient to make NPS responsible to the victim.

It's not NPS responsibility... The tank leaves their factory valve-less and is later attached by either the retailer or field. When Su8lime was recieving product from them, I was the "tank bitch" who had to assemble everything... How can they be responsible? If you buy a pack of smokes, and burn yourself with a lighter, is it Marlboros fault or BICs?

The courts are generally pretty ignorant of the mechanics of Paintball and Airsoft, and a lot of "Legal Findings" concerning them are total bunk.

[Schmitti]

NPS is a distributor.... they don't have a factory. If they sell something that is proprietary it is made for them.. not by them.

As to tanks... a lot of them are made by catalina and re labeled. But there are several other manufacturers.

How this plays into NPS's responsibility... well it may have come down to how the paper work was completed between them and the factory.. who knows.

E

[HP_Lovecraft]

Then he learned that manufacturers had known of the potential danger from the valve-and-cylinder combination since 1990

Wow. What an amazing bias article from the NY-Times.

The above statement is false. In 1990 there was an accident involving a co2 bottle, and SINCE 1990 ALL TANKS VALVES WERE MODIFIED to eliminate this problem.

The people in the article that were unfortunetly killed, had tanks that had valves that were used with loctite to accomodate an aftermarket anti-siphon. The loctite clogged the valves, and prevented the safety-function from doing its job.

It is terrible reporting to say that the industry knew about this since 1990, and did nothing. Very sloppy reporting. Granted, it is the New York Times, which has been in a drastic decline in the last 10 years.

Sloppy, Sloppy, Sloppy.

I'm surprised that NPS didn't fight it. My guess is that NPS lawyers told them it would cost them more then $8-million in lost business, and legal fees to fight it.

CLEARLY the husbands of the women who died went after NPS because of money. The actual culprit: Whomever installed the anti-siphon with loctite, was the one to blaim, but certaintly would not have given them $8-million, let alone $8-hundred

nick

[Azzy]

Did NPS sell the AS kit though, and did it come with loctite?

[incynr8]

Azzy, I agree, it was the tech that installed the A/S kits fault.

If a mechanic 'fixes' your car and the wheels fall off, it's not the car manufacturer's, or dealer's fault.

However, you have to go after who has the money.... NPS had the money, and deserved a Karmic Bitchslap over the Montneel and the Vector.

[Tblazer13]

At least they are not on a crusade to ban paintball or anything like that, but instead are trying to improve paintball safety.

It would have been pretty pointless to sue some poor gun-tech who didn't have $8mil. If you want $8mil go to someone who has it, aka NPS.