How long before someone like Jack Thompson blames the Wii for killing her?

kinda....sad way to die....

Why would someone actually participate in such a "contest". Wow.

Haven't there been enough deaths from contests like this? How are people still unaware of the dire consequences from over consumption of water? This is very sad indeed.

It is also kinda sad to not know that this is very unhealthy for you, and that some one who has 3 children should set a good example and not do dangerous things just to obtain a bloody Wii..

She was probably doing it for her kids

The first purchase from the $16.5 million settlement: A Nintendo Wii.

Sad, tragic, stupid. I just can't see how it happened. Even after the broadcast company failed to properly research their lame-brained idea for a contest, people called into the show (nurses / informed persons) and explained the dangers of water intoxication. The D.J.s laughed the callers off. Sad, tragic, stupid.

Why is stupidity rewarded?

Too much water is as toxic as too much alcohol!
"Too much" is always toxic!

Kids with stupid dead mothers should be rewarded.

I feel bad for the family of the women, but how on earth is this the company's fault? They didn't shove a plug up there. They didn't say that she couldn't forfeit when she felt like she was exploding from the inside. How many people actually knew that it was possible to die in this fashion before this occurred?
I sympathize with the family, I really do, but these kind of lawsuits are BS.

I guess the headline doesn't make it clear enough that this is not related to the Wii but the radio station's contest. No need to blame the Wii for that one. Broken TVs? Yes. Stupid contests? No!

If she was an adult it was her fault. I hate the lack of personal responsibility in this world.

Hey I will give you a $100 if you jump off that bridge. Why the hell is it my fault you jumped? I just made an offer.

Don't get me wrong its a stupid contest, but why is it their fault that someone took it to far, and hurt themselves? Is it the NFLs fault when a player jumps over another player and lands on his head? The player didn't need to push it their fault, but the NFL offer him money...SUE!

Just silly.

I'm not goin

Why should we as Americans exhibit any personal responsibility when we can get paid for being a dumb ass instead. I'm going to get a lobotomy then go do something stupid and get paid like everyone else. Yeaaaa for the lawyers!

This is a stupid settlement. Its not their fault that holding it in killed her... (although any smart company would have made her sign a waiver)

This is the problem with the American judicial system--penalties like this should only be awarded when a company knowingly endangers customers--not for this completely accidental death crap.

Title makee you think the Wii killed her...
She was in a CONTEST that killed her...
The prize just happened to be a Nintendo Wii.

I guess there really is no such thing as personal accountability anymore. Nowadays you can be dumb as a post and get yourself killed because you don't have sense enough to question. As a previous poster pointed out, ANYthing in massive doses is toxic. That's pretty much a given. So why would you think gallons of water is safe, just because an idiotic radio DJ says the coast is clear?

If someone tells me i should jump out of a plane without a chute, I'm not going to be convinced it's extreme sports! Either way, you'd be jumping to your death.

Good thing we have these stupid court rulings that basically make it OK to be a moron. Sure, you may dead, but at least you won a cool 16 Mil.

Most people don't know water (of all things) can be lethal in high doses. "Everything in moderation" is a fairly sound proverb.

$16mil is a high premium for a human life. Medical insurers have a human being's worth down to around $1.5mil.

In a -devil's advocate- kind of way, Ignorance of your own safety is not safety from your own ignorance. The station is at fault, but so is the willing participant.

I'd say, "Darwin Award", but it's too soon.

2nd article by Marcus Yam in days which is misleading
First the "silent hill" article and now this "wii" death

at least they had a good lawyer....

I listened to the live broadcast and it is/was appalling how negligent the station was in this case. People called in to warn of the dangers of what was going on and the DJ's all laughed. And it is easy to call the contestants stupid but how many of you would ever think that water could kill you in such a manner? In retrospect it seems silly but it would not have occurred to me until someone warned me just as I am sure the same would apply to most people. The family deserved the ruling though I am not certain that the amount was justified, maybe the court decided it was justified to serve as a warning to others who might want to initiate such contests.

I'm not sure that the average American is aware that water consumption can be fatal. Had they just informed the contestants before-hand and had them sign a waiver, I imagine the case wouldn't have a leg to stand on. As-is I think justice was served... perhaps just a bit to an extreme.

Did they at least give her family the Wii prize? I think she earned it.

That's a stupid contest with a stupid prize.
You lost your mother over a $200. Ouch.

Water: The silent killer.

Unless, I guess, if it's raining.

No, this one is a pretty clear case of someone being so motivated to obtain a Wii that they killed themselves.

I think justice was served but not to an extreme. The group holding the contest should have consulted a physician about the ramifications of such an event. I'm a somewhat intelligent person and I had no idea that this type of death was possible, with that said, a person died, how can $16.5 million be too extreme.

Rewarded for what? A stupid, dead, cunt mother who was dumb enough to endanger her life for a piece of shit gaming system that will be outdated before her body has completely decomposed? Yeah, that is really fucking smart.

"Hey, kids, your dumb ass mother is dead because she was an idiot. One day, you will turn out just as dumb. Here is USD$16.5 million, go buy yourself a truck-load of water."

Water, by itself, is not lethal. You people bitch about misinformation, then throw out your own in your stupid shit posts. Drinking too much water is lethal due to causing an imbalance of electrolytes. You can kill yourself by over-consuming sports drinks and other types of drinks that claim to have electrolytes in them(there is not an equal amount of electrolytes to fluids).

zxu8he83j: Fuck off. Seriously, just fuck off. You cannot put a monetary figure on a human life. Any non-living thing on this planet can be easily replaced, but a human life cannot. All of the resources in the world can never replace a lost person. While I do not mourn those that are stupid enough to get themselves needlessly killed, I know that the person or people that knew that idiot can never replace the idiot once they are gone. Medical insurers have no such figure, so spread your bullshit elsewhere.

deadlockedworld: There is nothing wrong with the judicial system. Just because the outcome was contrary to your idiotic dreams of what the United States should be, it does not make the stance of the system wrong. If you replace the drinking game with a murder game, then you would probably be feigning outrage at the radio station.

If the DJs told the contestants to find a random person and kill them before anyone else kills their target, then the radio station would be guilty of numerous crimes. Someone, probably a producer, one of the DJs, or numerous people, took the idea to someone who makes programming decisions and that person/those people gave the green light to hold the contest. Since those people were operating the business with the consent of the owners, that puts any decisions made by those people the fault of the company and the actually people, simultaneously.

If you take away the contest, then no harm would have fallen on the [idiot](at least not up to that point). You cannot argue about whether or not this idiot mother might have gotten herself killed at a later date due to being dumb, as that is not within the scope of the justice system.

People who have three children are not very intelligent or well-informed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHk4imshmGA