Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
October 24, 2004
Pepper Spray Death

A medical blogger sent me a link to a post of his on the death of the young woman during the celebrations following the Red Sox victory in the ALCS. His theme is that a pepper spray pellet to the eye should not be deadly. He wants to know why she died, and why the press hasn't investigated this more thoroughly.

I'm not an expert on the subject. I'd be interested in hearing from others who might be.


Posted by David Pinto at 11:57 PM | Deaths | TrackBack (0)
Comments

It's a compressed air system so the temperature could've had something to do with it. And the pellets almost certainly were harder due to the cold weather. There should be a pressure guage on the tank to be monitored.

Given the effective range I wonder if they started shooting at standing-shoulder level and didn't drop down fast enough to avoid faces. And with the varied heights of people who knows what other things they were working at.

Once thing I think they should do is combine such systems with a good noise-maker per shot to deter people. Or will people sue do to shock?

Very unfortunate this event. Very. Cheers, -Ali

Posted by: Ali at October 25, 2004 12:37 AM

Another thing... could she have been so worked up as to have pretty high blood pressure and already be primed for some sort of aneurysm? -Ali

Posted by: Ali at October 25, 2004 12:43 AM

Saw a fellow on one of the cable news networks. Said that they are "less lethal" weapons, and not "non-lethal." Everything I've read in the papers reports them as such, as well.

Whoever he was, he made the point that the brain extends to directly behind the eyebrows, so taking one of these pellets in the eye or nose or temple could cause brain inury.

Also, the fellow who created these guns was interviewed in the Herald, and said much the same thing. He said the guns "weren't tested" on such soft tissue as eye/brain.

Posted by: Brian Heavey at October 25, 2004 01:08 AM

First let me say I come over here from the Baseball Crank, and I love the site. Good stuff.

This is why people who play paintball wear protection/goggles. A shot to the eye obviously has ramifications for the eye and your vision, but it's also a (the?) weak spot in your skull.

I don't know the strength of the guns, the size or shape of the pellets, but this story didn't surprise me that it could happen.

Getting shot in the face/eye with a paintball would be bad enough, but adding in that the pellet is filled with a serious irritant that has already been proven lethal in a much gentler "spray" style...this cannot be a complete shock.

Any further investigation would probably just reveal the tragic confluence of events, nothing more.

Posted by: Mr Furious at October 25, 2004 01:49 AM

I have seen people get smashed in the forehead with a baseball bats at full swing; I've seen someone with a stick shift knob lodged in his nose and another with a pair of scissors through his eye. None of these people died. In at least 2 major studies of paintball injuries to the eyes, covering 200 patients, NO ONE DIED from this EXACT type of injury.

This girl was hit in the eye with a soft capsule the size of a GRAPE. The capsule is designed to explode on impact.

If people died when the got hit on the eyeball, the human race would have gone extinct long ago. The fact is that the eye socket is specifically engineered to PREVENT death with impacts.

The eyeball is in the front of a bony cone (same shape as an ice cream cone) with the point directed backwards. The walls of that cone are thin and surrounded by your sinuses.

If you get hit hard on the eyeball, the eyeball pushes backwards and increases pressure behind it and then one of those thin bony walls gives way. This is the body's way of "protecting" the brain from just such a backward-propelled force.

The injury that results from a direct blow to the eyeball is called, appropriately, a "blow-out" fracture.

If this type of impact killed people then there would be epidemic-level deaths on the squash courts every winter.

This is a nonlethal injury. It was purportedly caused by a nonlethal weapon/projectile. The woman died HOURS later in the hospital.

Does anyone want to know more?

I do.

CodeBlueBlogMD

Posted by: CodeBlueBlogMD at October 25, 2004 02:01 AM

Normal paintballs are 3 grams and travel at under 300fps. (on insured public fields you are required to test velocity before playing) This can leave a nasty welt from 100 ft away, and could easily cause blindness or hearing loss. When someone loses a mask on a paintball field, the typical reaction is that they are swarmed by experienced players screaming for everyone to stop firing.

I hear that the BPD has this available to them. It fires a variety of marking, pepper, and gas projectiles at velocities greater than 300fps. The projectiles are 8.5 grams. (weighted with bismuth in the front and fin-stabilized for accuracy) It's probably a big mistake to be firing this thing into crowds from a mounted position where you can't be sure to hit the torso.


Posted by: wepu at October 25, 2004 08:49 AM

is't there a law that says she has to have an autopsy? won't that show the cause of death?

Posted by: lisa gray at October 25, 2004 11:32 AM

There is also a scarcity of eyewitness information about the exact incident. Did someone see the girl get hit by the pepperball?

In such a large crowd was she immediately recognized as injured, or was she trampled?

Did she immediately lose consciousness when she was hit with the projectile or was it a delayed incident?

The press hasn't told us.

CodeBlueBlogMD

Posted by: CodeBlueBlogMD at October 25, 2004 01:13 PM

I heard on the local (Boston) news this morning that other people who were hit by the pepper pellets are coming forward. One person had a pellet tear through his cheek. Another person had pellet fragments embedded in his skull. It sounds to my un-educated ear that that these pepper pellets are a bit more dangerous than your average paintball pellet.

Posted by: Krybo Amgine at October 26, 2004 03:07 PM

The pellets and guns are given to the spolice with very specific instructions - do not fire at someone's face or throat! These things are non-lethal if used properly. The police did not use them properly.

Posted by: Greg at October 27, 2004 01:43 AM

ok well i happend to come across this little disgusion

you have to remember it is a paintball
any who has ever played paintball can tell you
they are not accurate

it is a ball traveling through the air
the weight of the projectile is too light and creats lift
this lift makes the paintball make random movements
for example hooking up

another explaination would be the officer using the paintball marker shot too fast. assuming (from the pepperball web site) they are using the gear they have. the paintball may have choped

a chopped paintball fill the barrel with paint causing a major lack of accuary.
also the lose of stable flight
giving it the ablilty to "hook up"

the pepper ball company has a good idea but hasnt realized the other problems they have created

these guns should be top of the line.
have anti- chop eyes
clips/ electric loaders

cause the officer using the gun will have his addrenaline pumping and may shoot faster then the gun can load

so dont blame the police

Posted by: kuby at November 15, 2004 10:46 PM

I have to agree with kuby's post on November 15, 2004. I have been playing Paintball for over 10 years, I also teach OTT (Officer Transition Training) in Canada so I am familiar with the use of less than lethal weapons training. The problem is that the "markers" (Paintball guns) used by today's Police are not top of the line markers. The problem there is reliability, reliability and accuracy are only available in higher end markers. During a game of paintball all the participants are wearing facial protection, on the streets, they are not. During a game, getting hit in the face is no big deal and happens often, on the street, this can be fatal as seen. You have to understand, paintballs are not lead, they are .68 cal soft plastic that is easily deformed, out of round, small dimples and dents will affect the trajectory of the ball. Add to this the outside temperature, the pressure of the CO2 at the time, any number of factors could have caused the ball to hook up. Using a standard hopper in a standard blowback marker is not the way the police should go, I have recommended to our police force here in Canada the use of higher end markers, Tippmann USA makes the Tippmann A5 with a cyclone feed system, add to this a flatline barrel and you have increased accuracy and reliability, the balls will never miss feed or chop and the flat trajectory will give added accuracy. This is just one marker that comes to mind, there are several. But until the police realize that all markers are not created equal, this type of accidental death will happen again. But always remember, this technology is less than lethal force, not non lethal, there is a big difference. Again, I have to side on the side of the Police, they are using what has been issued to them...

Posted by: Drew at November 23, 2004 11:40 AM