Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Please be careful folks

Sleighbells ring, are you listening?

In the lane, snow is glistening...

I just read in the SF Examiner (Jan 5, 2005) that 23 year old Morgan Dufault died on New Year's Eve. She was attending a party being held in a three story building in the North Beach district. According to the story, she had a few drinks (four or five drinks over seven hours) and appeared to be intoxicated.

About ten of the twentyfive people at the party were on an outside rooftop patio. The patio was surrounded by an eight foot high acrylic glass wall. Morgan fell to her death when she leaned on the door leading to a wooden ledge and fireescape. The door opened and Morgan went through it.

I'm the last person to say don't drink and have fun, but please, please, please, be careful.

Morgan didn't have that many drinks, and appeared to be intoxicated. The average abount to drink is about one drink per hour to keep your BAL (Blood Alcohol Level) low. This changes and depends on the individual's size, gender, etc.

A BAL of 0.8 or over will get you arrested if you drive.

At BAL of 0.5 NOTICEABLE RELAXATION. LESS ALERT. LESS SELF-FOCUSED. COORDINATION IMPAIRMENT BEGINS

Here's the scary part, less alert, coordination impairment begins. Being unable to grab hold of anything as you fall to your death would fall into that catagory.

If you're going to be taking something that is going to impair your reactions, please stay away from doors. Morgan was from out of town and did not live there, she had no idea that the door she was leaning on, DID NOT LOCK.

The door was probably not locked to make it easier to access the fire escape on the other side. Locking that would cause another set of problems since SF is always a fire hazard since most of these great old buildings were made out of wood.

So just be careful and look out for each other when you enjoy yourselves.

3 comments:

:: jozjozjoz :: said...

That's a sad story.

Unknown said...

I just saw this and would like to add, as Morgan's best friend, that the door latch was broken. So, the caution, I would say... should be to those who rent properties. Please keep things to code and maintain an awareness of the condition of your properties so your negligence does not result in the death of a fabulous friend and person.

Unknown said...

Thanks for reading my blog Lindsey and I'm sorry for your loss.

{{{lindsey}}}