Woman killed by paintball marker tank
http://fox40.trb.com/news/ktxl-02160...ll=ktxl-news-1
PLACERVILLE -- A woman was killed Monday when she was struck in the head with a cartridge from a paintball gun, according to the El Dorado County Sheriff's Dept.
The freak accident happened in the area of Mosquito Road in El Dorado County. Sheriff's Dept. officials tell FOX40 News someone was using a paintball gun and the cartirdge on the back of the gun somehow malfunctioned. It popped off the gun and became a projectile, flying through the air and striking a woman who was walking nearby. She was hit in the head and died.
There's no word yet on any potential charges against the person using the paintball gun.
This is pretty close to where I am located. No more info yet.. don't know if it was HPA or CO2.
:(
I saw footage of the actual marker and bottle...
I saw this on the 10pm FOX news last night - IT IS FOR REAL. They showed the field, the marker, the bottle, and had video footage of the marker sitting on the trunk of a car in 2 separate parts -gun with asa and pin valve connected and c02 bottle.
It appears to have been a green annoed blow-back style, K-mart special. I couldn't tell the actual manufacturer - but then again they all look the same to me.
Anyhow, they showed the setup and the pin valve (and anti-siphon tube) was still screwed into the bottom line ASA. I bet bottom dollar that what happened what that who ever assembled the bottle (either the manufacture or a store that "upgraded" it to anti-siphon) did not use loc-tite for threads. The kid was probably unscrewing the bottle to get it filled and instead of the pin valve unscrewing from the ASA, it unscrewed from the bottle.
This is going to have HUGE implications for the sport. The safety level for the power source for our markers (C02 bad, HPA worse) is VERY poor. It was only a matter of time before mass produced systems, made in 3rd world nations, or some 13 y/o working at a store killed or got killed by HPA.
I can't imagine the impact this is going to have - paintball might even be shut down over night. I know it is alarmist - but think about it. Virtually EVERY field is insured by the SAME company (I've heard several times there is only one that will provide the coverage). *IF* that is true, as soon as they determine what caused the issue, and realize that it could be lurking on ANY NUMBER of systems out there, they could temporarily pull the "coverage plug" - any field owner with any sense would CEASE business until it all got worked out.
This looks REAL bad.
-Calvin