wintnessed near eye loss incident on saturday

[1977FordBronco]

I've been paintballing for a little more than six months and have never seen such a lack of saftey and common sense that I witnessed yesterday. The field I go to (which will remain nameless you really feel it is important to know), had a small tourny yesterday. I dont believe that the field was running the tourny, but one of the teams that plays their had organized it and was running the whole thing (cash, paint, air, prizes, ect.) Anyway all the tourny players had parked down right next to the field and everyone was chronoing their markers. I came down the hill that led to the field with my mask on as I do every weekend, to find about 20+ people standing around the chrono with either no mask on or just had it tilted up not covering their faces (not to mention no one had any barrel covers on). I thought this was very strange. anyway i stood in line to chrono so I could go play some rec-ball and when i got up to about fifth in line a shot fired, some 12 year old screamed and was covering his eye. One of the players got on his knees and was yelling at thie kid "what happened, what happened", everyone standing around was white in the face. what seemed like an hour later, the kid finally took his hand off his eye and a doctor had taken him away. Turns out his friend was being a dumb*** and shot him on accident right after he turned around from the chrono. The paintball missed his eye by less than an inch and hit him right on the forehead about his left eye. As I said I have never seen anything like this, every weekend everyone has their masks on anywhere withing 200 yards off anyone holding a marker. As I said the field owners weren't running this tourny. What are your thoughts? any questions?

[DaveEllis]

I think as long as the players were at the field, the owners should have been enforcing field rules.

[Kevmaster]

well...buck stops with the field owner. its his place, hes responsible for what goes on there no matter whos running what.

there should have been a chrono judge (its a tourny for gosh sake) who would be regulating that...but its just poor management.

fortunately for everyone...the human body knows its eyes are weak and have very quick instincts to move outta they way when possible

[Evil Bob]

Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large numbers.

Even if the field owners weren't running the show, they're still responsible for anything that transpires on their property that is paintball related, especially if it has their blessing. That being said, you should have immediately said something to the owners (if they were present) when you realized that people were being unsafe. Its up to everyone at the field to maintain a safe environment, not just the folks running the show, everyone. You see something wrong, it needs to be brought to someone attention and corrected before something bad might happen.

Odds are good the parents of the 12 year old will be consulting their attourny on Monday when the office opens.

-Evil Bob

[player4]

The owners shoudl enforce the rules!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are some really dumb@$$ kids out there, and they are the ones that shoudl be kciked off the field for not wearing their goggles. The owners need to be there enforcinf the rules and scaring the crap out of anyone who does not wear their goggles.

[MonsterMag]

Saftey is part of the game ,were gogs and use protection :rolleyes:

these are key elements to being safe :cheers:

[webmstrk9]

Looks like everyone hits it on the nose, the field owner has the ULTIMATE responsibility. Also, a field owner here has just recently turned away a side tourney action, basically ppl drop in 5 bucks and winning team takes all. I presume there are additional measures the field owner must take in regards to holding tournaments, either having enough refs to manage the games and activities related to it.

I guess the parents will be contacting the field owner as well as the insurance company for damages.

[Evil Emperor]

its called natural selection.

[RenagadeOfFunk]

You should of asked who wants to get shot in the eye next...


...omg i love this!!!....


:argh: ...yes i used the pirate smiliey!!!

[gc82000]

well as you tell that was a poorly run tourny. I ope that was the only incident.





ARGH!!!! :argh:

[Night$tryker]

I have some to add to this story. I am a ref at my local field and i take masks up very seriosly. When ever i am refing and i see someone on the field or outside take there mask of while paintball guns are around i tell them to put it down and never put it back up until you are back inside. Then if i catch that same person again i tell them to go inside and talk to the owner and miss out a game or two. After that they are gone. I never feel bad about doing this either because i don't want anyone to lose there eye and i know they relize why i did it after they think about it.

And for the story above i think it is stupid for everyone that was out there not to yell at anyone who didn't have there mask down. I would of went crazy on them!

[Night$tryker]

I have some to add to this story. I am a ref at my local field and i take masks up very seriosly. When ever i am refing and i see someone on the field or outside take there mask of while paintball guns are around i tell them to put it down and never put it back up until you are back inside. Then if i catch that same person again i tell them to go inside and talk to the owner and miss out a game or two. After that they are gone. I never feel bad about doing this either because i don't want anyone to lose there eye and i know they relize why i did it after they think about it.

And for the story above i think it is stupid for everyone that was out there not to yell at anyone who didn't have there mask down. I would of went crazy on them! :mad:

[Halliday]

I hope the kid is ok. As a parent I'd be talking to the field owner, tourney organizer and my attorney :)

[Carbon]

dude i was there. I heard about this.

[davidnj]

I hope the kid is ok. As a parent I'd be talking to the field owner, tourney organizer and my attorney :)


Yes! The new American dream, lawsuits! :headbang:

In my view it was: dumb of the field to not have a ref at the chrono station enforcing a mask rule. Very dumb of this kids friend to shoot in the direction of his friend. And completely idiotic and...lots of other bad words to be the kid not wearing his mask.

I guess it might seem silly for me to think the dumbest one involved was the kid not wearing a mask but well...when there are people around with paintball markers, i always have my mask on cause there is always one idiot who cant control their trigger.

So ummm yeah there is blame to be passed around but I feel the majority of it should be on the person who made the choice to not pull their mask down. Though that guy isnt too much above the guy who shot him on my list of idiots! :p

:shooting: :argh:

[Jeffy-CanCon]

You should post the name of the field, at least as a warning to any onther local players.

If they are being irresponsible and dangerous, they deserve the bad publicity.

[goat]

The field owner is NOT all to blame, Everyone there is!!! as players its all of our responsibilitys to keep other players safe......do the field rules state that everyone should have been wearing a mask???
If so then everyone but the person who posted would have been in violation of the rules, and at some point someone should have said something.

To blame or hold the field owner 100% responsible is wrong and is a very typical response these days....."eating McDonalds made me fat..Im going to sue"--"How dare they sell me HOT coffee, I burned myself when I spilled it in my lap, Im going to sue"
we all know he should have been wearing a mask, they all knew they should have been wearing a mask.
as for the parents sueing.....maybe they will take a more active role in their sons recreational actvities and not use the field as a daycare...

We have a saying at my local field, "You are trusting your eyesight to the stupidest person out here"


my 2 cents...keep the change.

[temps]

We have a saying at my local field, "You are trusting your eyesight to the stupidest person out here"

lol.. Nice saying!

Your right that the players should of known better, and yes the kid who got should of had his mask on. But it still comes down to the feild owner/orginizer/ref should of been there to inforce the rules.

[Rhinopkc]

I hope the kid is ok. As a parent I'd be talking to the field owner, tourney organizer and my attorney :)


What would you need your attorney for? If the kid was hit in the forehead, there shouldn't be any permanent damage or any medical bills to pay.

[tony3]

I almost got shot in the eye last tourney I played. Kid shot me 17+ times(atleast the ones that broke)and my mask lifted up with all the shooting and hit me right below the eye. I was impressed the ref pulled him for overshooting,

[punkncat]

I have some to add to this story. I am a ref at my local field and i take masks up very seriosly. When ever i am refing and i see someone on the field or outside take there mask of while paintball guns are around i tell them to put it down and never put it back up until you are back inside. Then if i catch that same person again i tell them to go inside and talk to the owner and miss out a game or two. After that they are gone. I never feel bad about doing this either because i don't want anyone to lose there eye and i know they relize why i did it after they think about it.

And for the story above i think it is stupid for everyone that was out there not to yell at anyone who didn't have there mask down. I would of went crazy on them! :mad:


We have a very similar rule at my local field. Once , get yelled at , twice sit out a game. Three times go home.

I also explain in my pre game talk that if I yell at you for no mask , its not to be mean , its for your protection. Its a whole lot easier to get over hearing me yell "Put your mask on" than to grow a new eye.

[davidnj]

We have a very similar rule at my local field. Once , get yelled at , twice sit out a game. Three times go home.

I also explain in my pre game talk that if I yell at you for no mask , its not to be mean , its for your protection. Its a whole lot easier to get over hearing me yell "Put your mask on" than to grow a new eye.


I guess im weird but I think thats 3 chances too many. Some stuff should be zero tolerance. First and only warning when you pay for your paint or field pass.