Questions Surrounding Death At Notre Dame Practice

This didn’t appear to be a close call. The windstorm that hit the upper Midwest on Tuesday and  Wednesday was of historic proportions. It led the 10 o’clock news in Chicago on Monday night. It forced Notre Dame to practice indoors on Tuesday. Why not also on Wednesday? The threat of rain was gone but the wind was just as fierce — gusts of 50 mph or more at the time of the accident according to the National Weather Service.

Maybe it wasn’t as severe at 3:15 p.m., when Notre Dame begins practice. But it didn’t have to be. According to standard operating procedures of manufacturers of ’hydraulic scissor lifts,’ the aerial work platforms are not supposed to be operated when winds are in excess of 20-28 mph. Even if those are conservative regulations, all you had to do was stand outside to know it was not a day to be standing on a portable platform 30-40 feet in the air.

Sullivan’s own haunting and heart-wrenching twitter messages provide an all-too chilling confirmation of that. ’Gusts of wind up to 60 mph well today will be fun at work … I guess I’ve lived long enough.’ And less than an hour prior to the accident: ’Holy (bleep). Holy (bleep) this is terrifying.’

This isn’t the first time an accident like this has happened. At Colorado State in 2000, a cameraman videotaping football practice suffered internal injuries and broken ribs that left him in critical condition after falling 30 feet from an aerial work platform that was toppled in a windstorm with gusts of 50 mph.

The cameraman recovered. He fell onto the field. The platform Sullivan was taping practice from fell over a fence and onto a street.

Thursday will be a day of mourning on the Notre Dame campus. A special Mass of Rememberance will be held for Declan Sullivan in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on campus. The football team will have an awkward day of trying to resume its ’normal’ practice regimen prior to facing Tulsa on Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium. And eventually, Notre Dame will have to step up and provide answers to a tragedy that sure looks like it could have been avoided.