Another fan falls at Rangers Ballpark, this time from stairwell

[catlover79]

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big...rn=mlb-wp17404

Sun Aug 28 01:53pm EDT

Another fan falls at Rangers Ballpark, this time from stairwell

By Ian Casselberry

Just what the heck is happening at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington?

Two months after firefighter Shannon Stone fell over a railing and landed on concrete, suffering injuries that eventually became fatal, another fan took a dangerous fall while leaving the ballpark on Saturday night.

An unidentified 24-year-old man was knocked unconscious after falling 21 feet down a stairwell leading from the stadium's upper deck to ground level. The game between the Los Angeles Angels and Texas Rangers was not over yet, so the stairwell wasn't crowded with fans. According to police, the man was with the people who accompanied him at the game.

"It doesn't appear that there's any foul play that's involved," [Police Lt. Bobby] Mason said after talking to people who were in the man's group and other witnesses. "There wasn't any fighting or anything like that going on."

The fan received immediate medical attention and was rushed to a local hospital to receive treatment for his injuries. (No details were released, but witnesses saw blood in the area where the man had fallen.) As of Sunday afternoon, no new information on the fan's medical status had been given.

This is the third accident involving a fan falling at Rangers Ballpark in the last two years. In addition to the Stone incident, firefighter Tyler Morris fell from the stadium's upper deck while attempting to catch a foul ball in July 2010. Morris survived the fall, but suffered fractures to his skull, foot and ankle.

Saturday's accident was obviously different from the other two falls. This wasn't someone reaching over the railing for a foul ball or a baseball tossed his way. So maybe Rangers Ballpark has just been the site of the worst of coincidences.

Is the solution as simple as increasing the height of railing around the stadium? After Stone's fatal fall, the Rangers instituted new safety measures and began the process of raising the rails throughout the ballpark to 42 inches, an increase in some areas of up to one foot. But if the new measures didn't apply to the stairwells outside of the field area, those railings apparently need to be raised, as well.

Whether these incidents are a terrible coincidence or not, three of them in such a short span of time certainly constitutes a trend. And it's one the Rangers would obviously like to — and more importantly, need to — bring to an end.

[Schmoopie]

Wow, that's awful. Hope he's okay, but I can't help but wonder exactly what he was doing when he fell. I'm sure the Rangers will take precautions to make sure that these things don't keep happening.

[catlover79]

I don't want to judge, and I have no way of knowing for sure, but there's always the possibility that he could have been drinking. I've seen guys at sporting events chug down those beers like crazy, so it's not out of the realm of possibility...

[robyrob]

why on earth would they have handrails less than 42 inches? that seems crazy, and in consideration of the heights involved they should probably go higher than that close to stairwells or traffic areas