"amateur eater" dies several minutes into taco eating contest. family sues

[Demovictory9]

A teenager whose father died in a taco-eating contest is taking the owners of the Fresno Grizzlies to court. A lawsuit filed Monday by 18-year-old Marshall Hutchings alleges that organizers didn't properly inform participants of the risks of the Aug. 13, 2019 contest at Chukchansi Park, home of the minor league baseball team, the Fresno Bee reports.

Dana Hutchings, 41, collapsed several minutes into the contest and the coroner determined that he had choked to death on tacos.

Martin Taleisnik, Marshall Hutchings' attorney, says professional competitive eaters train before events, but organizers failed to fully inform Dana Hutchings of the risks to amateur eaters. "The conductors of this event should have made the risks known to the competitors and taken steps to protect them," he says

https://www.newser.com/story/304616/family-sues-after-man-dies-in-taco-eating-contest.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=uol&utm_campaign=rss_world_login

[northoftheborder]

1. Those eating contests are moronic.

[Dream Girl]

5. And obscene.

[hlthe2b]

19. Yes. I cannot and would never watch them. It is absolutely sickening to me.

[Rorey]

6. They are

And so are the restaurant challenges to "eat the whole thing and you get it for free", or you get a t-shirt, or some other stupid prize. It generally involves eating a minimum of 5 POUNDS of something or other.

[Initech]

27. Agreed! I like food but I avoid that shit like the plague!

Eating 5 pounds of something in one sitting would make anyone sick!

[marble falls]

12. With half the world hungry to some degree, and with us throwing away almost half the food ...

... produced in this country - eating contests and most of Guy Fieri's shows are profane.

I wish people'd warn me when Guy Fieri is around - You can’t send me to talk to Guy Fieri without warning! Guy Fieri weirds me out!

[CentralMass]

14. Why ?

[marble falls]

17. Why what? Why profane or why did I mock Guy Fieri by twisting a comment he made about "gay people".

[CentralMass]

25. Ok, I was unaware that issue. I haven't seen any of his shows in years.

[Dave Starsky]

2. He died doing what he loved.

I can think of worse ways to go.

[CentralMass]

15. I doubt that choking on a Taco is what he liked th o do.

[marble falls]

18. Yeah, he'd really set his sights on choking to death at an Apple Pan Dowdy eating contest.

[CentralMass]

21. Ooh. :-)

[3Hotdogs]

3. Would you, on jury, vote to award to the family? I wouldn't.

Play stupid games, win..

[USALiberal]

7. Me either! Nt

[Botany]

8. Free tacos?

N/t

[Calculating]

9. Nope

Eating contests are an obscene celebration of gluttony

[llmart]

11. +1000

That's how I've always viewed them. I can't even watch clips of them when they're shown on TV. It disgusts me. Just what we need in this country of epidemics of obesity and diabetes.

Ugh.

[CentralMass]

16. I have to agree.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

28. I'm going to guess it would depend on the evidence.

We are getting a pretty small glimpse.

[jcgoldie]

4. If only he had more practice eating

[FreepFryer]

10. He also won the Darwin Award Honorable mention if the death certificate

Read “choked to death on tacos.”

[Harker]

13. Gluttony.

I'm sorry he died, but his death was self inflicted.

[Xavier Breath]

20. Seems he should have had to sign a waiver

that said something to the effect "This contest is absolved of any and all liability in perpetuity throughout the universe if your dumb ass chokes to death on a taco. Chew, dumb ass, chew!"

I understand that wouldn't have prevented a lawsuit, but, it could have been a heads up that there was a potential for something to go wrong.

[Throck]

22. Contestants usually have to sign a waiver to compete.

The contest are about as stupid as it gets.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

29. Depends on the state, but waivers are generally useless.

[Mosby]

23. Really sad story.

I think this could provide an opening to ban the stupid things.

[Blue Owl]

24. I'm heading to a gender reveal party right after the competitive eating contest

[PlanetBev]

26. This really was Amateur Hour

My understanding is that in professional eating contests, there’s a paramedic sitting close by in case they have to apply the Heimlich Method. This absolutely should not have happened.

That said, I agree that these contests are disgusting.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

30. Wow, tough crowd.