36 Children Injured in N.D. Sled Accident

[Rose Siding]

MINOT, N.D. -- Thirty-six children were injured in a sledding accident during an all-night New Year's Eve party hosted by a religious organization.

Three of the children were hospitalized, but all were in stable condition Saturday, hospital officials said. The others were treated and released.

Police Sgt. Winston Black said more than 100 children ages 12 to 19 attending a Youth for Christ event gathered at a high school around 4 a.m. to slide down a hill using sleds built out of cardboard boxes.

A sign posted on the hill prohibited sledding.

The children and Youth for Christ staff piled eight to 12 passengers on the sleds, then went down the hill in quick succession, Black said. "The sleds struck rocks, a light pole and each other," he said.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-brf-sledding-accident,0,6118350.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[Sannum]

1. ((Don't Giggle))

It might be the fact that I am in an odd mood, but I think this is quite...hmmm:o

[melnjones]

7. Yeah, it's kinda hard not to laugh at that one... nt

[Wonk]

8. They thought the sign prohibiting sledding only applied to heathens?

Faith based recreational activities, woohoo!

/couldn't resist giggling

[saigon68]

36. The DARWIN Principle appied to Religious Nut Cases

Too bad they stopped so soon.

[two gun sid]

40. That's right

Get those stupid fucks out of the gene pool before they reproduce.

[okieinpain]

44. funny shit. I guess this is god's fault too.

[Cush]

2. gee, what a safe thing to do

[DELUSIONAL]

3. Faith based sledding.

[Cush]

4. guess they expected God to guide them in the dark

[Tuttle]

35. Bush told Robertson

"There won't be any casualties..."

and no one in the 'press' would ask him about it.

Tut-tut

[Brundle_Fly]

13. excellent comment nt

[TahitiNut]

14. Too bad they didn't do a little faith-based reading.

:eyes: (imbeciles)

[NVMojo]

19. too bad their dumbass parents don't take courses on reality

[TahitiNut]

24. I think the kids probably deserved some chance to ....

... warm their groins with the backsides of their classmates at 3am on New Years Day. That's probably what their parents were doing, too. Too bad the kids had to run over rocks and trees for the opportunity. I mean, WWJD? :evilgrin:


I fondly remember coeducational sledding and tobogganing when I was a teenager. I little rolling in the straw is good for the spirits, even when the straw is in a snowbank. Boygirlboygirlboygirl! I always enjoyed such laminations.

[Lautremont]

5. It's always the children who suffer in these things.

I hope they're okay, but man, it takes some concentrated stupidity (on the part of the organizers, not the kids) to injure 36 people in a single tobogganing accident. In North Dakota, yet.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

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[Megawatt]

10. I lived in Minot for 12 years

10 of which I was stationed at the AFB. Surprised the typical bonechilling cold allowed anyone out to sled on NYE. They have a saying up there "40 below keeps the riff raff out"

[Ellen Forradalom]

16. Welcome to DU Megawatt!

[Bertha Venation]

11. Just relayed this tale to Mrs. V. and got her standard response to such

Darwin-award contenders:

"How fuckin' stupid are you?!"

[Robb]

12. To be fair, I partake in dangerous sledding.

Snoeshoes and avalanche reports. Beer, etc.

I am also 32. :eyes:

[Liberal In Texas]

15. 4 a.m. Good time for kids to be sledding.

Typical rocket scientist thinking by the Y4C'ers.

[truthseeker1]

17. A little surprising that a church group would hold an all-night party

for children in the first place; then on top of that, what were they doing still up at 4 AM? And worse....what could the chapperones have been thinking taking them out sledding at that time of night?

Irresponsible in many ways.

[Vanje]

25. I raised my young nephew in a small town

At 14, he began to get involved in a Christian youth group his friends attended. He wasnt particularly a believer but they did lots of really fun stuff at their pizza,icecream and games night each Monday. (Me: "Well sure you can go. You dont have to buy their beliefs, but if you eat their icecream, boy, you better damn well be polite to em....And, Aaron....If you want to become a believer, thats okay too, only , I hope we can talk about it first, okay? Have a good time. Call if you'll be late. Love ya.")


The group had a winter sport overnight trip at an isolated youth camp where they locked the tired hungry kids in and told them about hell fire and sin until sunrise. My nephew lost interest in the group.That was the last meeting he attended.

I take it the youth group all-nighter is a common prostheletizing strategy.

[Stinky The Clown]

31. Sleep deprivation is a good way to grease the mental skids (eom)

[NVMojo]

18. No comment ...wonder how the suffering is going over in Indonesia and the

other places where alot of people were recreating when they were killed by tsunamies....

[uncle ray]

38. why do you post "no comment"

and then continue to comment?

the earthquake/tsunami was a tragedy, but does it mean each and every person on this planet has to stop their lives and mourn for weeks? or that it is to be the ONLY thing we discuss here?

i had fun new years eve night, but, yes, the tsunami was still on my mind...on occasion.

besides, i feel more sorry for the people who were forced to live near the tourist traps to make a living wage, than the people who were recreating.

[johncoby2]

20. Bet they sue the school district. eom

[rocktivity]

26. It's the organization that should be sued, not the school district

The district practiced due diligence by posting the no sledding sign.

The children and Youth for Christ staff piled eight to 12 passengers on the sleds, then went down the hill in quick succession, Black said. "The sleds struck rocks, a light pole and each other," he said.

Black said he did not know if the organization had permission to use the hill. Police were investigating.

:headbang:
rocknation

[VegasWolf]

21. Must be part of that "Intelligent Design" we've been hearing about. n/t

[tabasco]

22. Every summer in these parts, kids get killed riding dirtbikes...

without helmets, while their parents watch. Almost every time, the grieving parents say that their child is home with Jesus. I guess that relieves their guilt. They fail to supervise and insist on safety measures, but it's not so bad because the kids will just go home to Jesus if anything goes wrong.

[UpInArms]

29. it's the "get out of hell free" card ............... n/t

[Career Prole]

23. It is better to light one small candle than to miss the "No Sledding" sign

and wind up in the first mass Wile E. Coyote sled-wreck of 2005.

[Big Kahuna]

27. The first Darwin Award Nominees of 2005?

[Name removed]

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[Straight Shooter]

30. "A sign posted on the hill prohibited sledding."

True Christians are above the laws of man? :shrug:

[Name removed]

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[Sparky McGruff]

33. Not only are they above the laws of man...

Apparently, they think they are above the laws of physics!

[DiverDave]

34. oops I posted too late...

Stenson said parents of the injured children "were gracious."

I would be less then "gracious"

WTF? this people can't READ?? The sign says NO SLEDING!

I would be PISSED!!, wait...I AM PISSED.

Bunch of idiots.

On edit:

They will find someone else to blame...then sue them...fundy values, you know.

[Name removed]

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[hexola]

41. Oh Please...

Smirking and gloating because 36 children were injured?

That completly mischaracterizes the criticism here.

Would you have the same reaction if this were a secular youth group?

Pretty much...yep.

They are responsible for this, but that doesn't make them evil people.

Nobody said they were evil...just stupid, neglegent and liable.

Isn't it possible some people just made a simple mistake and got a little disoriented in the dark?

Some people? 36 people went to the hospital! Thats a lot more than "some"!

...but I think it's ugly to drag anyone's religion into this and point to it as the cause.

Why not? - they try to use religion as the excuse

Larry Stenson, director of the Minot Youth for Christ, said Saturday "I think most of them believe our intent with kids is to love them, help them -- help kids grow mentally, physically and spiritually."

Religion can lead some to forfiet their rationale and judgement. God may be in untimate control...but not absolute control...you still have to think.

[chimpy the poopthrower]

42. I'm mischaracterizing?

Well, let's look at just a sampling of some of the comments on this thread:

"Yeah, it's kinda hard not to laugh at that one... nt"

"They thought the sign prohibiting sledding only applied to heathens?
Faith based recreational activities, woohoo!
/couldn't resist giggling"

"The DARWIN Principle appied to Religious Nut Cases
Too bad they stopped so soon."

"Faith based sledding."

"guess they expected God to guide them in the dark"

"Too bad they didn't do a little faith-based reading."

"too bad their dumbass parents don't take courses on reality"

"I suppose the church members will blame the devil and thank Jesus for not killing their children."

"Must be part of that 'Intelligent Design' we've been hearing about."

"'A sign posted on the hill prohibited sledding.' True Christians are above the laws of man?"


But OK, I guess I'm just mischaracterizing these statements. :eyes:

If you want to see how easy it is to leave religion out of this, look at this post by Lautremont:
"It's always the children who suffer in these things. I hope they're okay, but man, it takes some concentrated stupidity (on the part of the organizers, not the kids) to injure 36 people in a single tobogganing accident. In North Dakota, yet."

Notice the expression of concern for the children? Notice how the organizers are attacked for their actions rather than their religious beliefs?

I find it hard to believe that if this were, say, a Jewish youth group, that DUers would be making the same type of statements as they've made in this case. They certainly ARE being attacked for more than just being "stupid, neglegent, and liable." They are being attacked for having the word "Christ" in their name. They are being called "Religious Nut Cases" based on nothing but bigotry. Assumptions have been made about how they will react. Tell me you wouldn't be shocked to read a comment on DU like "guess they expected Allah to guide them in the dark" or "'A sign posted on the hill prohibited sledding.' True Jews are above the laws of man?"

Also, 36 is not "more than 'some'". "Some" is not a specific amount.

You accuse the group leader of using religion as an excuse because he says "I think most of them believe our intent with kids is to love them, help them -- help kids grow mentally, physically and spiritually." That's a bit of a stretch to say that's using religion as an excuse. A secular group could have said essentially the same thing except substituted "emotionally" or "ethically" or some other adjective instead of spiritually. I think the point was that the group had good intentions and didn't mean for anyone to get hurt (which doesn't excuse them from liability here), but that's a far cry from using religion as an excuse.

Finally, you say "Religion can lead some to forfiet their rationale and judgement. God may be in untimate control...but not absolute control...you still have to think." I think that belies your claim that you would have the exact same reaction even if it weren't a Christian group. Isn't it bigoted to imply that Christians don't exercise their thinking skills? If this group were "Kids for Kerry" would you say "Strong devotion to a political figure can lead some to forfeit their rationale and judgement"?

I've always considered it a right-wing talking point that all or even more than a minority of Christians supported "faith-based" politics, "intelligent design," etc. Surprising how many on DU wish to promote this talking point by associating these ideas with all Christians.

[Tacos al Carbon]

49. You're 100% right

It's open season on Christians. If something had happened to a Muslim youth group or a Buddhist youth group you wouldn't have idiots chortling about how the victims thought Allah or Buddah would protect them or any of the other nonsense on this thread but mocking people who worship Jesus and the Christian God? Well that's all very well and liberal, apparently.

The bigotry ... and the lame excuse-making for it ... is really pathetic.

[tx_dem41]

53. I have to disagree with one thing you said....

if it had been a Muslim or Buddhist youth group, you would have lots of idiots chortling about the victims...at another website.

[Tacos al Carbon]

54. Yup

It's a pretty good mirror.

[Bzzzz]

68. Gawd...I'm so sick of Xtians

constantly claiming they are being persecuted. Bigotry exists in its best form thru the majority of RW Xtians.

[woo me with science]

56. thank you

this thread is really disgusting.

[Wonk]

57. Kick it some more. Better yet, blame the organizers of this hair brained

sledding expedition, not the posters here laughing at their ignoring the posted warning signs.

Poor kids, not realizing they'd been putting their trust in the hands of fools.

[chimpy the poopthrower]

59. You can blame the organizers without bringing their religion into it.

You can pretend to misunderstand what I and Tacos and antfarm and tx_dem object to. You can ignore the many ugly examples I cited of posters making this about religion. You can refuse to acknowledge the post I lauded where the organizers were criticized WITHOUT making religion an issue. Go ahead and tell us that their aren't anti-Christian bigots on this board. Go ahead and act like those of us who object are trying to defend the act of sledding down a hill where a "no sledding" sign is posted. Anyone who cannot grasp the problem here is either dumb or playing dumb.

Suppose a security camera somewhere caught a video of a black man grabbing someone's purse and running off. Suppose they showed that video on the nightly news and you heard someone make a comment about the man's actions that referenced his race. Can you honestly not see the difference between that and a statement that did not bring the man's race into it? If someone objected to that person's racist comment, would you act as if that second person were defending the act of purse-snatching?

EDIT:
Ah, looking back I see that yours was one of the posts I cited:
"They thought the sign prohibiting sledding only applied to heathens?
Faith based recreational activities, woohoo!
/couldn't resist giggling"

Well, perhaps you can explain to us exactly what "heathens" and "faith based" has to do with this news story.

[Wonk]

60. I didn't bring their religion into it, they did that all on their own.

Read my sigline lately? Here it is again in case the small grey version is too hard for you to read:

It's bad luck to be superstitious.

My disdain for people that put faith ahead of reasoning is equiponderate.

[tx_dem41]

61. Ummmm..."equiponderate" doesn't make sense in your sentence..

..According to Webster's it means:

To be equal in weight; to weigh as much as another thing.

Since you weren't comparing two things in your sentence, can you help me out please?

[Wonk]

62. I was comparing all groups & people that put faith ahead of reason. nt

[tx_dem41]

63. Oh....that wasn't clear. n/t

[girl gone mad]

65. Oh, lighten up already.

None of the children were seriously injured. As far as I'm concerned, no religion or religious group is above criticism, not even Buddhists or Muslims.

[Turley]

69. You are 110% right

and this is ONE of the reasons we keep losing elections.

The simple inability to differentiate between Bob Jones style idiots with normal every-day Christians who could be voting for our candidates.

[DiverDave]

43. No anti religious comments here

but PLENTY of disdain for IDIOT'S that don't have a clue on how to keep kids safe.

Ya think that it might be the organizers fault?
Like, maybe, they should have scouted the area for a hill that might be a little safer?

Or, is it O.K. with you that just because they are a church group, common sense stops at the door?

There will be lawsuits, but not against those responsible, I'll bet money on it.

[tx_dem41]

48. We must be looking at a different thread....

for one..."faith-based sledding".

[Name removed]

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[sniffa]

78. those poor persecuted christians

:cry:

[Massachusetts]

39. RED STATE

More MORON stories from another RED STATE.

Kids get WELL and TEACH your MORON ADULTS to LEARN to read the warning signs.
Lets see 2 for 2. Sign #1 Bushco is a hazard to your life, Sign#2 Warning sledding prohibited, next sign will be a burning bush............................:smoke:

[NicoleM]

47. I'm originally from ND and

I can tell you that North Dakota raises pretty smart kids. Many of whom, like me, are smart enough to leave as soon as they're old enough. ;)

When I was a kid my dad used to take the hood off one of the many old beater cars they had junked out at the ranch, turn it over, tie it to the back of his car, and take us sledding that way. It was fun. Stupid, but fun.

[blockhead]

73. and where do you live now?

I guess I wasn't smart enough to leave. I love it here in ND.

[Massachusetts]

77. Reply #39 and #47

Please re-read the post.

I AM NOT insinuating that ALL PEOPLE from RED states are morons.I'm just down on Red states in general, not the thoughtful, intelligent Dems or even Greens in those states.

You did all you could to get back OUR country and I give you a tip of the hat.:toast:

[Name removed]

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[Skittles]

45. I hope the children will be OK

what kind of adult supervision is that? Idiots.

[tinanator]

46. sounds like a Bill Cosby routine

"crying Charlie broke"

[genieroze]

50. Three of the children were hospitalized?

If I were a parent, the idiot adults who encouraged this would need a hospital. Can't they read? Why the heck were kids allowed out this late, what about curfew for the under 18 year olds? The older ones should have known better. Cardboard boxes are not sleds and can't hold up against rocks or poles. Hope the kids are OK. Nuff said.

[hedgehog]

55. My husband has fond memories of night time sledding

with his church youth group. The only difference is that they snuck over the hill to use a nearby ski slope, and it wasn't the beginner's slope either! No kid was ever stopped by a no sledding sign. I would bet that plenty of sledding goes on on that hill in North Dakota all the time.

[rocktivity]

58. But the kids DIDN'T sneak out, Hedgehog

If they had, I'd hold THEM responsbile. But by accompanying children as young as twelve at 4AM, and by using cardboard sleds, the youth group staff practically endorsed the whole thing. Their irresponsibility, not their religion, is what makes them liable.

:headbang:
rocknation

[hedgehog]

74. The point is that church youth groups

have a long tradition of overnight parties. Sometimes it's a lock-in at a gym or church hall, sometimes it's a sledding party. It's a way for kids to have a (relatively) safe night out minus alcohol. Usually the youth group leaders are in their 20's themselves, so it's not surprising that an all night sledding party can get a little adventuresome.

[blockhead]

72. many people have been sledding there including myself

It is two blocks from my house. They basically went down the wrong hill.

[hedgehog]

75. Just out of curiosity

how much unsupervised sledding goes on on that hill? Coming from a rural area myself, my guess is that this outing was an effort to give the kids something else to do besides drinking and wrapping cars around trees. This entire thread really does have an anti-christian slant. At the very least, the gloating is decidely un-christian.

[Name removed]

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[bloom]

66. unfortunately at lot of parents presume religious group leaders

are going to use sense. That is a dubious, at best, presumption. I know this from experience.

[slackmaster]

67. Life imitates The Onion

:argh:

[slay]

70. Religious leaders "taking care of" their flock

the Tony Soprano way.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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