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Notre Dame Student’s Death at Practice Under Investigation
By LYNN ZINSER New York Times
Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick said on Thursday it was an “extraordinary burst of wind” that roared across the football practice fields on Wednesday, toppling a video tower and killing Declan Sullivan, the team’s 20-year-old student-manager.
Swarbrick was attending the practice late Wednesday afternoon when he said he heard the crash of the tower falling, but did not see it. At a news conference Thursday, he said the university would conduct an investigation into the conditions at the time of the accident and the decision to conduct practice outside. The Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which classified the death as a workplace fatality, arrived on campus to begin its investigation Thursday morning. The tower, a mobile hydraulic lift, remained where it fell late into Thursday afternoon.
Notre Dame will play its scheduled home game Saturday against Tulsa. Swarbrick said the university considered canceling it but decided instead to dedicate it to Sullivan, with a prayer and a moment of silence beforehand. A pep rally and several other events before the game have been canceled.
Swarbrick gave no further details on the weather or the chain of events leading to the accident, saying he would let the investigation proceed before announcing anything more. He did say he did not notice the weather to be unusual before the wind gust, although the National Weather Service had a wind advisory in effect.
“I’m not going to speculate on what we’ll learn in the investigation,” Swarbrick said. “Certainly we’re going to learn from this.”
Sullivan was filming football practice from the tower, which is commonly used for shooting video during practices. Swarbrick said he did not know how high the lift was extended, nor did he know the maintenance history of the lift. He said the investigation would sift through all of those details..
“Every program makes its own decisions with regards to practices,” Swarbrick said. “We’re going to take a look at all of that in the investigation, the decision process that happened that day. It was not just one decision to practice outside. It was a series of decisions.”
Players were sent back inside after the accident, but practice continued for 20 to 30 minutes before players were dismissed. Swarbrick said he rushed over to the scene after the tower fell and Sullivan appeared to be responding to commands from medical personnel. Swarbrick said he got a call as Sullivan was being taken to the hospital that he had stopped breathing.
Coach Brian Kelly did not attend the news conference and Swarbrick said neither Kelly nor the players would be available for comment until after Saturday’s game. He said he wanted them to be able to deal with Sullivan’s death privately until then.
Sullivan, a junior from Long Grove, Ill., had posted several messages to his Facebook page via Twitter while he was up on the tower, expressing his fear of the wind. He called the conditions “terrifying.”
Swarbrick said the investigation would look into whether Sullivan had expressed his fear to the team’s video coordinator, to whom he reported.
Until those questions are answered, Swarbrick said there was little to do but honor Sullivan’s memory and mourn.
“This is a time of extraordinary sorrow and grief,” he said. “As a father of four with two of my children away at college, I can only imagine how difficult this is.”
By LYNN ZINSER New York Times
Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick said on Thursday it was an “extraordinary burst of wind” that roared across the football practice fields on Wednesday, toppling a video tower and killing Declan Sullivan, the team’s 20-year-old student-manager.
Swarbrick was attending the practice late Wednesday afternoon when he said he heard the crash of the tower falling, but did not see it. At a news conference Thursday, he said the university would conduct an investigation into the conditions at the time of the accident and the decision to conduct practice outside. The Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which classified the death as a workplace fatality, arrived on campus to begin its investigation Thursday morning. The tower, a mobile hydraulic lift, remained where it fell late into Thursday afternoon.
Notre Dame will play its scheduled home game Saturday against Tulsa. Swarbrick said the university considered canceling it but decided instead to dedicate it to Sullivan, with a prayer and a moment of silence beforehand. A pep rally and several other events before the game have been canceled.
Swarbrick gave no further details on the weather or the chain of events leading to the accident, saying he would let the investigation proceed before announcing anything more. He did say he did not notice the weather to be unusual before the wind gust, although the National Weather Service had a wind advisory in effect.
“I’m not going to speculate on what we’ll learn in the investigation,” Swarbrick said. “Certainly we’re going to learn from this.”
Sullivan was filming football practice from the tower, which is commonly used for shooting video during practices. Swarbrick said he did not know how high the lift was extended, nor did he know the maintenance history of the lift. He said the investigation would sift through all of those details..
“Every program makes its own decisions with regards to practices,” Swarbrick said. “We’re going to take a look at all of that in the investigation, the decision process that happened that day. It was not just one decision to practice outside. It was a series of decisions.”
Players were sent back inside after the accident, but practice continued for 20 to 30 minutes before players were dismissed. Swarbrick said he rushed over to the scene after the tower fell and Sullivan appeared to be responding to commands from medical personnel. Swarbrick said he got a call as Sullivan was being taken to the hospital that he had stopped breathing.
Coach Brian Kelly did not attend the news conference and Swarbrick said neither Kelly nor the players would be available for comment until after Saturday’s game. He said he wanted them to be able to deal with Sullivan’s death privately until then.
Sullivan, a junior from Long Grove, Ill., had posted several messages to his Facebook page via Twitter while he was up on the tower, expressing his fear of the wind. He called the conditions “terrifying.”
Swarbrick said the investigation would look into whether Sullivan had expressed his fear to the team’s video coordinator, to whom he reported.
Until those questions are answered, Swarbrick said there was little to do but honor Sullivan’s memory and mourn.
“This is a time of extraordinary sorrow and grief,” he said. “As a father of four with two of my children away at college, I can only imagine how difficult this is.”
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