Caver Smothered in Rocks | William Coughlin Tragedy

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Today's occurrence happens in a cave in Kentucky. When three friends went on

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what was supposed to be a one-day adventure, they were excited to be exploring

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an attraction that was described as treacherous for beginners.

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But by the end of the trip, one of the friends would be trapped and completely

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stuck between several rocks.

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I'm Tatiana Bunch, and this is the story of William Coughlin.

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Music.

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On Friday, May 28th, William, who went by Bill, and his two friends,

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Jim Giacalla and Kevin Feeley, left for a weekend trip.

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It was Memorial Day weekend, and they traveled from Oak Forest,

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Illinois, to Cave City, Kentucky.

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They were all in their 20s, looking for an adventure, and while they were in

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Cave City, they had a great time exploring and enjoying the long holiday weekend.

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Today, there are amusement parks, museums, and lots of tourist attractions.

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While they were exploring the attractions, they discovered a brochure for Buzzard's

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Roost Cave, offering two kinds of tours.

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There's the safe scenic historic tour and the riskier wild cave tour.

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Both open to the public and both guided.

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The historic tour took you to areas in the cave that were easy to navigate and walk through.

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The second tour was the wild cave tour and it was made for the more daring visitors.

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A guide would take you to explore the untouched areas of the cave.

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And you had to twist, crawl, and squeeze through lower passages.

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The trio planned to check it out during their weekend trip.

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Friday and Saturday were filled with exploring Cave City and enjoying the public and private caves.

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The public caves were fun, but the private ones were prettier,

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so Saturday night they went to bed excited for their plans the next day.

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On Sunday, May 30, 1993, Bill, Jim, and Kevin decided to try out Buzzard's Roost Cave.

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They wanted to try the historic tour first. And like with most things that have

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risks, to do that tour, they had to sign a liability release form.

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They all signed their names on the same liability form, saying if anything happened

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during their time at the cave, they would not take legal action against the

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owners or any party related to the cave.

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But before they started on the historic tour, Kevin changed his mind and backed out.

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So Bill and Jim continued the tour without him. Cave manager Dave Harden led the tour.

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Bill and Jim had a good time doing the historic tour and felt like they could

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do the more challenging tour too.

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So they decided to try the Wild Cave tour later that afternoon.

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For the Wild Cave tour, four other people joined Bill and Jim,

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and they all paid David to guide that one too.

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Everyone again signed a liability form to do the wild cave tour starting at 4 30 p.m.

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David handed out two flashlights for the group to share and briefed everyone.

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He told them that he would lead the tour and that every person after him should

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go through the cave the exact same way as the person in front of them did.

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So if the person in front of you crawled a specific way, then you should follow

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them crawling the same way.

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Kind of like the game Follow the Leader.

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Now, the wild tour had a different entrance than the historic tour.

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For this one, they had to start by going through a narrow crawlway.

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After crawling through tight passages for a while, they went up a narrow, tight slot.

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And they met the first challenge, a ladder. The first ladder was a 30-foot cable

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ladder with wooden rungs.

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It hung over a 25-foot deep pit.

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After the group went down the ladder, they crawled a bit more before reaching a second ladder.

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The second ladder was shorter but harder to navigate because it hung over protruding rocks.

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It was around 15 to 20 feet, and it hung over a 42-foot deep pit.

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But because of how rocks pushed into it, it was hard for anyone to have a proper grip while climbing.

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But the group pressed on, climbing down the second ladder.

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By the way, both ladders were homemade and permanently installed in the cave.

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After more crawling, they reached an area called the Big Room.

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David declared the official tour over and gave them free reign to explore nearby passages.

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Passages they explored for a couple of hours before David

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got everyone together around seven o'clock and led

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the way back once they made it back to the

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second ladder David said they were behind schedule and

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that he needed to check in on the surface so he left to make a phone call and

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this is where reports differ some reports say David told the group that if they

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weren't out in 45 minutes he would come back to get them and other reports say

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that David left to make a phone

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call and after he didn't come back 30 to 45 minutes later the group tried to leave on their own.

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So either way 45 minutes goes by and the tour guide is nowhere to be found.

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The group starts climbing the second ladder and two of them manage to make it

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up but then 27 year old Bill tried to climb it.

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He couldn't get past the rock sticking out halfway up so he climbed back down

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and let two more people in the caving group climb up instead.

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Then Bill tried again. And again, he couldn't get past the rock halfway up.

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At this point, Jim asked two people that had already climbed up to keep going

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so they could leave and find David.

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Jim and Bill waited a while, but with no sign of David, Bill tried to climb the ladder again.

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But this time, he slipped and fell. Well, Bill's hand lost its grip at the rock

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and hit his back on a ledge on the way down.

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He fell 30 feet before landing on his head at the bottom.

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He did not have a helmet on. No one in the group did since the tour didn't provide one for them.

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So when Bill landed headfirst on the rocks, he started bleeding immediately

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and heavily from a two-inch cut on his scalp. out.

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Jim told the other two in the group, who were still waiting at the top, to leave and get help.

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They left and found David, who came back.

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But David returned, without a medical kit, and he didn't call for help.

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It was decided that Bill could get out of the cave on his own,

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so the remaining cavers pushed and pulled him up the pit.

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I can only speculate how that was decided, considering Bill was slipping in

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and out of consciousness after hitting his head.

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But after that, they made their way to the first ladder, the 25-foot one.

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They wrapped rope around him again and helped him up.

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Now after that was an area that they were supposed to crawl through.

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When Bill tried to go down the v-floored slot headfirst, he got stuck.

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He had one hand between his stomach and the rock, and the other hand was pinned behind his back.

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At this point, there was one caver in front of him and three on the other side, close to the entrance.

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The three on the entrance side left to get the owner of the cave.

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David and the owner didn't want to panic the town if there wasn't a reason to

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do so, and they wanted to try and get Bill out themselves.

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Now, Bill was the largest person in the group. At 27 years old,

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he's 6 foot 2 inches tall and weighs 230 pounds.

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So he's a pretty big guy to be navigating this area of the Cape.

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And the size difference between him and everyone else on top of that made things more difficult.

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It wouldn't be until 10.30 that night, three hours after Bill got stuck,

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that the three cavers that left the cave earlier managed to contact the Cave

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City Volunteer Fire Department.

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Other rescuers were also alerted to go help Free Bill and they worked throughout the night.

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Now, Buzzard's Roost Cave gets pretty chilly for a Kentucky cave and temperatures

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inside were around 44 degrees Fahrenheit or six and a half degrees Celsius.

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As the fire department and other cavers worked to free Bill,

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he started becoming hypothermic and stopped responding to questions after 1 a.m.

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They tried several methods to free Bill, including making the hole that he was

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in bigger, but the area was too unstable to do it without putting everyone in more danger.

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So they did what they could and had one very small caver squeeze over Bill and

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work from inside where he was trapped.

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They dressed the cut on Bill's head and gave him oxygen.

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Now, Bill wasn't an experienced caver. In fact, he was very inexperienced,

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but when he was younger, he loved camping and gardening.

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Bill loved the feral animals at the zoo and in the forest preserves.

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It's why two years before this trip to Cave City, he started working with the

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Federal Environmental Protection Agency.

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Bill wanted to protect the environment. He loved nature and was an amateur photographer too.

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Jim and Bill grew up together after meeting in Boy Scouts.

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And this trip was something they were both so excited for, because it was their

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first organized caving trip.

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They were both outdoorsy types and had been in caves before, but nothing like this.

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And after being trapped for seven hours, Bill's pulse was lost around 5 o'clock that morning.

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The Kentucky Spellio Fest was happening at Smith's Grove nearby.

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By, so around 6 30 a.m. they managed to get a crew of four dozen small cavers

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attending the event to come out and try and get Bill's remains out of the cave.

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He was officially pronounced dead at 7 o'clock Monday morning.

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It was a very difficult process and removing Bill took until almost 1 in the

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afternoon to get him out.

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Bill was inside Buzzard's Roost Cave for 17 hours. The Kentucky medical examiner

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determined the cause of death was positional asphyxia.

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Bill's weight on his diaphragm and chest prevented him from breathing in the

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head-down position he was in.

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Around 200 paramedics, firefighters, cave explorers, and mappers worked to get Bill out.

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Now, there were so many red flags in everything I just told you,

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and because of how the situation happened and how everything seemed fine to

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these people who are not familiar with caving, until it was very clearly not

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fine anymore, I'm going to break it down.

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First thing, the cavers on the tour were not provided helmets.

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They should have had helmets.

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The flashlights they were given were handheld, and they weren't given enough lights to begin with.

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So with only having handheld flashlights when you're climbing on the ladder,

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you can't hold the light yourself.

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The only lighting you will have is from someone above or below lighting the way for you.

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When you're climbing a cable ladder, you should be belayed.

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So the person climbing should be attached to a rope that someone else is holding

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or using a belay device to control the rope. The rope should be tight enough

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that if you're climbing and slip, you don't swing out or free fall,

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but not so tight that it's hard to climb.

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So already there's like three major things that David failed to do.

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Then there's the fact that Bill was wearing tennis shoes.

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If he was wearing boots like everyone on the tour should have been,

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he would have had an easier time climbing the ladder.

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He also probably would have had a better grip if he was wearing gloves,

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considering the cold temperatures of the cave. If he had gloves on,

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his hands would have been warm enough to take them off to climb and have a good grit.

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But since it was cold, his hands probably had a hard time grabbing the already

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difficult-to-climb ladder.

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And speaking of the temperatures, a 44 degrees cave puts you in serious risk

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of hypothermia and requires thermal underwear and caving suits.

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All the cavers on the tour were in light, casual clothing.

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Now, for David's action specifically, he left the tourists on their own when

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they were most tired and at higher risk of having an accident.

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Then, after Bill's fall, they chose to exit the cave instead of calling for rescue.

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If they had called for rescue when Bill fell, it's almost certain he would have made it out alive.

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And once they got up the ladders and he had to go through the slot where he

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got stuck, David is the one who told him to go in headfirst in the way that he did.

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Now even though they were told that the tour was for the more daring adventurers

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the reality is with cave tours pretty much everyone going on them is not experienced.

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They don't know enough to recognize the true level of danger,

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how exhausted they actually are, if the right techniques are being done,

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and if the equipment they're using is appropriate.

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You don't know what you don't know. So really, everyone should have been treated

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as if it was the first cave they had ever stepped into and monitored closely.

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But the truth is, it was when Bill got stuck with his head down that it was over.

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Apparently the methods they were using to move Bill, dragging him along with

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the rope, pushing and pulling him, it's not how someone still alive should be

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moved because it causes more injury.

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He would have gotten out if rescuers were called immediately and David and the

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owner didn't try to handle things in-house.

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And Bill's family felt the same because they sued David and the owner,

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Gordon Hall. all, although part of it was to get legislation changed to protect people in the future.

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Now, David and Gordon argued in court that Bill had signed away his rights to

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sue for negligence by signing the waiver.

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But here's the thing. Kentucky law is kind of against these waivers,

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especially when the parties involved don't have equal bargaining powers, like in this case.

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Bill, an inexperienced caver, was relying heavily on the tour guide and cave

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operators for his safety.

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The court looked at whether he signed the waiver voluntarily and if these tours

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are really in the public's best interest.

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Kentucky courts have a history of being wary of these waivers,

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especially when public safety is at stake.

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And cave tours aren't really like car or bike races, which involve a certain

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level of accepted risks.

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Given all these factors, the court decided not to grant partial summary judgment

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in favor of David and Gordon.

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Bill didn't know all the risks, and his life depended on the cave operators

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and their decisions, not on his own experience or judgment.

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That release form and advertising of the cave tour was more of an enticement

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than a real warning, and it failed to actually explain the dangers of the cave.

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The release form said, quote, we the undersigned hereby accept the following

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special conditions, and in recognition that speleology is an inherently dangerous

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recreational activity,

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we voluntarily assume And shall indemnify and hold the owners,

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operators, and employees of Buzzard's Roost Cave harmless from all claims, suits, actions,

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damages, and costs of every name and description arising out of or resulting

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from the privileges granted by this permit,

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including damages caused by or resulting from the sole or joint negligence of

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the owners, operators, or employees of Buzzard's Roost Cave.

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So in the end, the court chose not to expand exceptions for these liability waivers.

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The safety of individuals like Bill took precedence.

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This was the first caving death like this in the area in two decades.

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Before it, Floyd Collins' entrapment happened not too far from there,

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and it was something everyone standing around watching Bill's rescue kept bringing up.

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I'll link the episode I did covering that tragedy in the show notes.

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Bill's sister said he died doing what he enjoyed the most, in Mother Earth.

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But Jim had a different tune.

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He said after returning to Chicago, he had nightmares of Bill falling.

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He said in an interview that after someone gets hurt in a cave like his best

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friend, bleeding at the bottom of said cave, the best help that the cave operators

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chose to get was themselves.

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He didn't think the operators were thinking with Bell's best interest in mind.

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Jim also said that the worst part of the accident was the eight-hour drive home.

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It felt like an eternity to come down with three people and go back with two.

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There are a lot of lessons with this one but I think one thing I should say

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is to never let a company handle their mistakes in-house, especially when it

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affects you or your loved ones.

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Always get outside help. Do not let them talk you out of it.

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Stay safe and see you next week.

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Music.