Jonathon Glenn Kelly died after he fell while he was allegedly trying to slide down the outside of the escalator handrail at the Coca-Cola Gate near the stadium's northeast side about 8:10 p.m. Thursday while he attending the Texans' last preseason football game.
The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences ruled his death was an accident and he died of multiple blunt force injuries, said Tricia Bentley, institute spokeswoman.
Kelly was descending from level five to level three when he fell about 60 feet, Mark Miller, general manager at SMG Reliant Park, said during a news conference Friday.
Police could not confirm the man was horse-playing, said Jodi Silva, a Houston Police Department spokeswoman. Silva said HPD was investigating the case as an accidental death.
Kelly was attending the game with some friends, said a co-worker who was not at the event and asked that his name not be published.
The co-worker said Kelly had worked for about three months as a plant operator at a private water and wastewater utility company.
Miller said stadium staff are posted on each landing at escalators, and signs on the equipment encourage safety.
The day after Kelly's death, 20-year-old Isaac Grubb of Lenoir City, Tenn., was killed when he somehow fell over a 33-inch railing and plummeted to the lower level of the Georgia Dome in downtown Atlanta during the Tennessee-North Carolina State game, according to the Associated Press.
The Associated Press stated Grubb had been cheering Tennessee's second touchdown when the accident happened around 8:23 p.m., said Frank Poe, executive director of the Georgia World Congress Center Authority, which operates the stadium.
The fans' deaths come just more than a year after 39-year-old Shannon Stone died when he fell during a Texas Rangers game in Arlington last July.
Stone had grabbed a baseball tossed by outfielder Josh Hamilton toward the stands and toppled over the railing, falling about 20 feet to concrete below.
_______________
Source: Chron (Lezon, 9/5)
No comments:
Post a Comment