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Apr 25, 2011 - Last week, the University of Notre Dame released its findings from the tragic death of ND student Declan Sullivan, who fell from a scissor lift while taking video of football practice back in October of 2010. This came a week after Indiana's OSHA released the results of its investigation of the incident, and levied a $77500 fine towards the University for six violations found. The University found that several members of the football staff used outdated weather information, some of which was almost an hour old, when deciding whether to have practice outside, and whether video-taping should continue with the wind gusts.
The biggest news that came out of Notre Dame's findings was that they did not find a single point, or person, of failure, and nobody lost their job over the death of Sullivan. During a press conference held last Tuesday, President John I. Jenkins, C.S.C. nominally took responsibility for the incident, but was very clear in stating that it was a group failure, and it was impossible to determine a single person, or even a small group of people, who should be held responsible by losing their jobs.
On the surface, this looks like a major cop-out for ND. For public relations purposes, it always looks better when somebody gets fired for a major screw-up, especially one that results in the death of a student. But Notre Dame is not shy about taking a PR hit in order to do what they believe is correct, and what the Sullivan family feels satisfied with:
"The family is grateful for the detailed report and the efforts they went through to in gathering all of the data." Declan's uncle Mike Miley tells NewsCenter 16.
The major focus will be on Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick and Head Coach Brian Kelly, the two men on the football side that are ultimately responsible for everything that happens with the football program. An argument could be made that either or both of them should lose their jobs because of this tragedy, but all this would do is appease those members of the media who never have the best interest in the University, and only pipe up when they do something wrong. It's short-sighted, and would remove the two newest and best advocates for workplace safety in the NCAA.
Both Swarbrick and Kelly know what their role was in the tragedy, and have to live with that for the rest of their lives. Both men have been visibly shaken when talking about Sullivan, especially Kelly, who knew him on a personal level. The University has already banned the use of scissor lifts for videoing football practice, they've installed more permanent video towers, and are setting up a new remote controlled video system, minimizing the number of people that could be put in harm's way.
The long term affects of this tragedy should start to trickle throughout all of college football, and Notre Dame should be trumpeting their new changes, urging other schools to follow in their footsteps to increase safety for everyone. Sullivan's death could play the same role that NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt's death did for auto racing. Since Earnhardt's death, NASCAR has not had one fatality, spanning ten years. Safety measures were increased, including safer barriers on the walls and a new head restraint system, that has been stated to save several people from the same fate as Earnhardt, who was not wearing this restraint system when he was killed. These kind of sweeping changes should be made across college football, all to avoid the same tragic situation that Sullivan found himself in that windy day in October. The technological changes made by ND could easily be made across the NCAA, especially with the amount of money flowing through the sport.
The legacy of Declan Sullivan should be one that saves other lives, thanks to increased safety precautions with videoing college practices. Everyone at Notre Dame will now have safety as the number one priority, no matter how it affects their ability to practice. Firing a scapegoat won't accomplish nearly as much as what all the people involved in this tragedy will do to make sure this won't happen again, anywhere.
The Sullivan family should be proud that their son will save the lives of others, even though he shouldn't have lost his in the first place.
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