Todd Keeling, SunTrust Park, and Workplace Safety
It wasn’t so long ago that building things was a pretty dangerous pastime. The most extreme example of this is probably the Panama Canal; over 5,000 people died in its construction. Five people died erecting the Empire State Building. It’s safer now to construct great buildings; such fatalities are significantly rarer than they used to be. But as we learned last week, the risk inherent to the construction and maintenance of any structure, especially large venues like stadia, will never be zero.
Enter SunTrust Park, the brand new, state-of-the-art venue for the first-place Atlanta Braves. The Braves’ surprising season took a tragic turn on June 26, when workers found a dead body inside a beer cooler at SunTrust. The body was later confirmed to be that of Todd Keeling, a 48-year-old inventor most famous for designing and patenting a technology which dispensed beer at several times the conventional rate. Keeling had already installed his technology in Guaranteed Rate Field and Target Field. Ben Brasch of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution described the technology, called “Draftwell taps,” this way:
The Braves said Monday that the new Draftwell taps installed throughout the ballpark cut down pour times from a 14-second average to five seconds.
Delaware North Sportservice, which manages food and beverage service at SunTrust Park, said the new boozy tech will also keep the beer colder and fresher with more “brewery-intended flavor.”
Target Field in Minneapolis, home of the Twins, installed Draftwell taps and increased its keg yield from 87 to 94 percent, said Delaware North spokesman Marc Heintzman.
Although an autopsy was conducted, a cause of death hasn’t been released yet. Thankfully, Reuters indicated that “police have no reason to suspect foul play at this time.” But that still leaves a lot of unanswered questions. From Brasch again:
Fran Kuchta, Keeling’s aunt, said police told the family that he was in the cooler and couldn’t get out.
You Aren't a FanGraphs MemberIt looks like you aren't yet a FanGraphs Member (or aren't logged in). We aren't mad, just disappointed. We get it. You want to read this article. But before we let you get back to it, we'd like to point out a few of the good reasons why you should become a Member. 1. Ad Free viewing! We won't bug you with this ad, or any other. 2. Unlimited articles! Non-Members only get to read 10 free articles a month. Members never get cut off. 3. Dark mode and Classic mode! 4. Custom player page dashboards! Choose the player cards you want, in the order you want them. 5. One-click data exports! Export our projections and leaderboards for your personal projects. 6. Remove the photos on the home page! (Honestly, this doesn't sound so great to us, but some people wanted it, and we like to give our Members what they want.) 7. Even more Steamer projections! We have handedness, percentile, and context neutral projections available for Members only. 8. Get FanGraphs Walk-Off, a customized year end review! Find out exactly how you used FanGraphs this year, and how that compares to other Members. Don't be a victim of FOMO. 9. A weekly mailbag column, exclusively for Members. 10. Help support FanGraphs and our entire staff! Our Members provide us with critical resources to improve the site and deliver new features! We hope you'll consider a Membership today, for yourself or as a gift! And we realize this has been an awfully long sales pitch, so we've also removed all the other ads in this article. We didn't want to overdo it. In case you didn't read all that, here's the short version. Membership includes:✓Ad-free browsing✓Unlimited FanGraphs & RotoGraphs articles✓Historical & platoon projections✓Leaderboard & player-page stat heatmaps✓One-click data exports✓Customizable player-page dashboards✓Dark & Classic site modes✓Weekly Members-only mailbag✓FanGraphs Walk-Off, your year in review✓Optional homepage photo removal✓Gift articles to non-membersKeeling’s body was found about 2:30 p.m. inside a walk-in beer cooler behind a concession area in Section 331, according to a Cobb police incident report. Workers pulled Keeling from the cooler and tried to give him CPR.
Cobb police spokeswoman, Officer Sarah O’Hara said the space where Keeling was found doesn’t go below 40 degrees and is large enough to hold pallets of beer.
It’s worth asking how Keeling ended up trapped inside the cooler; the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) is investigating that very question right now. And while it’s not clear what caused Keeling’s death, it was quite possibly not related to temperature at all. Being trapped in a freezer* leads to a limited air supply. In light of all of these hazards, it makes sense that there would be some regulations concerning escape from walk-in freezers. Indeed, according Donesha Aldridge of a local NBC affiliate, OSHA is looking at two different angles: “the reason the beer cooler would not open from the inside, and whether there is any way for someone who is inside to press a call-for-help button.”
*While the space in which Keeling died is technically a cooler, I’ve used the term “freezer” here and throughout as a kind of blanket term for this sort of unit.
Notably, OSHA has looked at this very problem before. Freezer deaths like Keeling’s aren’t new. Back in 2016, the Associated Press examined a spate of deaths caused when freezer doors closed and the interior door releases on those freezers either malfunctioned or were entirely absent.
Experts say the deaths are preventable, but it’s not likely the federal government will draw up any specific regulations dealing with freezers. One reason: They’re more inclined to enforce broad rules for employers, such as making clear exits available.’
***
“There’s no question that technologies exist – old and new – that could address this issue,” said David Ringholz, chairman of the industrial design department at Iowa State University.
Motion sensors, for instance, could disable doors anytime movement is detected inside a large walk-in freezer, he said. Other experts suggested alarms, a cellphone or even an axe kept inside to help someone get out.
Some safety upgrades would cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, and that expense can be a big obstacle to improvements.
As frightening as that AP story is, it’s not entirely true that walk-in freezers are an unregulated wasteland. The Code of Federal Regulations — that is, the big book where rules issued by federal agencies are located — runs over 178,000 pages, so you’d expect there to be some rules on walk-in freezers. One regulation in particular — 29 CFR 1910.37 (that’s Chapter 29, Part 1910, Standard 37 of the Code of Federal Regulations) — requires the availability of exit routes, including in walk-in freezers. And OSHA’s website has multiple pages like this one devoted to walk-in-freezer safety. It’s because of these regulations that OSHA was able to fine a hotel $12,000 in one freezer death detailed in the AP story.
I want to reiterate: we have no evidence here that the Braves, or SunTrust Park, did anything wrong. For all we know, there was an available and working exit to the freezer. But Aldridge’s report does at least raise some questions about the safety of the freezer and whether SunTrust, a brand new ballpark, really was and is fully OSHA-compliant. If it weren’t, it adds yet another layer to the already dubious proposition that is a publicly funded ballpark.
Sheryl Ring is a litigation attorney and General Counsel at Open Communities, a non-profit legal aid agency in the Chicago suburbs. You can reach her on twitter at @Ring_Sheryl. The opinions expressed here are solely the author's. This post is intended for informational purposes only and is not intended as legal advice.
I really hate the idea of publicly funded stadiums. I mean, I really, really hate them. But if you are trying to tie stadiums being publicly funded to stadiums not meeting OSHA standards or engaging in other negligent behavior, then that is just ridiculous. These two things could not be more different and unrelated. If you have some evidence, or even just a theory, as to why public financing of stadiums would be related to OSHA compliance or the rate of negligence generally, I am all ears.
I’m not arguing that publicly funded stadia are not OSHA compliant because they are publicly funded. I am instead saying that if taxpayer dollars are being used to fund the construction of stadia, they should be compliant with applicable regulations, i.e., not deathtraps.
Shouldn’t all stadiums be OSHA compliant and not deathtraps? Do you think OSHA should go easier on privately financed stadiums? Do you think a court should apply a different negligence standard to those in control of publicly financed stadiums compared to privately financed stadiums? I don’t. This feels like “a bad thing happened at a publicly financed stadium, so I might as well use that to take a whack at publicly financed stadiums.”
I think that the one of the main issue (and possibly the one Sheryl was addressing, I don’t want to put words in her mouth) is that by agreeing to provide public funding, the governmental entity supplying funding, has the ability to make contractual demands. And, one of the non-negotiable demands should be full OSHA compliance throughout the entire construction period, as well as during the stadium’s use.
Shouldn’t all buildings be compliant with applicable regulations? I think that was TKDC’s point.
Big fan Sheryl! Think “deathtraps” is quite the insinuation! Not sure if that was the intent or not. I know you ended by saying we don’t know if they did anything wrong, just wanted to say hey and that you might’ve incidentally made a big leap in regards to SunTrust being a deathtrap that you weren’t intending to make.
Thanks!
Disclaimer: the use of the word “deathtrap” is not, based on the facts we have, intended to imply wrongdoing on the part of SunTrust. However, a walk-in cooler/freezer without a working interior release mechanism is, in essence, a deathtrap, and one which OSHA regulations (and common sense) say is no bueno. My point is that the least we would expect from publicly funded stadia is that they meet certain minimum safety standards.
Things fail.
Accidents happen.
Even without malice, incompetence, or cutting corners.
Not every bad thing that happens is preventable, even with 178,000 pages of regulations.
Entropy and Murphy always win.
how do you think that’s gonna go over with keeling’s family? or if he were yours, would have the same demeanor right now?
Who cares? Yes, people who have just had loved ones die are irrational. He’s not going to the funeral, telling them to go to hell
Pretty much, yes.
Cause I’ve been there more than once.
And how d’ya think the family would feel if after weeks and weeks of “find the guilty party!” it turns out to be him? Or nobody? A lot worse.
Not every tragedy needs a guilty party and jumping to conclusions doesn’t help anybody.
I’ve seen enough fiascos come out of that to understand that unless you actually see a guilty party do the deed it is best for everybody, including the family to stay neutral and not speculate either way. Cause a lot of the time the “obvious” culprit isn’t.
We’ve seen it play out way to often on the national stage.
Hi Sheryl! I always enjoy your pieces. I do have a somewhat random question regarding your choice between the use of stadia and stadiums for the plural. Why?
Because both are correct, “stadia” is more correct, and “stadia” sounds awesomer.
I’ll definitely agree to the sounding more awesomer and as a former Latin student, who about died in law school listening to “Legal Latin”, I applaud your usage of the 2nd declension neuter. All that being said it still sounds somewhat non-intuitive to my ear so it sticks out.
I guess I’m curious what the point of this article is, if we don’t know anything? The Aldridge article says it could have been a heart attack for all we know…
Well, despite being the kind of baseball fan who reads Fangraphs daily, I had not heard about this incident. And now I not only have, I have a basic legal framework to understand the implications if it turns out he was trapped. And if he wasn’t, and it was just something unrelated like a heart-attack, I still have a better understanding of the situation surrounding coolers the next time I hear about somebody trapped in one and unable to get out. Because inevitably that is going to happen again. (And when it does, and the assholes at the bar start spouting off about it, I like being the asshole with a slightly-better informed opinion).
So, thank you Sheryl.
I worked for a period of time in facility services at my college. There were several walk-in coolers and freezers that we had to manage/inspect regularly. Each had a plunger on the inside that when pressed would push the handle open from the inside. We also kept a large jacket hung on the outside of the largest/coldest one (roughly 600 sq ft, L-shaped, -20F) in case you were to be kept in for a long time. Obviously loss of air could still be an issue, but I would be surprised if similar safety measures weren’t present everywhere.
I don’t know, my college years are much further in past than yours, but I remember the standard practice — and only safety measure — was to keep an old piece of 2×4 next to the door, which you jammed in the door to keep it from closing on you. Until your asshole co-workers took it out and closed the door on you as a “joke.”
I’m not sure if walk-in fridge and freezers are markedly different in the US as opposed to Canada where I live, but I’ve been in the food business for a decade and have walked in and out of dozens of different fridges/freezers and not a single one of them ever had a latch when it closed. All you ever had to do was push the door and it would open unless someone has intentionally put a padlock on the outside handle (it is common at restaurants to put them on overnight to prevent employee theft after hours but not during the day when people are in and out of the walk-ins). The handle is just something to grab/pull there is no latch or release mechanism in the doors, very similar to most at home fridges.
Can Confirm, as a warehouse manager in undergrad, that any walk in you could order was required to have an emergency escape (the plunger) that breaks any lock on the door.
I can only assume that the plunger was defective or broken during installation on something. I’m sure you couldn’t buy a commercial cooler setup without an escape mechanism even if you wanted to.
The tagline says “A man may have died unnecessarily at SunTrust Park.” I inferred from the tagline that reading the article would lead me closer to knowing if it was unnecessary. I am not any closer. Is it just me? Sometimes it is, i dunno.
I would argue that anytime someone dies in a walk-in cooler/freezer it is per se unnecessary.
I didn’t read the title closely and just assumed it was someone in Marlins Park. The title was perfectly clear, no one to blame but myself. But it’s like my reading comprehension was overridden by my knowledge that it is always the Marlins’ fault.
Those people just want to die, they aren’t actually dead.
I hate hate hate any public funding of stadia. But, at the same time I know that:
1. Every ballpark is required to be OSHA-compliant, and OSHA loves to inspects things for compliance. Trust me, they once gleefully inspected my operations for three days straight (they found no violations) and made me show them that not only did we have every single required safety item but that they were all functional.
2. My father owned, among other things, a steakhouse, so I can reiterate what other people with restaurant experience have said: every walk-in cooler/freezer has to have a safety escape.
3. Public vs private funding status has zero effect on the architect or general contractor when it comes to project safety or OSHA compliance. The very idea that it might is ludicrous.
Hi Sheryl. Your articles are really interesting. I think I watch too much TV though, cause I thought for sure that story was the beginning of a Law And Order episode
The manufacturer of the walk-in also has an obligation to make a safe product. It’s been a minute since I’ve dealt with one of them. Car manufactures had similar issues with people, sometimes kids, getting trapped in trunks. They’ve now got glowing release handles inside (not unlike the nets down the sidelines). Products liability sometimes doesn’t require the plaintiff to show negligence. I’d consider that aspect were I trying to help the family. Hopefully something positive will come out of it. It will also be interesting to see how Dustin Fowler’s lawsuit against the White Sox Stadium plays out as well. Interesting article.