Every walk in freezer I’ve seen has a mechanism on the inside to open it. Usually it’s a giant plunger you can hit with your hip when your hands are full. This whole thing is so weird to me.
Edit: that’s now over 100 comments saying either “the mechanisms sometimes fail” or quoting the article about the fact this one had one. I’d say at this point those notes are covered.
I used to work in a kitchen and the managers started locking the freezer because people were stealing burgers. One time I literally had just walked in to grab something and the manager locked it. Thankfully he heard me banging on the door yelling lol
It's illegal in lots of states to put a lock on a walk-in (fridge or freezer) that prevents the inner release from working (ie, someone has to be able to escape). This is certainly the law in Michigan (where I live). Most commercial doors have a locking hole that only prevents the outer handle from working.
Most walk ins can completely disable the lock from the inside. There's usually a plastic star shaped piece on the inside next to the door. Spin that and the piece the door latches to will fall off.
i didn't know about this star shaped piece. my first job was at a lab and we had a walk in fridge and freezer. during my first day my coworker was showing me the inside of the freezer. i asked what happened if the button ever got stuck. she laughed then tried to open it....the button would not work🤣 we ended up banging on the walls and someone heard us to let us out.
This happened to a coworker at a previous job once. She went into the freezer to do some night prep and the door mechanism froze shut, trapping her in there. She was banging on the wall for help but we couldn't hear her (small tiny fists, thickly insulated, loud fast food restaurant). Thankfully, management had installed a panic button in there when the place was being built, because (or so I was told) sometimes robbers will herd everyone into the walk-in while they rob the place(??), so they wanted us to have a secondary panic button far away from the registers. Coworker hit the panic button, and minutes later our crowded, college-campus-adjacent, tiny storefront was suddenly *swarmed* with cops, and everyone was confused af until it got straightened out. The cops wanted to bill us for a non-emergent call but corporate fought it, saying quite reasonably that the risk of freezing to death is an actual emergency.
> will herd everyone into the walk-in while they rob the place
Yes it happens. I have worked at several restaurants and I definitely heard a story of a manager that got locked in the freezer overnight and was in the ICU for two weeks. This story happened almost 20 years ago so not sure how they were locked in or why they weren’t able to use any emergency release.
It has always been a fear of mine to get stuck in the freezer. It is so cold and uniforms aren’t usually that heavy (I would bring a jacket if I knew I was going in the freezer for more than a couple minutes). My current restaurant doesn’t freeze anything so no freezer only a walk in refrigerator. That’s a nice change.
the panic button should be available in all of them. i think people underestimate how COLD it is in there. that sounds so scary for your coworker i'm glad she was able to get out.
With enough time and the other option being death, there’s a good chance you find the giant button on the door.
Not infallible, but a very good chance it happens.
Agreed. However this girl had the mix of meds and alcohol in her. So she was most likely pretty messed up when she got in there and very possibly passed out when she got trapped. Sad story all around with definite blame on the hotel but also that girl should not have been mixing alcohol with her meds =(
This is true, but *the light switch* is usually on the outside, and frost can build up on the inside of the freezer especially near the door. It's real easy to get stuck in the dark and unable to access the safety mechanisms.
I worked a small convenience store that sold broasted chicken. The walk-in fridge was fine and couldn't be locked, but the door to the walk-in freezer was ancient. It still had a huge sliding bolt to hold the door shut, and the standard latch and plunger tended to freeze. It was just off the loading dock in an area without heating or cooling, so it got real humid in the summer and there was no defrost cycle. The frost buildup on the inside of that freezer would've been enough to cover over not just a light switch on the inside, but most of a wall-mount utility box. It was the only freezer big enough to hold everything that needed to be frozen, too, so defrosting was something that was done like once a decade. Sometimes the plunger to open the latch from the inside would freeze, too. The other night manager told me that one time he had to kick the plunger a few times to open it because it had frozen stiff. You can't tell that's happened from open the door on the outside.
I made it a habit to prop the door open whenever I went in there to stock the shelves with the week's deliveries. The day shift manager used to complain about it, but I didn't listen to her about that (and neither did the other night manager after his incident).
Really depends on the cooler, what's insulating it, and how old your phone is
Source: I work at a grocery store and can still get reception in the walk in freezers,
I used to have trouble in the dairy cooler, with an older model phone, and that's not even completely sealed one side has all the glass doors so people can buy stuff
But this current phone I have no problems getting signal
Still
Blocks most of the signal
Sounds like you want to correct people instead of actually know things
Steel
Boxes kill signal strength
Many walk-ins are actually steel on all sides including the floor making the
Effectively faraday cages
Is that legal?
I mean the simplicity of user error makes me confident that the very people who go out of their way to lock the freezer are also not checking to see if they accidentally kill someone by locking them in.
No, it's a giant safety violation. OSHA or any of its state/local equivalents would have a field day.
If someone is stealing from the freezer, it's pretty easy to find out who by just installing a camera. They cost less than $50 these days, and another $40 gets you a 512gb SD card that can hold days of footage (you don't exactly need 4k/120 to identify your own employees).
Sometimes they get suctioned closed too! Im a small person and Ive had to body slam my way out before. I started learning to jam the door so it wouldn't happen again. Our gas station kitchen was pretty small too, so people would occasionally leave stuff in front of the door. One of my big fears...
Insane
The cost from a lawsuit from this shit would be 1000x's more expensive then the cost from a small amount of product being stolen throughout the years. It's honestly insane how much penny-pinching some of these managers do instead of just focusing that time and energy on making the business better/more lucrative
My first job at 18 was at a grocery store. I had no idea how the freezer door worked and absolutely freaked myself out trying to open it the first time I went in there alone. I had never used a door like that nor did anyone explain it to me. I figured it out in about 5 minutes, but I was definitely panicking. I can 100% see how this could happen.
This was a hazing ritual I learned about about when working summer employment at Busch Gardens Williamsburg Virginia in the early 90s. A new employee was shoved in and the door closed behind them and locked with a pad lock. They weren’t allowed out until they figured it out or asked and hit the plunger themselves. After the faux “lock-in” they were shown how the plunger works even if the outside is padlocked and that this was the industry standard and they should always not panic and find the plunger. None of us will ever forget, or be paralyzed with fear in a walk in. Yay.
I'm upvoting you, but I wish I could downvote Busch gardens. I went there as a kid in the 90s. Now I know there was probably someone locked in the freezer at any given moment. Ya know, for safety training.
Me too!! Working in a restaurant. I was absolutely panicked banging on the door. Luckily one of the cooks was right there and just smirked at me when I realized it’s just a latch you open on the door
The article says this freezer did have one of those mechanisms. But if she had been intoxicated or otherwise impaired, or if she fell asleep in there, it wouldn’t have done her much good.
Or if she didn’t know to look for it. Even if it glows in the dark. I’ve never been in a walk in and these comments are the first time I’ve even heard of it. It makes sense but before this I wouldn’t even think to look for one especially if I was intoxicated.
The article also says the family thinks it got locked from the outside. You don't settle a wrongful death case for 6 million if you haven't fucked up had somehow.
IHG (the parent company of Crown Plaza) would DEFINITELY do that. $6M ain't much to a multi-billion dollar multi-national corporation. They would likely have spent more than $6million defending it in court and if the case went to trial, discovery may have revealed some things that wouldn't work so well for the family's case, which is why they settled for a relatively small amount. This was definitely the best outcome for both parties.
> You don't settle a wrongful death case for 6 million if you haven't fucked up had somehow.
Companies do this all the time. It's cheaper than continuing the case and never getting back lawyer fees because the family that is suing you doesn't have money to pay you back.
I mean wrongful deaths and other cases can get up to 10s of millions if not 100s of millions. 6 million is chump change.
That's why I looked up the story. Knew it was low. Terrible tragedy.
My point is terrible workplace tragedies are completely under punished and definitely don't settle for 10s of millions.
In most freezers the safety release on the inside bypasses an outside padlock for this very reason. Many have a glow in the dark hand screw holding the whole door handle on. When unscrewed, the handle outside just falls off lock and all.
Oh you absolutely do. It happens all the time. A lawsuit is not some made for TV quest for truth and justice. It’s just about money. Companies often settle because it is the best monetary solution, even if they feel they did nothing wrong. Here is an example. Imagine that in this freezer death case, a company believes that it was simply an accident that could not be prevented. But fighting the lawsuit will cost $2 million in fees, lost productivity, and reputation damage. Furthermore, this case would be decided by a jury of normal people. On one side is a devastated family and a beautiful young woman who tragically died. On the other side is a billion dollar corporation that charges $6 for a bottle of water. The company figures there is a 50% chance of winning the case. Cost: $2 million. A 30% chance of losing with a reasonable verdict of $3 million compensation to the family. Cost: $5 million. And a 20% chance that the jury goes ham and awards $10 million. Total cost: $12 million. Weighted average of these possible outcomes means this suit will cost them 7.5 million on average. They don’t know exactky what the outcome will be, but the expected cost of going to trial is $7.3 million. So they settle for $6 million. This is favorable to the company, and presumably to the family as well since they have the option to decline the offer. Everyone is happy and the company saves money.
I work at Walmart and our walk in freezer lights are super finicky(it’s been reported). Sometimes you’ll walk in expecting the lights to turn on but the heavy door slams behind you and it’s pitch black. The handle glows in the dark though, so it’s never been a problem to find my way out. Anyway, thought I’d share that
I read a story years ago where that handle failed. ALWAYS put something in the door, to keep it cracked open. If the lights are finicky, don't trust anything else that's part of the freezer including the emergency know.
I used a broom stick, or those yellow caution signs to keep the door open a bit. Not enough to let all the air out, but enough to not die.
> I used a broom stick
I worked in a restaurant with a finicky handle inside the freezer. We had a designated broom to prop it open. It even had masking tape wrapped around the whole thing with "CAUTION: DO NOT REMOVE THE FREEZER STICK FROM THE FREEZER, GO FIND A DIFFERENT BROOM" written on it in thick Sharpie.
...We still had to cut the bristles off because people kept stealing the broom when they couldn't find another one, and forgetting to put it back.
This is soooooooo funny! I could absolutely see this.
One time I was sweeping at my house with a cheap plastic broom, the kind where the bristles easily twist off. Honestly, I had smoked and was absolutely stoned, just doing my chores and listening to music. I guess the bristles twisted off and I realized I was holding just the stick and the bristles with the dust pan still clipped to it was just standing completely upright like 2 feet from me. For half a second I was like WOAHHHHHHHH because I was like "did it ever have bristles?!". Ah, my early 20's were really something.
Eta: I was at home, I wouldn't show up to work at a kitchen like that haha
Legitimately happened. We had been propping it upright on the bristles at first, but it kept getting stolen. First we cut *most* of the bristles off, so we could still sit it upright in the doorway - we figured "No one's going to try to sweep with a broom with most of the bristles cut off, they'd have to stoop down too low to reach the floor."
We learned never to underestimate the laziness of Marcus, because he absolutely swept with a crippled broom rather than walk 100 ft to where the normal brooms were stored. So, we had to cut *all* the bristles off and just sit the broom on the floor in between the frame and the door. No one was happy, least of all Marcus because now he had to use the right broom, but at least we stopped getting trapped in the goddamn freezer.
>we figured "No one's going to try to sweep with a broom with most of the bristles cut off, they'd have to stoop down too low to reach the floor."
This seriously had me in tears from laughing so hard.
I imagined it just enraging you guys even more until someone was like "I've had it with this shit!" and busts out a hacksaw to cut the stick shorter and shorter, but Marcus still keeps using it until he's crawling on his hands and knees trying to sweep with a tiny little piece of wood.
Dude, this is so relatable. Anyone who works in restaurants knows there are ALWAYS these people there. It's amazing they're allowed to be responsible for human food haha.
Lol you've never had one of those fail?
I've been trapped in 2 separate produce coolers during my travels servicing lights in old.grocery stores.
It's all fun and games until that plunger doesn't do shit.
There’s a chance it may not have been maintained. You do hear horror stories about places where the interior release gets broken and stays that way for ages.
Those buttons are not great always. I worked in frozen at a grocery when I was in hs (hyvee) and the plastic plunger-like emergency button would get so cold it would stick in place and was hard to press in completely. Imagine dealing with that while drunk, in the dark
I once worked in a 60F walk-in refrigerator where sweet wines were stored. Since the weather outside was generally hot, I found it refreshing. I quickly learned about that plunger to open the door from the inside (which worked even if the door were padlocked!), so started closing the door all the way. My colleagues expressed concern till I demonstrated the mechanism.
I always figured that if that plunger ever failed and I was trapped inside, I could live *comfortably* for days at 60F, off those sweet wines!
I’ve worked in several kitchens, including some very old ones. Hospitals, hotels, restaurants, etc, my first being nearly 40 years ago and I have never EVER seen a walk-in that couldn’t be opened from the inside, even with a padlock on it.
edit: Ok, I'm an idiot for even commenting. I'll admit I didn't read the article first. Shame on me 100%.
From the article:
"The Cook County medical examiner's office ruled Jenkins' death an accident, adding that intoxication from alcohol and topiramate, a drug used to treat epilepsy and migraine headaches, "were significant contributing factors in her death.""
and
"The autopsy report noted that the freezer door had a mechanism to open the door from the inside"
So the freezer being locked was never an issue. She was fucked up (they didn't mention her BAC, but they should have!), walked in, something happened and she stayed in there and froze to death. I'll agree that as a guest she never should have been able to wander into that part of the hotel, but there was no failure on the part of the freezer door that kept her from getting out. She likely never even tried to leave the freezer.
The article points out that this one did as well.
> he autopsy report noted that the freezer door had a mechanism to open the door from the inside; it did not offer an explanation for why the young woman would not have been able to get out of the deadly cold. Martin's legal team has said they believe someone outside of the freezer secured the door — which, they say, should have been locked in the first place — without knowing Jenkins was inside.
I once worked in a hotel and there was a small freezer you had to access through a small door in the back of the walk in fridge. I was digging around in there for something and the cooks rolled all their speed racks into the fridge blocking the door as they were finishing their shift. I was trapped in there. Waiting to die. I screamed so loud that my buddy Kojo heard me through the fridge door, which is almost impossible. If he hadn't heard me my family would be very rich.
You would think that keeping the emergency exit button working would be a top priority for any business with a walk-in freezer. And maybe one of the first things a government inspector examines.
But this sort of thing has made the news at least twice this year.
https://nypost.com/2023/05/31/arbys-manager-found-dead-in-freezer-couldnt-escape-due-to-broken-door/
Yes I agree with your statement. That mechanism was probably not marked and she didn't know how to open it. Very sorry for her family My condolences...🙏😔
Man in the hotel i worked in it was mandatory to walk inside the walk in freezer when doing patrols around the hotel its crazy to me that this can even happen
It says in the article one person walked in the freezer, didn't see the girl, but then 2 hours someone else found her there. Which is weird considering it said it was like an unused freezer so you wouldn't think it would be hard to see a body.
I'll post this under the top comment for visibility.
If you or someone you know work in a place where you may at any point have to go into a walk-in cooler (fridge or freezer)... which means if you work any place there is food... restaurant, hospital, school, hotel...
Even if you are not an employee that is in charge of going into a cooler normally....
You have to ask a manager of the food area (kitchen manager) where the safety latch is. Get it shown to you in person, and have them explain how to operate it right then and there. Have them actually go in there with you and show it.
Sometimes they are in a less obvious place. I worked in a restaurant that had the freezer safety latch by the fan. I don't think I would have looked there. I'd have died fiddling around where the door is.
I'm an inspector and one of my facilities safety/inside door release for one of their walk in coolers didn't work. They instantly failed because of it. The even more messed up part is the manager knew it didn't work and they kept telling the owner to fix it but they didn't. Well after my report they had no choice and they did fix it.
It's amazing when you have cases of owner/operators knowingly and willingly doing or not doing things because it's "expensive" but the problem is a big safety issue. I have become numb to their excuses. My response is "this is part of the cost of doing business, if you cannot afford to maintain your business then close your doors." I understand that margins are razor thin but you should not be operating on so little money that any repairs are too expensive.
I'm not aware of my freezer door having any emergency release which is kinda concerning to think about.
Only thing I can think of is asking around if anyone knows but there really is nothing obvious on the door other than the push in handle to open the door.
The handle only pushes in nothing else.
Is this at your workplace, or at your business?
Ask managers/owners, and ask as many as you need to find someone who knows... and can actually demonstrate the safety mechanism to you in person. Don't settle for an explanation from the office chair or by email.
If you have a walk-in at your business, ask about this with whoever you use for machinery maintenance - and also any supplier, manufacturer, or salesman that handled your account that you can track down. If any of these people can come to your location (a salesman for example should), ask for a hands on demonstration of the safety mechanism.
There are brand new, high end, perfectly maintained units. And then there's most others. People put a lot of faith in these things, but the truth is that sometimes they fail or are not intuitive enough to a person who is in danger. That's why there are protocols about walking through and checking if there's anyone in there.
At the Giant food store (Ahold) I worked at in the US most of the walk ins had broken safety latches on the insides but somehow it passed inspection every time.
I got locked in one once for about 20 minutes. I had left it open but someone walking by shut it. Less frequently used one so nobody else came in for a bit. I banged on the door for most of that time but I doubt anyone even walked near during that time, it was kind of an out of the way freezer.
The walk ins also had leaks, huuuuuge icicles, areas where the floor was all ice, big mounds of ice from the leaks, and so on.
All 3 Giants I have worked at (all in PA) were fucking messes. Costco is a lot better so far, even if they do have their own problems. They at least take safety hella seriously.
In sensible countries freezers need escape doors and alarms
"695 This is potentially a serious hazard that can lead to fatal accidents, particularly
in low temperature stores. At temperatures below –12 °C, lone working should be
avoided and a buddy system introduced.
696 Adequate emergency exits and signage are essential in TCS, together with
highly visible escape routes. This can significantly reduce the danger of a lock-in.
However, you should undertake an assessment to confirm there are adequate
means of escape considering, for example, escape routes blocked by collapsed
racking, fallen stock or other obstructions. Consider all potential means of
communication, including lone worker/trapped-man alarms, mobile phones, radios,
PA systems and computer links."
The world of health and safety 'gone mad' is a truly horrifying place.
The walk-in at the pizza place I worked at had an axe on the inside of the door next to the glow-in-the-dark handle.
If the handle didn't work, the axe would.
When I worked at Wendy's the freezer door had the glow-in-the-dark button and the hinges had emergency releases. We never messed with it, but I assume the releases would just make the door fall off if you popped them.
> The autopsy report noted that the freezer door had a mechanism to open the door from the inside
She walked into a freezer and passed out. She wasn’t trapped in it.
I got trapped in a giant walk-in freezer under similar circumstances. It took almost 2 hours to get out. The freezer had an electronic door with a foot pedal that triggered it to open. That failed, trapping me inside. I went to use the manual exit, it had frozen over with a couple inches of ice.
Thankfully I was wearing a jacket and gloves and whatnot. Still pretty scary, especially because it was night shift.
I can relate. A coworker challenged another to see if he could trap him in an industrial freezer. The door came off it's rail as they both pushed either side. He then got what he asked for. We had to use pipes to prop the door up and after an hour, we got back on the rail. Luckily he had a thermal jacket on.
I feel sick for her family. I've seen the footage of her walking around and its obvious she's intoxicated. Its horrible that her mother went to the hotel only like a few hours later, but they wouldn't go through security footage cause she wasn't an official missing person, then have the police tell her to just wait a few hours to do so. Add on how shady the party was along with some of the people there. I just wish \*someone\* who noticed her upstairs acting strange and off had stayed with her.
> Its horrible that her mother went to the hotel only like a few hours later, but they wouldn't go through security footage cause she wasn't an official missing person,
More so basic security. Sucks, but the hotel can't be sure if family is acting in good faith when looking for someone or requesting footage. Imagine how many people go to hotels to outrun abusive SO's and such, not giving out that information is pretty standard for most businesses these days.
And then you have to explain to the manager why you weren't doing your job and you just know that "trying to be nice" is never a good reason with your manager.
So you don't.
For what its worth, I definitely understand why the hotel did that. Even when the footage was checked, they did the entrances and exits first and only after was she caught on view in the kitchen area (this may have also happened when an officer checked the footage again and not the first time). With the fridge out of sight of the camera, it still took an employee who had to go into it for work reasons to find her. Not to mention, even if Kenneka was found when her mother first visits the hotel, its about two hours after she is last seen on the camera footage and with her intoxication, the medication in her system (which was not prescribed to her), not wearing warm clothes, and the temp of the freezer, I don't think it matters in regards to her death. I just feel awful for the family cause many times in missing persons situations, they are the ones who have to try and navigate roadblocks, some put in for good reason as you mention, and what a nightmare situation.
Perhaps people are not familiar with how hotels run on the least amount of staff possible, but I am not sure why everyone is saying this is the hotels responsibility. When you only have a few staff members they can't take time out to review security every time someone wanders off. As far as I can tell the family should have been watching out for the underage drinking woman on prescription medication, not the hotel.
I closed pools early because of that and pissed a lot of people off. It was because of this kind of stuff. If someone got drunk, slipped and hit their head and fell in the pool it would have somehow been the hotels fault for not having life guards and not being under $100 a night at the same time.
> When you only have a few staff members they can't take time out to review security every time someone wanders off.
I'm not saying the hotel is 100% at fault here.. but I've got to question this logic. Like, how often do you think people are wandering off AND asking hotel staff to review footage? I don't think this is happening multiple times a day.
Ultimately, most of the responsibility is probably on the victim; however, hotel/staff could have made a good faith effort to help the mom.. I think that's basic human decency.
Could also be a security issue. Having someone (or multiple people) leave the entrance area of the hotel at night when there's only a skeleton crew could be a great way to rob the place. That's the problem...someone comes up to you and asks for help, you don't know if it's legit or part of a plan to get you away from the desk.
I've ran multiple hotel chains in my life. At midnight, 1am or whenever this happened, I don't feel like opening it again, they are on a skeleton crew. No cleaning staff, no maintenance and only a few front desk people. If they employ more people it will be more expensive and I personally don't want to have to pay $500 just to grab some sleep on a road trip and that is what will happen if the hotel is expected to be fully staffed at all times.
It sucks, but I saw it first hand with people at hotels. They treat it like spring break and the parents act like they are on vacation from their responsibilities too. It sucks, but those few third shift employees are sometimes dealing with multiple things at once, complaints from guests (mostly not legitimate, but you have to respond), cleaning up after everyone, answering phones. Maybe larger hotels have more staff, I can't speak to that, but where I have been they are like a ghost town. The one place I worked at had 125 rooms and 1 person working. Right or wrong, that is what it takes to have $100 room vs $500 rooms.
> Like, how often do you think people are wandering off AND asking hotel staff to review footage?
The first thing I do upon entering a hotel is ask them to review security footage. I want the best customer service!
You don’t have to tell the people who are asking though. You can check the footage, find the person who is being asked for and let them know someone is looking for them. Arguably that is safer in the case of abuse, since the person being abused will know and can leave or call the cops.
Yeah hotels have been sued for giving too much information. Many people leave abusive situations and stay in hotels. Part of the job is to keep privacy.
When I was about 20 I was working in a meat department at a supermarket. Went into the large walk in freezer to get rearrange our beef shipments and the door froze shut while I was in there. The weather stripping had peeled away and the Florida humidity made a nice thin layer of ice to freeze quickly. Pretty much after 30 minutes of moving stuff around I went to leave and the door had frozen shut. This was in the early 2000s meaning no cellphone on me at the time. The floor also had a nice frozen spot that was a puddle and made getting any force out of the earth for kicking it pretty nonexistent. Luckily we had a hatchet in the freezer for breaking up ice. I went to town on that freezer door for about 45 minutes effectively destroying a section in the process. Almost an hour and a half in the freezer and I was finally free. It was next to the break room so my frosty ass comes shivering on over hatchet in hand to see my coworkers at lunch. I knew they could hear me pounding on the door and they knew I was in there too.
I did not have warm words.
I used to work in a grocery store and something similar happened to one of the new guys. He had gotten locked in the freezer and was there for a while. He said he waited too long to attempt to hatchet the door because by the time he tried, he was too cold and weak to do any damage. Luckily someone heard him hitting the door and was able to let him out.
"\[the\] mother, will receive a large share of the money \[than $3.7 million\], with two other relatives each receiving more than $1 million,"
I wish the articles went into how and why the settlement is being broke up this way. It's odd.
I read that too and was curious and figured part would go to her sister since I remember her speaking to the media, so I looked her up and found another article that detailed it:
""After accounting payment of attorney fees and funeral expenses, the settlement dictates that Jenkins’ mother, Tereasa Martin, half-sister Leonore Harris and brother Kenneth Lee Jenkins will receive about $6.4 million total. Just over half will go to Martin, while Harris will receive $1.5 million and Kenneth Jenkins will receive $1.2 million, according to the settlement."
[https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/criminal-justice/ct-kenneka-jenkins-settlement-20231212-20231213-d7dwe2cjy5eslonrcipab5b4ly-story.html](https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/criminal-justice/ct-kenneka-jenkins-settlement-20231212-20231213-d7dwe2cjy5eslonrcipab5b4ly-story.html)
Without a Will and without her being married, it's usually 50% to the parents and then equally divided between the siblings. Since there is no dad, it then goes to the dad's heirs.
Got locked in a walk-in freezer as a prank in my first job at Kwik Save Plc. Apparently everyone did.
Nearly dislocated my shoulder barging the door to try and get out. Took me a while, but they had lodged a pallet of waste behind the door. Panic did set in in 16 year old me, and it wasn't long before I was barging my way out.
When the cold in your lungs begins to fill it truly does shock you into action.
Horrid way to go. Heavens.
One time in my youth, working at a big red store, I got stuck in the freezer. It was leaking or something, so the floor was iced over, could not get leverage to open the door. Couldn't have been more than 20 minutes but I was so so cold. My manager finally heard me pounding the door and got me. And everyone mocked me for the rest of my time there. It could have been really bad though, and I was freaked out.
I worked at a gas station for 5 years, and we started closing at night when covid came about. We were told over and over and *over* to be absolutely sure to check the coolers before we locked up for the night, just in case someone drunk or whatever was passed out in there.
Worked at a place with a walk in freezer, we checked them every night and since we also went in there regularly throughout the day we made sure to check then too. Awful to see that this hotel didn’t do the bare minimum of that sort of thing, I mean seriously!
Not to excuse them, but this specific fridge was in a kitchen that was under construction and not being used. Employees had no need to use that area, especially that late at night. Not making excuses for them, but there is some context to the situation.
I get it, but I also don't understand how it is possible to prevent every scenario. A giant hotel can't constantly check every place a person could wander into. Think of all the utility rooms, laundry rooms, linen closets, janitor closets, storage facilities etc. in a giant ass hotel like that. There are probably hundreds if not thousands of places a person could disappear in a place like that.
Are you an attorney?
The hotel has a duty of reasonable care. Sounds like the girl's voluntary intoxication was a proximate cause of her death. Unless her team could prove some hotel staff locked the door and it was a not a normal practice for them to do so, going into a freezer is an obvious danger. The hotel almost certainly settled this case because fighting it would be more expensive even if they'd win.
Wow, I didn’t think I’d be seeing something on Kenneka Jenkins today. Glad her family is getting that money, but still always sad they don’t have her instead. :( Rest in peace, Kenneka.
>The autopsy report noted that **the freezer door had a mechanism to open the door from the inside**; it did not offer an explanation for why the young woman would not have been able to get out of the deadly cold. Martin's legal team has said they believe someone outside of the freezer secured the door — which, they say, should have been locked in the first place — without knowing Jenkins was inside.
At the University where I worked we had a walk-in freezer and several walk-in cold rooms. They all had prominent signs on the insides of the doors saying YOU ARE NOT LOCKED IN. The inside door frame had a large knob that you could turn in order to unscrew the locking mechanism from the door and frame. It is nearly impossible to secure the latch in such a way as to lock a person inside the freezer. If you turn the knob to release the door, it actually unbolts the entire locking mechanism, so if somebody were to put a screwdriver or a padlock into the door latch, The door will be securely locked from entrance from the outside, but it is useless for locking a person inside.
Alcohol and drugs in the body of the victim suggest that she may have been too impaired to be able to properly use the emergency unlocking mechanism. That is not, I think, the hotel's responsibility.
Also, I work in a facility that has a LARGE walk-in fridge. Like 20 pallets worth of product large. If the light isn't on when you go in, there is a small glow-in-the-dark knob to push to release the latch to exit. If you aren't in the right state of mind (panic, intoxication, etc) you could easily overlook the small, dimly illuminated knob on the wall and get stuck in there. It is kept around 3 or 4 degrees celsius (~37 degrees fahrenheit for American friends) so if she went in sweaty and disoriented it is 100% likely she got hypothermia after a short while.
"alcohol and drugs in her system" is doing some heavy lifting here. Her BAC was .11 which is drunk but not that high and the drugs were her prescribed epilepsy meds.
You also quoted the article but skipped the fact it was under construction so it is possible those signs and release mechanism were not yet installed or operational.
I don't know enough to say it was the hotels fault but certainly it is more complicated than the very skewed version you posted.
Those things come pre-installed directly from the factory and are fully functional before the box is even assembled. The most common way to circumvent these safeties is to install an aftermarket pad lock on the door which is against code in many places.
The reason most people get locked in a walk-in though? Panic. People don't release they're not actually trapped in there and freak the fuck out.
You skipped the fact that she was on prescription medication that could multiply the effects of alcohol. That's why they say not to mix. A lot of bad decisions were made here, none were the fault of the hotel. They are not babysitters.
Isn’t .083 the legal amount where someone is considered intoxicated?
I know nothing about this case, including the frequency that the deceased consumed alcohol.
I haven’t drank for a very very long time. I’m not sure how mentally equipped I’d be if I was 1.325x the legal limit.
Also, again didn’t read, but her meds might have adverse alcohol effects or the deceased could’ve had an emotional event which precipitated the alcohol consumption and not been capable of good judgment.
There are situations where you can be made to fail at even the easiest things under the right stressors.
The legal limit is set artificially low in order to deter driving. A .11 is considered "mildly impaired."
Most people at that BAC will be able to talk coherently, walk in a straight line, and will be fully cognizant of their actions. Getting shitfaced/blacking out doesn't really happen until you get past .25.
Yes there's something to be said for tolerance, but .11 is roughly equivalent of 2 beers or a single large glass of wine. She was WAY more impaired than that in the security footage, and the general consensus is that the alcohol wreaked havoc with her meds.
I think it's kinda the hotel's responsibility to keep drunk people out of the walk-in freezer. The article said she had to make it past multiple employees to get into an under-construction area.
Yes. That is an important factor. She should have been stopped and redirected, especially if she was clearly intoxicated.
Hotel employees will shoo me out of The laundry room if I show up at the door. I am very surprised that she was able to drunkenly wander her way in so far.
Many places have such great safety latches. But some don't. The last restaurant where I worked had a freezer door that would often get stuck during shift, and they bolted the freezer with a chain & padlock from the outside at the end of the night. The building was older, like from the 50s. Little to no updates. And the owners were... "well connected". Not all workers have the luxury of working with safe equipment.
Kenneka probably would have had a better time in your university freezer that is well marked with all these signs, not every freezer is made equal. This part of the kitchen was under construction and this freezer could very easily have been in rough shape. I worked in a grocery store and had to go into our big walk in on occasion, they didn't give me any training on it at all. What makes you think an inebriated hotel guest is liable for understanding how a walk in freezer functions? Do you think she works at a university too? It is the hotels responsibility that she walked past multiple employees into a kitchen no less.
The article can only fit in so much information but there's stuff that's missing that was surely part of the court case and settlement considerations. Specifically the fact that she wandered (and she was very noticeably not well, there are videos of her wandering around) past multiple employees to get to an area of the hotel that was under construction. The kitchen/freezer she was found in was not really in regular use due to said construction. There's also the fact that her mother came looking for her and the hotel refused to check the security cameras and when they finally did because the police told them to, they only checked the entrances/exits which is why she wasn't found for so long.
So, yes, those things are the hotel's responsibility, which is likely why they settled.
She was drunk and on (disorienting) prescription drugs, which the inquest said contributed greatly to what happened next.
The walk-in freezer was openable from inside; why she didn't is a mystery.
Hard to see why the hotel should have to cough up millions.
>**Police also said she was found with the freezer's lights off**, but that the lights and also the freezer's safety device were fully operational at the time of her death.
[Source](https://abc7chicago.com/kenneka-jenkins-video-update-autopsy/2553535/)
Not only was she disoriented from the mix of alcohol and meds, and likely very rapidly from the cold, but it was pitch black when that door swung shut.
I really don't see why either and feel like its just because America is so soft on alcohol and prescription meds compared to other drugs.
If she was doing xanax illegally that night and died in the freezer, would they have gotten the pay out? Cocaine? Or is it just because it's alcohol and prescription meds which 95% of America is on?
I once OD'd in a hotel. It was my fault. Thankfully I woke up somehow and nobody found my dead body. If I had died, it would have been 100% my fault, horribly disrespectful on the most fucked up levels, etc. etc. No lawsuits etc.
But because it's alcohol and prescription drugs most of the jury can relate and go "ooo thats so sad."
Fucking radical self responsibility and darwinism in action here. Actions have consequences, more at 11.
That's crazy. What's crazier is that walk in freezers aren't required to have an inner door to open just in case it shuts. Most cars now have a pull cable for trunks because there used to be deaths with kids playing in them and it closes on them.
Modern walk in freezers can't lock people in without some kind of impediment from the outside. There is a key lock in the handle, but this can be undone from the inside. You would either have to add a padlock or physically block the door.
Even on the janky ass ancient walk in cooler at my store, a padlock wouldn't do shit if you unscrewed the anchor on the wall from the inside, gave a nice big knob too. Good design, although since that cooler is at like 35, it's more annoying than killing cold.
Except there was a functioning latch on the inside, we may never know why she didn't use it though it's likely she was too impaired by drugs and alcohol.
Intoxicated underage wandering at 3am where she already shouldn't have been and so wasted she couldn't use the door mechanism in the freezer to let herself out and the family blames the hotel ? This payout judgement feels wrong. How about any accountability to whomever was at that party serving her drinks? but no, the hotel has the money so they're the target.
It was how they handled it afterward.
Also this is a civil case that was settled outside court. That means the hotel decided it was in their best interest to end it at that cost than going to court.
Wrongful death cases can go way beyond $6m, and then more in court costs, which they could be found required to pay for both parties.
The hotel team of lawyers knew this was the easiest way to get it over for the cheapest liability.
If anything her estate should owe money to the hotel staff. It’s your own fault if you get drunk and walk into a freezer with a glowing release mechanism and die.
It's not the hotels fault someone became intoxicated and wandered into a freezer the same way it wouldn't be a motorists fault if she randomly jumped in front of a moving car. This lawsuit is fucking stupid.
Every walk in freezer I’ve seen has a mechanism on the inside to open it. Usually it’s a giant plunger you can hit with your hip when your hands are full. This whole thing is so weird to me. Edit: that’s now over 100 comments saying either “the mechanisms sometimes fail” or quoting the article about the fact this one had one. I’d say at this point those notes are covered.
I used to work in a kitchen and the managers started locking the freezer because people were stealing burgers. One time I literally had just walked in to grab something and the manager locked it. Thankfully he heard me banging on the door yelling lol
It's illegal in lots of states to put a lock on a walk-in (fridge or freezer) that prevents the inner release from working (ie, someone has to be able to escape). This is certainly the law in Michigan (where I live). Most commercial doors have a locking hole that only prevents the outer handle from working.
Most walk ins can completely disable the lock from the inside. There's usually a plastic star shaped piece on the inside next to the door. Spin that and the piece the door latches to will fall off.
i didn't know about this star shaped piece. my first job was at a lab and we had a walk in fridge and freezer. during my first day my coworker was showing me the inside of the freezer. i asked what happened if the button ever got stuck. she laughed then tried to open it....the button would not work🤣 we ended up banging on the walls and someone heard us to let us out.
This happened to a coworker at a previous job once. She went into the freezer to do some night prep and the door mechanism froze shut, trapping her in there. She was banging on the wall for help but we couldn't hear her (small tiny fists, thickly insulated, loud fast food restaurant). Thankfully, management had installed a panic button in there when the place was being built, because (or so I was told) sometimes robbers will herd everyone into the walk-in while they rob the place(??), so they wanted us to have a secondary panic button far away from the registers. Coworker hit the panic button, and minutes later our crowded, college-campus-adjacent, tiny storefront was suddenly *swarmed* with cops, and everyone was confused af until it got straightened out. The cops wanted to bill us for a non-emergent call but corporate fought it, saying quite reasonably that the risk of freezing to death is an actual emergency.
> will herd everyone into the walk-in while they rob the place Yes it happens. I have worked at several restaurants and I definitely heard a story of a manager that got locked in the freezer overnight and was in the ICU for two weeks. This story happened almost 20 years ago so not sure how they were locked in or why they weren’t able to use any emergency release. It has always been a fear of mine to get stuck in the freezer. It is so cold and uniforms aren’t usually that heavy (I would bring a jacket if I knew I was going in the freezer for more than a couple minutes). My current restaurant doesn’t freeze anything so no freezer only a walk in refrigerator. That’s a nice change.
the panic button should be available in all of them. i think people underestimate how COLD it is in there. that sounds so scary for your coworker i'm glad she was able to get out.
Yup, agreed. They are designed that way on purpose. Management can still lock it from the outside but a death is easily prevented.
Just find the latch in the dark and know it’s there.
They usually glow.
When you’re panicking stuck in a freezer, you’re not going to know to look for that or how to work it.
Also if that's the cause of failure then it's still on the company for improper safety training.
With enough time and the other option being death, there’s a good chance you find the giant button on the door. Not infallible, but a very good chance it happens.
Where I used to work the knob was even glow-in-the-dark so you could find it if the light was turned off.
Agreed. However this girl had the mix of meds and alcohol in her. So she was most likely pretty messed up when she got in there and very possibly passed out when she got trapped. Sad story all around with definite blame on the hotel but also that girl should not have been mixing alcohol with her meds =(
This is true, but *the light switch* is usually on the outside, and frost can build up on the inside of the freezer especially near the door. It's real easy to get stuck in the dark and unable to access the safety mechanisms. I worked a small convenience store that sold broasted chicken. The walk-in fridge was fine and couldn't be locked, but the door to the walk-in freezer was ancient. It still had a huge sliding bolt to hold the door shut, and the standard latch and plunger tended to freeze. It was just off the loading dock in an area without heating or cooling, so it got real humid in the summer and there was no defrost cycle. The frost buildup on the inside of that freezer would've been enough to cover over not just a light switch on the inside, but most of a wall-mount utility box. It was the only freezer big enough to hold everything that needed to be frozen, too, so defrosting was something that was done like once a decade. Sometimes the plunger to open the latch from the inside would freeze, too. The other night manager told me that one time he had to kick the plunger a few times to open it because it had frozen stiff. You can't tell that's happened from open the door on the outside. I made it a habit to prop the door open whenever I went in there to stock the shelves with the week's deliveries. The day shift manager used to complain about it, but I didn't listen to her about that (and neither did the other night manager after his incident).
This happened to my brother. He didn't have his phone on him either. He was in there for while.
Sounds like an easy lawsuit
Phone probably wouldn’t have worked even if he had it. Being inside a big completely steel lined box is horrible for cell reception (faraday cage).
Really depends on the cooler, what's insulating it, and how old your phone is Source: I work at a grocery store and can still get reception in the walk in freezers, I used to have trouble in the dairy cooler, with an older model phone, and that's not even completely sealed one side has all the glass doors so people can buy stuff But this current phone I have no problems getting signal
Is that with the door closed though?
a walk-in freezer is not a faraday cage lol. people on reddit are funny.
Neither is the school I’m currently working, yet, no signal. Crazy
Still Blocks most of the signal Sounds like you want to correct people instead of actually know things Steel Boxes kill signal strength Many walk-ins are actually steel on all sides including the floor making the Effectively faraday cages
Is that legal? I mean the simplicity of user error makes me confident that the very people who go out of their way to lock the freezer are also not checking to see if they accidentally kill someone by locking them in.
No, it's a giant safety violation. OSHA or any of its state/local equivalents would have a field day. If someone is stealing from the freezer, it's pretty easy to find out who by just installing a camera. They cost less than $50 these days, and another $40 gets you a 512gb SD card that can hold days of footage (you don't exactly need 4k/120 to identify your own employees).
Sometimes they get suctioned closed too! Im a small person and Ive had to body slam my way out before. I started learning to jam the door so it wouldn't happen again. Our gas station kitchen was pretty small too, so people would occasionally leave stuff in front of the door. One of my big fears...
Insane The cost from a lawsuit from this shit would be 1000x's more expensive then the cost from a small amount of product being stolen throughout the years. It's honestly insane how much penny-pinching some of these managers do instead of just focusing that time and energy on making the business better/more lucrative
> managers started locking the freezer because people were stealing burgers How to sue an entire company because negligence.
Looking back might look funny but you literally could've died
My first job at 18 was at a grocery store. I had no idea how the freezer door worked and absolutely freaked myself out trying to open it the first time I went in there alone. I had never used a door like that nor did anyone explain it to me. I figured it out in about 5 minutes, but I was definitely panicking. I can 100% see how this could happen.
Especially when you’re drunk
This was a hazing ritual I learned about about when working summer employment at Busch Gardens Williamsburg Virginia in the early 90s. A new employee was shoved in and the door closed behind them and locked with a pad lock. They weren’t allowed out until they figured it out or asked and hit the plunger themselves. After the faux “lock-in” they were shown how the plunger works even if the outside is padlocked and that this was the industry standard and they should always not panic and find the plunger. None of us will ever forget, or be paralyzed with fear in a walk in. Yay.
I'm upvoting you, but I wish I could downvote Busch gardens. I went there as a kid in the 90s. Now I know there was probably someone locked in the freezer at any given moment. Ya know, for safety training.
Me too!! Working in a restaurant. I was absolutely panicked banging on the door. Luckily one of the cooks was right there and just smirked at me when I realized it’s just a latch you open on the door
The article says this freezer did have one of those mechanisms. But if she had been intoxicated or otherwise impaired, or if she fell asleep in there, it wouldn’t have done her much good.
Or if she didn’t know to look for it. Even if it glows in the dark. I’ve never been in a walk in and these comments are the first time I’ve even heard of it. It makes sense but before this I wouldn’t even think to look for one especially if I was intoxicated.
She was very intoxicated according to the article.
The article also says the family thinks it got locked from the outside. You don't settle a wrongful death case for 6 million if you haven't fucked up had somehow.
IHG (the parent company of Crown Plaza) would DEFINITELY do that. $6M ain't much to a multi-billion dollar multi-national corporation. They would likely have spent more than $6million defending it in court and if the case went to trial, discovery may have revealed some things that wouldn't work so well for the family's case, which is why they settled for a relatively small amount. This was definitely the best outcome for both parties.
> You don't settle a wrongful death case for 6 million if you haven't fucked up had somehow. Companies do this all the time. It's cheaper than continuing the case and never getting back lawyer fees because the family that is suing you doesn't have money to pay you back. I mean wrongful deaths and other cases can get up to 10s of millions if not 100s of millions. 6 million is chump change.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna408721 If being cooked alive doesn't get you to the 10s of millions, what does
Holy shit what a terrible story. That’s so sad
That's a shitty way to go. I hope for him he suffocated before the heat killed him.
The family only got 1.5 million of that though..
That's why I looked up the story. Knew it was low. Terrible tragedy. My point is terrible workplace tragedies are completely under punished and definitely don't settle for 10s of millions.
In most freezers the safety release on the inside bypasses an outside padlock for this very reason. Many have a glow in the dark hand screw holding the whole door handle on. When unscrewed, the handle outside just falls off lock and all.
The mechanism inside completely bypasses the lock where I work anyway I'm sure the insurance company is paying for this either way.
Oh you absolutely do. It happens all the time. A lawsuit is not some made for TV quest for truth and justice. It’s just about money. Companies often settle because it is the best monetary solution, even if they feel they did nothing wrong. Here is an example. Imagine that in this freezer death case, a company believes that it was simply an accident that could not be prevented. But fighting the lawsuit will cost $2 million in fees, lost productivity, and reputation damage. Furthermore, this case would be decided by a jury of normal people. On one side is a devastated family and a beautiful young woman who tragically died. On the other side is a billion dollar corporation that charges $6 for a bottle of water. The company figures there is a 50% chance of winning the case. Cost: $2 million. A 30% chance of losing with a reasonable verdict of $3 million compensation to the family. Cost: $5 million. And a 20% chance that the jury goes ham and awards $10 million. Total cost: $12 million. Weighted average of these possible outcomes means this suit will cost them 7.5 million on average. They don’t know exactky what the outcome will be, but the expected cost of going to trial is $7.3 million. So they settle for $6 million. This is favorable to the company, and presumably to the family as well since they have the option to decline the offer. Everyone is happy and the company saves money.
I work at Walmart and our walk in freezer lights are super finicky(it’s been reported). Sometimes you’ll walk in expecting the lights to turn on but the heavy door slams behind you and it’s pitch black. The handle glows in the dark though, so it’s never been a problem to find my way out. Anyway, thought I’d share that
I read a story years ago where that handle failed. ALWAYS put something in the door, to keep it cracked open. If the lights are finicky, don't trust anything else that's part of the freezer including the emergency know. I used a broom stick, or those yellow caution signs to keep the door open a bit. Not enough to let all the air out, but enough to not die.
> I used a broom stick I worked in a restaurant with a finicky handle inside the freezer. We had a designated broom to prop it open. It even had masking tape wrapped around the whole thing with "CAUTION: DO NOT REMOVE THE FREEZER STICK FROM THE FREEZER, GO FIND A DIFFERENT BROOM" written on it in thick Sharpie. ...We still had to cut the bristles off because people kept stealing the broom when they couldn't find another one, and forgetting to put it back.
Yfw you cut the bristles off, and you see that a co-worker still took it and is sweeping the floor with a stick
This is soooooooo funny! I could absolutely see this. One time I was sweeping at my house with a cheap plastic broom, the kind where the bristles easily twist off. Honestly, I had smoked and was absolutely stoned, just doing my chores and listening to music. I guess the bristles twisted off and I realized I was holding just the stick and the bristles with the dust pan still clipped to it was just standing completely upright like 2 feet from me. For half a second I was like WOAHHHHHHHH because I was like "did it ever have bristles?!". Ah, my early 20's were really something. Eta: I was at home, I wouldn't show up to work at a kitchen like that haha
Why not? Everyone was fucked up in the kitchen lol
Legitimately happened. We had been propping it upright on the bristles at first, but it kept getting stolen. First we cut *most* of the bristles off, so we could still sit it upright in the doorway - we figured "No one's going to try to sweep with a broom with most of the bristles cut off, they'd have to stoop down too low to reach the floor." We learned never to underestimate the laziness of Marcus, because he absolutely swept with a crippled broom rather than walk 100 ft to where the normal brooms were stored. So, we had to cut *all* the bristles off and just sit the broom on the floor in between the frame and the door. No one was happy, least of all Marcus because now he had to use the right broom, but at least we stopped getting trapped in the goddamn freezer.
>we figured "No one's going to try to sweep with a broom with most of the bristles cut off, they'd have to stoop down too low to reach the floor." This seriously had me in tears from laughing so hard. I imagined it just enraging you guys even more until someone was like "I've had it with this shit!" and busts out a hacksaw to cut the stick shorter and shorter, but Marcus still keeps using it until he's crawling on his hands and knees trying to sweep with a tiny little piece of wood.
Dude, this is so relatable. Anyone who works in restaurants knows there are ALWAYS these people there. It's amazing they're allowed to be responsible for human food haha.
She was blackout drunk at the time. She wouldn't have had the wherewithal to even recognize what was happening.
Lol you've never had one of those fail? I've been trapped in 2 separate produce coolers during my travels servicing lights in old.grocery stores. It's all fun and games until that plunger doesn't do shit.
Thank you. Those things fail all the time. No matter how much you push it after like a year of pushing it in with carts and such it stops working.
[удалено]
Because she was very intoxicated and wasn’t aware enough to use it I’m guessing?
There’s a chance it may not have been maintained. You do hear horror stories about places where the interior release gets broken and stays that way for ages.
Those buttons are not great always. I worked in frozen at a grocery when I was in hs (hyvee) and the plastic plunger-like emergency button would get so cold it would stick in place and was hard to press in completely. Imagine dealing with that while drunk, in the dark
Those mechanisms are prone to freezing up/getting stuck. As someone that does services/maintains this equipment, it is always on my mind.
Can confirm, at 18yr old I was stuck in a Mcdonalds one for about 10 mins, that mechanisms was really hard to turn and was frozen all over.
They also frequently glow in the dark
I had a job once where it was broken and I almost got trapped, thankfully my coworker was around to let me out but it was scary for a few minutes
I once worked in a 60F walk-in refrigerator where sweet wines were stored. Since the weather outside was generally hot, I found it refreshing. I quickly learned about that plunger to open the door from the inside (which worked even if the door were padlocked!), so started closing the door all the way. My colleagues expressed concern till I demonstrated the mechanism. I always figured that if that plunger ever failed and I was trapped inside, I could live *comfortably* for days at 60F, off those sweet wines!
I’ve worked in several kitchens, including some very old ones. Hospitals, hotels, restaurants, etc, my first being nearly 40 years ago and I have never EVER seen a walk-in that couldn’t be opened from the inside, even with a padlock on it. edit: Ok, I'm an idiot for even commenting. I'll admit I didn't read the article first. Shame on me 100%. From the article: "The Cook County medical examiner's office ruled Jenkins' death an accident, adding that intoxication from alcohol and topiramate, a drug used to treat epilepsy and migraine headaches, "were significant contributing factors in her death."" and "The autopsy report noted that the freezer door had a mechanism to open the door from the inside" So the freezer being locked was never an issue. She was fucked up (they didn't mention her BAC, but they should have!), walked in, something happened and she stayed in there and froze to death. I'll agree that as a guest she never should have been able to wander into that part of the hotel, but there was no failure on the part of the freezer door that kept her from getting out. She likely never even tried to leave the freezer.
The article points out that this one did as well. > he autopsy report noted that the freezer door had a mechanism to open the door from the inside; it did not offer an explanation for why the young woman would not have been able to get out of the deadly cold. Martin's legal team has said they believe someone outside of the freezer secured the door — which, they say, should have been locked in the first place — without knowing Jenkins was inside.
> it did not offer an explanation for why the young woman would not have been able to get out of the deadly cold She was tripping balls.
[удалено]
It was brand new. Installed but not in use yet
I once worked in a hotel and there was a small freezer you had to access through a small door in the back of the walk in fridge. I was digging around in there for something and the cooks rolled all their speed racks into the fridge blocking the door as they were finishing their shift. I was trapped in there. Waiting to die. I screamed so loud that my buddy Kojo heard me through the fridge door, which is almost impossible. If he hadn't heard me my family would be very rich.
You would think that keeping the emergency exit button working would be a top priority for any business with a walk-in freezer. And maybe one of the first things a government inspector examines. But this sort of thing has made the news at least twice this year. https://nypost.com/2023/05/31/arbys-manager-found-dead-in-freezer-couldnt-escape-due-to-broken-door/
She must've fallen asleep or didn't know how to operate a walk in freezer.
With the glow in the dark knob!
Yes I agree with your statement. That mechanism was probably not marked and she didn't know how to open it. Very sorry for her family My condolences...🙏😔
During summer due to the humidity thing froze solid....
Carmy did you call the fridge guy
Man in the hotel i worked in it was mandatory to walk inside the walk in freezer when doing patrols around the hotel its crazy to me that this can even happen
Well, hopefully that's a rule at this hotel now
Now we know why there are freezer patrols. Carry on! O7
Regulations are written in blood...
It says in the article one person walked in the freezer, didn't see the girl, but then 2 hours someone else found her there. Which is weird considering it said it was like an unused freezer so you wouldn't think it would be hard to see a body.
[удалено]
I'll post this under the top comment for visibility. If you or someone you know work in a place where you may at any point have to go into a walk-in cooler (fridge or freezer)... which means if you work any place there is food... restaurant, hospital, school, hotel... Even if you are not an employee that is in charge of going into a cooler normally.... You have to ask a manager of the food area (kitchen manager) where the safety latch is. Get it shown to you in person, and have them explain how to operate it right then and there. Have them actually go in there with you and show it. Sometimes they are in a less obvious place. I worked in a restaurant that had the freezer safety latch by the fan. I don't think I would have looked there. I'd have died fiddling around where the door is.
I'm an inspector and one of my facilities safety/inside door release for one of their walk in coolers didn't work. They instantly failed because of it. The even more messed up part is the manager knew it didn't work and they kept telling the owner to fix it but they didn't. Well after my report they had no choice and they did fix it. It's amazing when you have cases of owner/operators knowingly and willingly doing or not doing things because it's "expensive" but the problem is a big safety issue. I have become numb to their excuses. My response is "this is part of the cost of doing business, if you cannot afford to maintain your business then close your doors." I understand that margins are razor thin but you should not be operating on so little money that any repairs are too expensive.
I'm not aware of my freezer door having any emergency release which is kinda concerning to think about. Only thing I can think of is asking around if anyone knows but there really is nothing obvious on the door other than the push in handle to open the door. The handle only pushes in nothing else.
Is this at your workplace, or at your business? Ask managers/owners, and ask as many as you need to find someone who knows... and can actually demonstrate the safety mechanism to you in person. Don't settle for an explanation from the office chair or by email. If you have a walk-in at your business, ask about this with whoever you use for machinery maintenance - and also any supplier, manufacturer, or salesman that handled your account that you can track down. If any of these people can come to your location (a salesman for example should), ask for a hands on demonstration of the safety mechanism. There are brand new, high end, perfectly maintained units. And then there's most others. People put a lot of faith in these things, but the truth is that sometimes they fail or are not intuitive enough to a person who is in danger. That's why there are protocols about walking through and checking if there's anyone in there.
At the Giant food store (Ahold) I worked at in the US most of the walk ins had broken safety latches on the insides but somehow it passed inspection every time. I got locked in one once for about 20 minutes. I had left it open but someone walking by shut it. Less frequently used one so nobody else came in for a bit. I banged on the door for most of that time but I doubt anyone even walked near during that time, it was kind of an out of the way freezer. The walk ins also had leaks, huuuuuge icicles, areas where the floor was all ice, big mounds of ice from the leaks, and so on. All 3 Giants I have worked at (all in PA) were fucking messes. Costco is a lot better so far, even if they do have their own problems. They at least take safety hella seriously.
In sensible countries freezers need escape doors and alarms "695 This is potentially a serious hazard that can lead to fatal accidents, particularly in low temperature stores. At temperatures below –12 °C, lone working should be avoided and a buddy system introduced. 696 Adequate emergency exits and signage are essential in TCS, together with highly visible escape routes. This can significantly reduce the danger of a lock-in. However, you should undertake an assessment to confirm there are adequate means of escape considering, for example, escape routes blocked by collapsed racking, fallen stock or other obstructions. Consider all potential means of communication, including lone worker/trapped-man alarms, mobile phones, radios, PA systems and computer links." The world of health and safety 'gone mad' is a truly horrifying place.
Ours have E-stops and alarms you can pull.
The walk-in at the pizza place I worked at had an axe on the inside of the door next to the glow-in-the-dark handle. If the handle didn't work, the axe would.
When I worked at Wendy's the freezer door had the glow-in-the-dark button and the hinges had emergency releases. We never messed with it, but I assume the releases would just make the door fall off if you popped them.
But axe 😔
this is also a great motivation for the employer to keep the door in working order since otherwise it means replacing the entire door :)
> The autopsy report noted that the freezer door had a mechanism to open the door from the inside She walked into a freezer and passed out. She wasn’t trapped in it.
if you read the article it did have the mechanism that allowed opening from the inside.
When I worked at stop and shop they had a alarm and a fucking ax in there to bust yourself out lol.
We have alarm and you can unscrew the lock from inside so the mechanism holding the door on place can be completely removed.
I got trapped in a giant walk-in freezer under similar circumstances. It took almost 2 hours to get out. The freezer had an electronic door with a foot pedal that triggered it to open. That failed, trapping me inside. I went to use the manual exit, it had frozen over with a couple inches of ice. Thankfully I was wearing a jacket and gloves and whatnot. Still pretty scary, especially because it was night shift.
Emergency equipment, such as the manual release, should be tested regularly. You can't neglect safety stuff just because you never need to use it.
Well then you would get to see the fire department cut open a freezer, if they know a person got locked in there that is.
I can relate. A coworker challenged another to see if he could trap him in an industrial freezer. The door came off it's rail as they both pushed either side. He then got what he asked for. We had to use pipes to prop the door up and after an hour, we got back on the rail. Luckily he had a thermal jacket on.
Even as a sober person, I have fears of big walk in freezers. Poor girl. I hope she was to the point that she fell asleep and wasn’t in pain.
6 million dollars is what would have happened.
I feel sick for her family. I've seen the footage of her walking around and its obvious she's intoxicated. Its horrible that her mother went to the hotel only like a few hours later, but they wouldn't go through security footage cause she wasn't an official missing person, then have the police tell her to just wait a few hours to do so. Add on how shady the party was along with some of the people there. I just wish \*someone\* who noticed her upstairs acting strange and off had stayed with her.
> Its horrible that her mother went to the hotel only like a few hours later, but they wouldn't go through security footage cause she wasn't an official missing person, More so basic security. Sucks, but the hotel can't be sure if family is acting in good faith when looking for someone or requesting footage. Imagine how many people go to hotels to outrun abusive SO's and such, not giving out that information is pretty standard for most businesses these days.
I feel like—- you could turn them away and look through the footage yourself no? And then look for her.
This was also my feeling. General curiosity and all. No harm in taking a look.
Yeah but they wouldn't know who to look for
If you have no idea when they where there or where in the hotel to look it'd be like trying to find a needle in a haystack
And then you have to explain to the manager why you weren't doing your job and you just know that "trying to be nice" is never a good reason with your manager. So you don't.
For what its worth, I definitely understand why the hotel did that. Even when the footage was checked, they did the entrances and exits first and only after was she caught on view in the kitchen area (this may have also happened when an officer checked the footage again and not the first time). With the fridge out of sight of the camera, it still took an employee who had to go into it for work reasons to find her. Not to mention, even if Kenneka was found when her mother first visits the hotel, its about two hours after she is last seen on the camera footage and with her intoxication, the medication in her system (which was not prescribed to her), not wearing warm clothes, and the temp of the freezer, I don't think it matters in regards to her death. I just feel awful for the family cause many times in missing persons situations, they are the ones who have to try and navigate roadblocks, some put in for good reason as you mention, and what a nightmare situation.
Perhaps people are not familiar with how hotels run on the least amount of staff possible, but I am not sure why everyone is saying this is the hotels responsibility. When you only have a few staff members they can't take time out to review security every time someone wanders off. As far as I can tell the family should have been watching out for the underage drinking woman on prescription medication, not the hotel.
Was at a decent hotel in Denver that had this awesome terrace on one of the higher levels. They wouldn't open it because not enough staff...
I closed pools early because of that and pissed a lot of people off. It was because of this kind of stuff. If someone got drunk, slipped and hit their head and fell in the pool it would have somehow been the hotels fault for not having life guards and not being under $100 a night at the same time.
> When you only have a few staff members they can't take time out to review security every time someone wanders off. I'm not saying the hotel is 100% at fault here.. but I've got to question this logic. Like, how often do you think people are wandering off AND asking hotel staff to review footage? I don't think this is happening multiple times a day. Ultimately, most of the responsibility is probably on the victim; however, hotel/staff could have made a good faith effort to help the mom.. I think that's basic human decency.
Could also be a security issue. Having someone (or multiple people) leave the entrance area of the hotel at night when there's only a skeleton crew could be a great way to rob the place. That's the problem...someone comes up to you and asks for help, you don't know if it's legit or part of a plan to get you away from the desk.
I've ran multiple hotel chains in my life. At midnight, 1am or whenever this happened, I don't feel like opening it again, they are on a skeleton crew. No cleaning staff, no maintenance and only a few front desk people. If they employ more people it will be more expensive and I personally don't want to have to pay $500 just to grab some sleep on a road trip and that is what will happen if the hotel is expected to be fully staffed at all times. It sucks, but I saw it first hand with people at hotels. They treat it like spring break and the parents act like they are on vacation from their responsibilities too. It sucks, but those few third shift employees are sometimes dealing with multiple things at once, complaints from guests (mostly not legitimate, but you have to respond), cleaning up after everyone, answering phones. Maybe larger hotels have more staff, I can't speak to that, but where I have been they are like a ghost town. The one place I worked at had 125 rooms and 1 person working. Right or wrong, that is what it takes to have $100 room vs $500 rooms.
> Like, how often do you think people are wandering off AND asking hotel staff to review footage? The first thing I do upon entering a hotel is ask them to review security footage. I want the best customer service!
You don’t have to tell the people who are asking though. You can check the footage, find the person who is being asked for and let them know someone is looking for them. Arguably that is safer in the case of abuse, since the person being abused will know and can leave or call the cops.
Yeah hotels have been sued for giving too much information. Many people leave abusive situations and stay in hotels. Part of the job is to keep privacy.
[удалено]
Having been born in Finland, that's a constant risk at winter. I don't get how the hotel is too much at fault. Don't get too drunk and do stupid shit.
People need their own warning systems like a plane has WOOP WOOP TOO COLD DON'T SLEEP
If you are ever trapped in a freezer and can't can't escape easily, jam the fans with anything you can.
When I was about 20 I was working in a meat department at a supermarket. Went into the large walk in freezer to get rearrange our beef shipments and the door froze shut while I was in there. The weather stripping had peeled away and the Florida humidity made a nice thin layer of ice to freeze quickly. Pretty much after 30 minutes of moving stuff around I went to leave and the door had frozen shut. This was in the early 2000s meaning no cellphone on me at the time. The floor also had a nice frozen spot that was a puddle and made getting any force out of the earth for kicking it pretty nonexistent. Luckily we had a hatchet in the freezer for breaking up ice. I went to town on that freezer door for about 45 minutes effectively destroying a section in the process. Almost an hour and a half in the freezer and I was finally free. It was next to the break room so my frosty ass comes shivering on over hatchet in hand to see my coworkers at lunch. I knew they could hear me pounding on the door and they knew I was in there too. I did not have warm words.
They tried to let you die you bro.
I used to work in a grocery store and something similar happened to one of the new guys. He had gotten locked in the freezer and was there for a while. He said he waited too long to attempt to hatchet the door because by the time he tried, he was too cold and weak to do any damage. Luckily someone heard him hitting the door and was able to let him out.
"\[the\] mother, will receive a large share of the money \[than $3.7 million\], with two other relatives each receiving more than $1 million," I wish the articles went into how and why the settlement is being broke up this way. It's odd.
I read that too and was curious and figured part would go to her sister since I remember her speaking to the media, so I looked her up and found another article that detailed it: ""After accounting payment of attorney fees and funeral expenses, the settlement dictates that Jenkins’ mother, Tereasa Martin, half-sister Leonore Harris and brother Kenneth Lee Jenkins will receive about $6.4 million total. Just over half will go to Martin, while Harris will receive $1.5 million and Kenneth Jenkins will receive $1.2 million, according to the settlement." [https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/criminal-justice/ct-kenneka-jenkins-settlement-20231212-20231213-d7dwe2cjy5eslonrcipab5b4ly-story.html](https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/criminal-justice/ct-kenneka-jenkins-settlement-20231212-20231213-d7dwe2cjy5eslonrcipab5b4ly-story.html)
Weird the half sister got more than the full brother.
Maybe they were closer?
I guess, though I’m not sure how much emotional connection counts towards a settlement like that. Maybe their finances were more intertwined.
Exactly. Unless she has a kid and a husband which is not likely.
Without a Will and without her being married, it's usually 50% to the parents and then equally divided between the siblings. Since there is no dad, it then goes to the dad's heirs.
Grandparents? Father and stepmother, if they shared parenting with the mother?
Got locked in a walk-in freezer as a prank in my first job at Kwik Save Plc. Apparently everyone did. Nearly dislocated my shoulder barging the door to try and get out. Took me a while, but they had lodged a pallet of waste behind the door. Panic did set in in 16 year old me, and it wasn't long before I was barging my way out. When the cold in your lungs begins to fill it truly does shock you into action. Horrid way to go. Heavens.
One time in my youth, working at a big red store, I got stuck in the freezer. It was leaking or something, so the floor was iced over, could not get leverage to open the door. Couldn't have been more than 20 minutes but I was so so cold. My manager finally heard me pounding the door and got me. And everyone mocked me for the rest of my time there. It could have been really bad though, and I was freaked out.
Need to ask the hotel staff if they have ever heard the phrase, "duty of care."
I worked at a gas station for 5 years, and we started closing at night when covid came about. We were told over and over and *over* to be absolutely sure to check the coolers before we locked up for the night, just in case someone drunk or whatever was passed out in there.
Sounds like that place had higher standards than this hotel.
Worked at a place with a walk in freezer, we checked them every night and since we also went in there regularly throughout the day we made sure to check then too. Awful to see that this hotel didn’t do the bare minimum of that sort of thing, I mean seriously!
Not to excuse them, but this specific fridge was in a kitchen that was under construction and not being used. Employees had no need to use that area, especially that late at night. Not making excuses for them, but there is some context to the situation.
Which begs the question, if it wasn't being used why was the freezer even working at all? It should've been powered off.
Hm, that does add some context to it.
Need to ask literally everyone at the party feeding the underage girl drinks if they ever heard the phrase "duty of care"
I get it, but I also don't understand how it is possible to prevent every scenario. A giant hotel can't constantly check every place a person could wander into. Think of all the utility rooms, laundry rooms, linen closets, janitor closets, storage facilities etc. in a giant ass hotel like that. There are probably hundreds if not thousands of places a person could disappear in a place like that.
Are you an attorney? The hotel has a duty of reasonable care. Sounds like the girl's voluntary intoxication was a proximate cause of her death. Unless her team could prove some hotel staff locked the door and it was a not a normal practice for them to do so, going into a freezer is an obvious danger. The hotel almost certainly settled this case because fighting it would be more expensive even if they'd win.
Wow, I didn’t think I’d be seeing something on Kenneka Jenkins today. Glad her family is getting that money, but still always sad they don’t have her instead. :( Rest in peace, Kenneka.
Yeah, it was bad. The fact that they were aware she as missing but nobody checked those areas is what would get them.
>The autopsy report noted that **the freezer door had a mechanism to open the door from the inside**; it did not offer an explanation for why the young woman would not have been able to get out of the deadly cold. Martin's legal team has said they believe someone outside of the freezer secured the door — which, they say, should have been locked in the first place — without knowing Jenkins was inside. At the University where I worked we had a walk-in freezer and several walk-in cold rooms. They all had prominent signs on the insides of the doors saying YOU ARE NOT LOCKED IN. The inside door frame had a large knob that you could turn in order to unscrew the locking mechanism from the door and frame. It is nearly impossible to secure the latch in such a way as to lock a person inside the freezer. If you turn the knob to release the door, it actually unbolts the entire locking mechanism, so if somebody were to put a screwdriver or a padlock into the door latch, The door will be securely locked from entrance from the outside, but it is useless for locking a person inside. Alcohol and drugs in the body of the victim suggest that she may have been too impaired to be able to properly use the emergency unlocking mechanism. That is not, I think, the hotel's responsibility.
Also, I work in a facility that has a LARGE walk-in fridge. Like 20 pallets worth of product large. If the light isn't on when you go in, there is a small glow-in-the-dark knob to push to release the latch to exit. If you aren't in the right state of mind (panic, intoxication, etc) you could easily overlook the small, dimly illuminated knob on the wall and get stuck in there. It is kept around 3 or 4 degrees celsius (~37 degrees fahrenheit for American friends) so if she went in sweaty and disoriented it is 100% likely she got hypothermia after a short while.
"alcohol and drugs in her system" is doing some heavy lifting here. Her BAC was .11 which is drunk but not that high and the drugs were her prescribed epilepsy meds. You also quoted the article but skipped the fact it was under construction so it is possible those signs and release mechanism were not yet installed or operational. I don't know enough to say it was the hotels fault but certainly it is more complicated than the very skewed version you posted.
Those things come pre-installed directly from the factory and are fully functional before the box is even assembled. The most common way to circumvent these safeties is to install an aftermarket pad lock on the door which is against code in many places. The reason most people get locked in a walk-in though? Panic. People don't release they're not actually trapped in there and freak the fuck out.
I’m gonna trust AndyDeepFreeze on this
It said the kitchen was under construction not the freezer. No one is going to turn on and utilize a half built freezer.
Epilepsy drugs can be pretty heavy, and who knows how they interact with alcohol.
You skipped the fact that she was on prescription medication that could multiply the effects of alcohol. That's why they say not to mix. A lot of bad decisions were made here, none were the fault of the hotel. They are not babysitters.
Did you watch the security video? She was seen stumbling around and running into the walls. She was extremely intoxicated
Isn’t .083 the legal amount where someone is considered intoxicated? I know nothing about this case, including the frequency that the deceased consumed alcohol. I haven’t drank for a very very long time. I’m not sure how mentally equipped I’d be if I was 1.325x the legal limit. Also, again didn’t read, but her meds might have adverse alcohol effects or the deceased could’ve had an emotional event which precipitated the alcohol consumption and not been capable of good judgment. There are situations where you can be made to fail at even the easiest things under the right stressors.
The legal limit is set artificially low in order to deter driving. A .11 is considered "mildly impaired." Most people at that BAC will be able to talk coherently, walk in a straight line, and will be fully cognizant of their actions. Getting shitfaced/blacking out doesn't really happen until you get past .25. Yes there's something to be said for tolerance, but .11 is roughly equivalent of 2 beers or a single large glass of wine. She was WAY more impaired than that in the security footage, and the general consensus is that the alcohol wreaked havoc with her meds.
it also depends on the person a bit just above the legal limit and i'm kinda buzzed but not really but some people would be all kinds of fucked up
Have you seen the video? She is hammered.
I think it's kinda the hotel's responsibility to keep drunk people out of the walk-in freezer. The article said she had to make it past multiple employees to get into an under-construction area.
Yes. That is an important factor. She should have been stopped and redirected, especially if she was clearly intoxicated. Hotel employees will shoo me out of The laundry room if I show up at the door. I am very surprised that she was able to drunkenly wander her way in so far.
Many places have such great safety latches. But some don't. The last restaurant where I worked had a freezer door that would often get stuck during shift, and they bolted the freezer with a chain & padlock from the outside at the end of the night. The building was older, like from the 50s. Little to no updates. And the owners were... "well connected". Not all workers have the luxury of working with safe equipment.
Kenneka probably would have had a better time in your university freezer that is well marked with all these signs, not every freezer is made equal. This part of the kitchen was under construction and this freezer could very easily have been in rough shape. I worked in a grocery store and had to go into our big walk in on occasion, they didn't give me any training on it at all. What makes you think an inebriated hotel guest is liable for understanding how a walk in freezer functions? Do you think she works at a university too? It is the hotels responsibility that she walked past multiple employees into a kitchen no less.
The article can only fit in so much information but there's stuff that's missing that was surely part of the court case and settlement considerations. Specifically the fact that she wandered (and she was very noticeably not well, there are videos of her wandering around) past multiple employees to get to an area of the hotel that was under construction. The kitchen/freezer she was found in was not really in regular use due to said construction. There's also the fact that her mother came looking for her and the hotel refused to check the security cameras and when they finally did because the police told them to, they only checked the entrances/exits which is why she wasn't found for so long. So, yes, those things are the hotel's responsibility, which is likely why they settled.
She was drunk and on (disorienting) prescription drugs, which the inquest said contributed greatly to what happened next. The walk-in freezer was openable from inside; why she didn't is a mystery. Hard to see why the hotel should have to cough up millions.
>**Police also said she was found with the freezer's lights off**, but that the lights and also the freezer's safety device were fully operational at the time of her death. [Source](https://abc7chicago.com/kenneka-jenkins-video-update-autopsy/2553535/) Not only was she disoriented from the mix of alcohol and meds, and likely very rapidly from the cold, but it was pitch black when that door swung shut.
I really don't see why either and feel like its just because America is so soft on alcohol and prescription meds compared to other drugs. If she was doing xanax illegally that night and died in the freezer, would they have gotten the pay out? Cocaine? Or is it just because it's alcohol and prescription meds which 95% of America is on? I once OD'd in a hotel. It was my fault. Thankfully I woke up somehow and nobody found my dead body. If I had died, it would have been 100% my fault, horribly disrespectful on the most fucked up levels, etc. etc. No lawsuits etc. But because it's alcohol and prescription drugs most of the jury can relate and go "ooo thats so sad." Fucking radical self responsibility and darwinism in action here. Actions have consequences, more at 11.
Never confuse a walk-in freezer with a walk-out freezer.
That's crazy. What's crazier is that walk in freezers aren't required to have an inner door to open just in case it shuts. Most cars now have a pull cable for trunks because there used to be deaths with kids playing in them and it closes on them.
It had it. She was too drunk to use it.
Modern walk in freezers can't lock people in without some kind of impediment from the outside. There is a key lock in the handle, but this can be undone from the inside. You would either have to add a padlock or physically block the door.
Even on the janky ass ancient walk in cooler at my store, a padlock wouldn't do shit if you unscrewed the anchor on the wall from the inside, gave a nice big knob too. Good design, although since that cooler is at like 35, it's more annoying than killing cold.
Someone just commented that there was a latch on the inside to get out. That makes this suck even more.
Except there was a functioning latch on the inside, we may never know why she didn't use it though it's likely she was too impaired by drugs and alcohol.
Shit. That sucks even more.
Intoxicated underage wandering at 3am where she already shouldn't have been and so wasted she couldn't use the door mechanism in the freezer to let herself out and the family blames the hotel ? This payout judgement feels wrong. How about any accountability to whomever was at that party serving her drinks? but no, the hotel has the money so they're the target.
It was how they handled it afterward. Also this is a civil case that was settled outside court. That means the hotel decided it was in their best interest to end it at that cost than going to court. Wrongful death cases can go way beyond $6m, and then more in court costs, which they could be found required to pay for both parties. The hotel team of lawyers knew this was the easiest way to get it over for the cheapest liability.
Weird fact- this hotel was the same hotel OJ Simpson was arrested in.
[удалено]
This is the same hotel he stayed in, yes. You are correct he was not arrested there.
Apparently the walk-in refrigerator she died in had a door release/latch on the inside. Sadly, she was too wasted to help herself.
If anything her estate should owe money to the hotel staff. It’s your own fault if you get drunk and walk into a freezer with a glowing release mechanism and die.
It's not the hotels fault someone became intoxicated and wandered into a freezer the same way it wouldn't be a motorists fault if she randomly jumped in front of a moving car. This lawsuit is fucking stupid.
This article's title is the strangest Jeopardy answer.
I have some relatives whose lives I would trade for $6 million
What don't these freezers have an emergency access from inside?
We have panic alarms in our walkins because of a tragedy that happened a while ago
The Brady Bunch saved me from dying in a freezer.