Inattention to Blame for Wheaton College Student's Death at Track Meet: Police

WHEATON, IL — Wheaton Police say a tragic instance of brief inattention is to blame for the death of a Wheaton College Student at a track and field meet last month. Ethan Roser, 19, died after he was hit in the head by a 16-pound track hammer.

Roser was standing roughly 30 feet from the safety cage where the thrown hammers are designated to land when he was struck, Detective Andrew Uhlir told Chicago Tribune Monday. He was working as a volunteer to measure the distance of the thrown hammers, which are heavy balls attached . The incident occurred during warmups for the event.

Uhlir told Chicago Tribune that two other volunteers were playing around with the sticks used to measure distance of the throws when Roser got distracted by them. It was at that moment that Roser received a fatal blow to the head from an errant hammer. The hammer also missed another volunteer and struck another volunteer in the head, resulting in minor injuries, Uhlir said.

According to Uhlir, the volunteers had gone through a brief training that urged them to keep their attention focused on the athlete throwing the hammer. He told Chicago Tribune, “They were definitely instructed repeatedly to pay attention to the cage at all times during the event, even between events, because their job was to grab the hammers and bring them back.”

Questions have also arisen about whether the safety cage was set up properly.
According to the NCAA handbook, “Cage design is acknowledged to provide limited protection for spectators, officials and competitors. It does not ensure their safety.”

Nevertheless, it is rare for a hammer throw to result in death. According to a 2013 study by the University of North Carolina, there were just five fatalities due to thrown objects at high school track and field meets between 1992 and 2013. At the college level, one of the most recent incidences involved a coach who was killed by a hammer throw at Ithaca College in 2014.

After Ethan Roser's tragic death, a GoFundMe account was started in his memory.

>>Image via GoFundMe, Ethan Roser Memorial Fund