Custer, SD – A Fourth of July hot dog eating contest in western South Dakota turned tragic when a contestant choked to death.
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Walter Eagle Tail, 47, of Custer, died at a hospital Thursday after attempts to save him at the scene failed, Custer County Sheriff Rick Wheeler told the Rapid City Journal (http://bit.ly/1n3EKRD ).
“There was someone doing CPR when we arrived,” Wheeler said. “He probably just suffocated. It got lodged in his throat and they (paramedics) couldn’t get it out.
“It all happened within minutes,” the sheriff said.
The Custer Chamber of Commerce, which sponsored the contest, canceled a pie-eating contest scheduled for Friday.
“We are at a loss for words,” Chamber Executive Director Dave Ressler said. “We are mourning for Walter and his family right now.”
Speed-eating competitions are popular over the Fourth of July weekend. Eight-time champion Joey “Jaws” Chestnut managed to eat 61 hot dogs in 10 minutes at an annual contest in Coney Island, New York, on Friday — eight short of the record 69 he swallowed in the 2013 competition.
George Shea, chairman of Major League Eating, a competitive eating organization based in New York, said organizers do all they can to prevent casualties during contests, though his group had nothing to do with the South Dakota event.
“We always make sure it’s in a controlled environment,” Shea said. “We organize the entire thing around safety. (Just as) if it’s football or hockey or auto racing, we approach it as a top priority.”
Funeral arrangements were pending for Eagle Tail, whom friends described as a fun-loving, kind and caring man.
“Walter was just being Walter, having fun when he entered this contest,” said Ardis McRae. “He was just having a good time.”
This just proves what nutritionists and my mom have been saying for years, namely, “Hotdogs are lethal and can kill you.” Seriously, I heard the coroner report described the cause of death as “full of baloney”.
BD’E. He died doing something that he loved.
Lived like a dog, died like a dog.
Someone died at the cockroach eating contest last year. This kind of entertainment needs to be related
Coping skills do not go well with final restitution. A swallowing nightmare is not enough to improve the bank account of time. Disgusting.
# Love google translate.
On his matzavah it will say “He died with a hot dog in his throat while attempting to win the championship. I wonder if his life insurance policy will be voided for such an act of supidity resulting in death.
This is very tragic. But I hope that this might lead to abolishing this kind of competition and record breaking.
This surely is an activity that is very correctly considered unhealthy dangerous, not just a sport.
Usually, a healthy person gets off lucky, not always, and certainly not everyone. And NEVER healthy.