Here’s the deal. Three underage girls go to Gillette Stadium to tailgate before The New England Country Music Festival in 2008. They have no intention of going to the show as they do not have tickets. They’re there to scream ‘wooHOO’, get trashed and ‘have a good time’.
Which is presumably exactly what they did. Until they loaded their ‘loaded’ selves on to Route 1 and about a mile later they were dead. The blood alcohol level? .24. The story? The girls families are suing the Kraft Group for ‘willful and wanton negligence” $2.5 million dollars worth.
The New England Country Music Festival was the scene of raging tailgates, according to the Boston Globe, with hundreds of partiers reportedly intoxicated by 6 p.m. At that time, the parking lots were said to be “out of control” with fights, public urination and vomiting. Security fanned out and ordered tailgaters without tickets to leave. Yee ha!
Underage drinking is a fact of life. Death is a fact of life. Businesses that show extreme negligence should be held accountable. The Kraft Group just happened to own the property where the drinking took place. They did not supply it, nor is it a ‘over 21’ parking lot. Their only liability here is not catching it in the act and with the expanse of this venue there is no surprise in that.
Though this being a country music festival you’d expect a rootin’ tootin’ good time. It’s unfortunate there had to be any incident at all but to sue is does nothing but cheap these girls lives.