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SunTrust Park rendering, via AtlantaBraves.com

Safety of Sports Stadiums Questioned After Fan Dies at Atlanta Braves Game

More from Tomahawk Take

The death of a longtime Braves season-ticket holder raises questions about the planned height of guard rails at their new stadium scheduled to open in 2017.

The Braves say they had safety in mind when making plans for SunTrust Park even before Gregory K. Murrey’s death on Saturday night, though team officials on Monday would not release plans for the heights of the railings at the new stadium.

The stadium rails at Turner Field meet industry standard height requirements, but the team could exceed those heights at their new facility.

The International Building Code, the accepted industry standard, has a minimum height requirement of 42 inches for guard rails that act as protective barriers in open-sided areas such as walkways or smoking platforms. Railings in front of seated areas must be 26 inches.

Braves president John Schuerholz didn’t address specifics on Sunday about guard rails at the new stadium, though he did say that while Murrey’s death was tragic it wouldn’t influence construction plans.

“We’re not going to tie that into how you design a facility,” Schuerholz said. “It was a sad, tragic event. We obviously abide by industry regulations and we’ll continue to do that. That’s what we’ll do.

“We made our plans long before this event occurred. Every facility that’s getting built, there’s a great deal of communication with architects and engineers and the league in terms of abiding by league standards for the industry. We certainly will do that.”

[ Ed. note: we get these literally every time someone dies at a stadium. It’s tragic. It’s paartly tragic because it’s also avoidable. But the public doesn’t really want more/higher barriers, so the status quo continues. I suppose if a stadium operator really wanted to be insanely pro-active, they might build ‘catch nets’ between each deck, but don’t hold your breath waiting on those, for such things would block sight lines for the light-up message boards (and advertisements) that now occupy the front-facing facades of each deck.

But absent this, it’s still a fan’s responsibility not to defeat the barriers that are in place… and 2 or 3-1/2 feet of rail height should be enough. ]

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