paulears Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 Panic phone call. The fanlight in the grid is wide open. Weather terrible, rain and hail. stage flooded. Frantic drive to venue. Engineers on way. Bring in all the lx bars to check for water. all ok except LX. scans and LED Parcans all soaked. Stripped the bar. Engineer arrived and we went up to the grid to sort the problem. with a chain winch and some shackles, all was well. Back at stage level I walked across to the counterweight cradles to fly the bar out. In my head, I'd unloaded the cradle. For over 30 years I have ALWAYS unloaded the cradle. I grabbed the rope flipped off the brake - and left the ground - very quickly. Why I didn't let go straight away, I really don't know, but in the end I did, the cradle hitting the bottom of the frame and me with blood and skin hanging off my hands. Off to A&E. Doctor says nice clean burns that will heal fine - wedding ring cut off, and going to the loo will be interesting. Despite the sheer stupidity of what I did, and the abuse I will get - there is a serious point to the post. Out of everybody in my venue, I'm the most experienced, I'm the one who does the training, the risk assessments and shouts at the others for doing daft things. I made a mistake - and it could have klled me. By luck, I'm ok, but it really was luck. Everyone knows you shouldn't grab the rope like that - everyone knows hemp can really hurt - and the dangers of an out of balance bar are obvious - yet in a moment of no thought, I messed up. Probably worth thinking if you would have faired better? http://www.earsmedia.co.uk/hands1a.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gareth Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 Must've taken you quite some time to type that post, Paul! ;) Looks (and sounds) very painful. Hope it's not too long before you're fully-functional again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seano Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 Ow ow ow! All the best for a speedy recovery Paul. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scjb Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 Respect to you for your post. Hope you have a rapid recovery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ynot Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 Just goes to show that distraction and unfamiliar actions in a familar environment (ie you were working with stuff you knew, but not under the usual circumstances) can result in quite different REactions when something goes t!ts up. Your first error, ie not unloading the cradles, led to your second error, which was not letting go of the hemp. Fact is no matter how much you train for something you're almost always going to be on the back foot when something you may have planned for going wrong actually goes wrong. What I mean is that you know what to do if the first error was made, but because you've likely never been in that situation because of prior excellent working practice, your brain doesn't have time to adjust. And the natural reaction to a line flying off on it's own is to do just what you did - grab it with both hands. No - NONE of us can claim to be immune to human error - all we can do is make the best of what's thrown at us, and learn from the outcome! And yes - full kudos for (quite literally!) for putting your hands up for this one, Paul! ;) :o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryson Posted April 12, 2008 Share Posted April 12, 2008 Nasty! I assume your thumb-typing is pretty good. Or did you use a pencil in your mouth? ;) It's an interesting story, and shows exactly what can happen when you end up in a rush - in your case, an emergency call-out, followed by trying to save potentially ruined gear got you out of your "swing" and you made a simple, but easy mistake. The useful lesson here is that even in "emergency"* situations, it pays to slow down, think and not panic. I sometimes get funny looks from people because I never run, regardless of how bad the problem is - I walk at a brisk but regular pace and think about how to fix it while I'm on my way. And that works. I can totally imagine how that accident would have come about, Paul. Hope it feels better soon! At last, an excuse not to do paperwork! :o *=Not something that involves endangered lives, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_m Posted April 12, 2008 Share Posted April 12, 2008 OW! That's rope burn taken to the extreme! Hope it gets better soon, but still, it's an ideal reason to delay your tax return! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted April 12, 2008 Author Share Posted April 12, 2008 right finger tip and left thumb ok - so typing 'interesting'. Thanks for the words, appreciated. I just am so annoyed with myself for doing it. Bryson is right - all I was thinking about at the time was how to get a bar full of kit dry, tested, repaired and up again - what could I get away with, how much money available for replacements, would replacement LED fixtures have the same attributes etc etc - the empty bar would be easy for somebody to walk into, so just needed flying out. I didn't even slowly take the rope lock off, just flipped the lever. Just one brain locked moment. We spend lots of time on here trying to stop people doing dangerous things. I'm just so angry with myself. Hopefully if just one person reads this and doesn't do it themselves, my self-inflicted humiliation is worth it. ps er.... if anyone knows a method to carry out some basic, regular bodily functions involving sitting down with bandages on that doesn't involve a 'friend' - could they drop me a pm as I'm a bit stumped. P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted April 12, 2008 Share Posted April 12, 2008 Proves that accidents do happen, regardless of training and experience. I wish you a speedy recovery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gyro_gearloose Posted April 12, 2008 Share Posted April 12, 2008 Perhaps Pauls system could be made safer by slackening the rope brakes a little bit? Let me explain. Our counterweight flying system uses brakes like those at the top of this page. When a bar and cradle are out of balance by around 40 kilos the rope will gradually slip through the brake. If we need to have a bar out of balance (when first attaching a flat to the bar where a lot of the weight is resting on the stage, for example) we use additional rope locks such as those at the bottom of the page I just mentioned. If Pauls brakes had been like ours then his bar would have started to slip before he had removed all of his lights, and this would have alerted him to the fact that his bar was extremely cradle-heavy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ynot Posted April 12, 2008 Share Posted April 12, 2008 ps er.... if anyone knows a method to carry out some basic, regular bodily functions involving sitting down with bandages on that doesn't involve a 'friend' - could they drop me a pm as I'm a bit stumped.Sounds like a job for a pair of surgical gloves, or maybe Marigolds....Wouldn't be pleasant in either case, but the alternatives..... ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the kid Posted April 12, 2008 Share Posted April 12, 2008 The Roman way, sponge on a stick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rudigure Posted April 17, 2008 Share Posted April 17, 2008 That's something I'm going to bear in mind everytime I take the brake off. Good luck with a speedy recovery Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted April 17, 2008 Author Share Posted April 17, 2008 The dressings are being changed every tues and friday - and most are healing - well, they are getting crispy, but the others are still unpleasant. The nurse says friction burns are worse than heat burns because the heat seals the edges. It also appears I have broken the counterweight too - a weld failed and one line is off the pulley - so not a good outcome. They always say you learn from your mistakes - I certainly have done. Thanks for all the nice words, everyone - most appreciated!P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob_cheese Posted April 18, 2008 Share Posted April 18, 2008 ps er.... if anyone knows a method to carry out some basic, regular bodily functions involving sitting down with bandages on that doesn't involve a 'friend' - could they drop me a pm as I'm a bit stumped.Sounds like a job for a pair of surgical gloves, or maybe Marigolds....Wouldn't be pleasant in either case, but the alternatives..... Was going to suggest this as a joke, but maybe something similar might be a goer. Wonder if you can hire them.... All the best for a quick recovery! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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