Best 'Accident Waiting to happen' you've seen

[P. Funk]

Walking to the train station the other day, I saw two ladders leant up against a house (against the overhanging tiles and the muddy grass), with two alloy bars fixed to them parallel to the ground, about 15ft in the air. resting along these bars was a 'work platform' of several planks of timber, with some paint on it.

 

This gave me an idea. What is the worst/best 'Accident waiting to happen' you have seen?

[Djbarryblue]

all the male casual staff working during a dance show ! ;)

 

 

** laughs out loud **

Oopps sorry not that kind of accident :** laughs out loud **:

[TeeJay]

We all know that fit-ups are the preserve solely of those involved directly and people wandering in tend to nominate themselves for a Darwin . . .

 

Part of the fit-up crew for a large-ist musical in a college theatre that had very recently been totally refurbished. The design called for a false floor and traps therein. The traps were down and the false floor laid over the top. There was going to be several hours where the holes were only going to be covered with a layer of wood until the set crew had readied the mechanisms underneath. Hazard tape was placed over the dangerous areas and all the crew were warned of the locations. Not too much of a problem as most of the work was happening in the lighting bridges at that point and a notice was on the theatre outer doors saying that only approved people were permitted into the theatre while the fit-up took place.

 

So when we looked down to see the principle wander on stage to show off the new space to some random suits - there was a shocked silence. The problem being that his foot was right next to one of the aforementioned taped sections of floor, he had ignored the pile of hard-hats right by the door and various things were in the process of being moved (loudspeakers, lights, etc).

 

I'm not certain if he ever knew how close he had come to ending up in understage.

 

Actually the biggest problem was that due to college politics most of us were looking forward to seeing him take one more step.

 

Allegedly. B-)

[danyoung]

Hazard tape was placed over the dangerous areas and all the crew were warned of the locations.

Seeing that reminds me of a play we recently did, in which we modified our one counterweight bar into a flying wall (of flats - it's usually the house tab)

 

Well we had the area this landed in marked off with hazard tape (it did weigh 200kg, and our people are not used to things like that whizzing down from the sky), admittedly with a generous 'margin for error'

 

Well one night during a particular actor's "stage death" he found himself laying face down, sprawled smack bang in the middle of this area -- of course, we wouldn't have dropped it in on his head, but it's nice to keep them on their toes B-)

[gil-galad]

The worst things I have seen are in France (no H&S) and in a small provintial theatre in Ireland.

 

The French rigger who looked at a bit of chain and thought it looked big enough to hold a rig up (garden chain)

 

or

 

Fly bars made of 2" square wooden beams where then lanterns and cloths are nailed on. The SM said "it's fine cos we replace them every year" but it looked like they had woodworm and it was only june!

[Bryson]

Moderation: Off-topic chat removed.

[computer]

I saw a college with no safety chains on any of their lights above the stage and auditorium..

[Brian]

I saw a college with no safety chains on any of their lights above the stage and auditorium..

Sadly, by far and away, not the worst College set-up I've seen. I recently felt moved to write to a college about the state of their stage equipment and pointing out their HSE (LOLER) responsibilities.

[MartinT]

Had an incident at my local venue, during plotting of the light the team were in discussion holding a blackout. A member of the cast walked in through the backstage door and headed to the front of the stage without making their presence known. Unfortunatly the pit was open as it should have been for the production and the cast member went down it - breaking their pelvis

 

The pit had barriers on the auditorium side but not on the stage side (there aren't any during the performance are there? And it was tape marked. The cast member shouldn't have been there but it raised a whole host of questions and the debate still goes on two years later!

[alan v]

The pit had barriers on the auditorium side but not on the stage side (there aren't any during the performance are there? And it was tape marked. The cast member shouldn't have been there but it raised a whole host of questions and the debate still goes on two years later!

 

I read somewhere of a similar event in the States, except it was a drunk tramp who managed to find his way into the theatre, and fell into the pit...

 

We have a safety rope on the stage side of the pit for get-ins. It is taken down before rehearsals and shows.

 

In fact, the rope is also in place when the pit is not in, and it is just the drop to the auditorium.

 

The rope acts as a warning, I'm sure if someone was determined enough they would still go off.

 

Like most health and safety things, we all thought it was pretty stupid at the time, but now it seems very sensible.

 

alan.

[Big_ gray]

How about the BT line engineer up a pole(about 5mtrs) in a harness (good boy), unfortunately his safety line was so long it reached the floor, coiled and went all the way back up to him! (bad boy).

[gil-galad]

I have recently been on a short corporate tour of the Uk and Scotland and have seen some very scary things.

 

Safety steels connected as a loop through the pickup basket and the truss pickup which would be no use if any part of the system failed

 

Pickups on angle iron in a roof truss with no burlap or protection

 

Sideways loading of box trusses which are not designed for it.

 

A drape truss installed by a well known lighting company I shall not mention in which they decided the truss would look better if the flew it on edge as opposed to flat. The truss was a 52cm GP which is fairly beefy and capable of carrying over 1T at 12m span but at 8m on edge it was clearly bowing with NO load. Needless to say it was changed after several words with the venue and crew.

[safetyfirst]

safetyfirst

 

Just got back from a very large and well known university drama department in London.

Amazed/flabbergasted/scared to see a scaff pole rig for a whole studio held up with jack chain (the kind you hang fluorescent fittings up with), gaffa tape and cable ties. ;)

[j_b]

Anyone worked in the Albert Hall recently? Last time I did, there was this cool ramp - approx 50 foot lonf and about 30º downhill from the road, and if they didn't pu the last 16' on, there was a 'surprise' right angle just before you and the 200kg monitors desk you (and 10 others) had with you flew off the end. Add a bit of rain.......

[Guest lightnix]

Anyone worked in the Albert Hall recently? Last time I did, there was this cool ramp

That's nothing, you should have seen the rickety old wooden one that it replaced ;)

 

On the subject of people falling off the edge of the stage: I have worked on a number of rock gigs over the years and not one of them has had any kind of barriers around the edge of the stage during load in, or even a piece of wood nailed down to prevent boxes from rolling off the stage. When you consider that rock stage floors can be 2.5m above the auditorium...

 

A friend of mine actually fell off such a stage a few years ago, injuring his back in the process. When he confronted the Production Manager about the incident, he was told, "No, you didn't fall off the stage, you threw yourself off it - I saw you do it.

 

Lovely. Career in showbiz, anybody ?