PLSN: A "Hair Hang Act" performance during a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus show here on May 4 took a disastrous turn when the apparatus the performers were hanging from suddenly fell to the ground. An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration determined the incident occurred because the carabiner used to support the performers failed from being improperly loaded. The failure resulted in the eight employees performing the act falling more than 15 feet to the ground and sustaining serious injuries. A ninth employee, working on the ground, was struck by falling employees.
7 comments:
Articles like this make me incredibly angry at the lack of safety precautions that people take nowadays. There are specific rigging overload limits for a reason! People are getting hurt for no reason, and the fact that the maximum fine is $7,000 is utterly ridiculous. I have heard many other violations from the Ringling Bros. Either this company has the money to just keep paying safety fines, or something is seriously wrong with their management. There is absolutely no reason why corners should be cut when it involves people's safety.
What possible benefit could there have been to use a carabiner as the main connection point for this rig? Carabiners are very good for some things, but they are designed to work under very limited loading conditions. We use them in climbing because, for their weight, they can handle large dynamic loads applied to their major axis. Climbers are careful to set up their anchors such that any dynamic (falling) load can only be applied to the carabiner along the major axis. Carabiners are fast and light, that's the point. When setting up a rig for a circus act I can't see any argument for why the rig needs to be lightweight. I can maybe see an argument for the set up to be fast, but threading and mousing a pin into a shackle would seem to be fast enough. When human lives are hanging in the balance, however, there is little that should outweigh considerations of safety.
Yeah, I have to agree with Andrew, why a carabiner?? Frankly, I'm shocked that an organization as large as the Ringling Bros. does not have better oversight or more experienced riggers watching over their rigging systems. It would seem to me that in a circus, where things flying or moving around is almost the norm, that having a competent rigging team should be a pretty high priority. I still can't believe that the system was set up in a way that the load was even close to the max WLL. Here at CMU, I can't count how many times I've been asked to get a shackle with a 3/4 ton WLL for a load that could not have been in excess of 300 pounds.
The OSHA $7000 slap on the wrist fine is just adding insult to injury. Thank god nobody actually died..
How many of these stories of death and near death situations are we going to have to read about before someone finally steps up and does something? I am so tired of money being the driver behind safety decision because it almost always ends up costing someone their life. Now I'm not naive I know that money will always be the driving force but, Really its time that the people who are supposed to keep performs safe made a stand. I hate being so powerless but those of us who read about it aren't responsible here, and commenting our anger doesn't do anything to help.
With there being an incident article on this page almost every week, I am surprised that OSHA, or some other agency, has not already created a governing body of safety regulations specifically for the entertainment industry.
It only seems logical that with an industry so defined and focused that there would be a agreed upon safe way to things.
In order for this to be possible, there would be have to be some sort of annual summit of entertainment leaders. They could gather and discuss safety concerns and operational procedures that up to now have plagued all sectors of the industry. This way it would ensure that regardless of where the show is being performed, the same standards of safety are being followed. After all, it takes the same amount of force to break a leg in Kansas than it does in Beijing.
Ringling brothers is a unique situation when it comes to creating "safe" acts for its performers. Most of the acts are hired to bring their performers and their rig and go on tour. This rig in particular was (if I remember correctly) was made by a member of the group and therefore not made by a qualified rigged. So with an improperly rigged system and being used time and time again it's not surprising that this system failed. I personally feel the fault here is not having a rigged who had properly inspected the rig before allowing it on the tour. My understanding is that the person that constructed this rig is also directly related to several of these performers that were injured. This could be a major turning point in Ringling's business. Since their are no direct stipulations for performers safety and this may be the cause for that to change.
The whole concept of creating safe circus acts is really interesting to me. I would be so nervous, as a rigger, to be told that it was essential to create a new way to make the trick this person's family has done for 40 years be done safely. If the solution here is coming up with a committee and creating perfectly safe shows, then the circus business is going to be pared down quite a bit. These acts are not typical, and a lot are going to get cut out. I'm just worried that this will discourage the art more than creating a healthy and safe environment for it. I am not trying to say that it's not worth it to make sure it's safe because I absolutely do and if it was my say, nobody would go up on any rig that hadn't been approved by someone who didn't think a carabiner was an appropriate tool for this effect. I just happen to think that if we create a circus act safety committee of sorts, we're going to have a very hard time doing any sort of circus other than Cirque du Soliel. And maybe that's a really good thing, but it sure would take some getting used to.
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