The incident occurred on June 9, 2012, when Rachael Presdee fell more than three metres through an open and unmarked ‘Juliet’ door (a second-storey opening on a set) while adjusting stage lights for a performance by the Headlong Theatre Company that evening.
11 comments:
This sounds like purely an accident that could have been easily avoided. The door on the second floor should have had a sign that indicated the potential dangers, but at the same time we all need to have an incredible sense of our surroundings in this profession especially in scenery. Its extremely easy to get injured if your not paying attention to your actions and the actions of others around you. The company is definitely responsible for this injury, but the person who got injured shouldn't have just expected the door to be locked and put weight against it before testing it. Awareness is key and prevents a lot of injuries.
This is a really unfortunate accident. It is the company's fault for not labeling the door and not locking it in the first place. The stage manager should have paid closer attention especially since she was on a high platform. You should never assume everything on a set is 100% safe and you should always walk around with caution. She should have known there was a trap door in the set there, so she should have been more careful around it and checked to see if it was locked. There is nothing that anyone can do now to fix it, but to use more caution in the future.
This is a really unfortunate accident. It is the company's fault for not labeling the door and not locking it in the first place. The stage manager should have paid closer attention especially since she was on a high platform. You should never assume everything on a set is 100% safe and you should always walk around with caution. She should have known there was a trap door in the set there, so she should have been more careful around it and checked to see if it was locked. There is nothing that anyone can do now to fix it, but to use more caution in the future.
What an unfortunate example of how easy it is to be hurt on scenery when you're not being careful. This is horrifying to read. I have so many questions, such as why wasn't it marked? Why wasn't the stage manager aware of the precautions that were supposed to go into that piece of scenery. And why wasn't it properly locked/guarded? And why was the stage manager adjusting lights?
It seems as though this was a small theater and there were double duty jobs going on which makes people short on time and the ability to have eyes on all the right things. Often in situations like this safety becomes second to just getting the job done, but look at the consequences of this. This is truly a tragic example, but it is exactly why we have jobs divided up the way we do. The proper amount of focus needs to be on every detail or they are overlooked.
One of the things about accidents like this is that there is often no way for the victim to avoid the unfortunate events that happened to them. Now this may or may not be this case with this particular incident, but stories like this one should certainly drive home the responsibility of everyone involved in set construction to make sure the set is more than safe for anyone to be on, especially someone who knows the production as well as the stage manager. Doing just about anything on stage, be it performance or construction, should include a large amount of awareness and thought about exactly what you are doing it and why you are doing it, but because that is often an impossible ideal, it is the job of those who build the set to make sure it is foolproof in its safety.
I really appreciate that the theater is taking responsibility for the accident. Oftentime you will see less trustworthy groups blaming the victim for negligence or some other code violation instead of being willing to stand up and say, "OK, we messed up." I really think that while this is a learning experience especially for this particular company it is also one for other companies to reference. Proper labeling, warning and signs are are nothing to laugh at as they save lives in minor ways every day. Its sad that incidents like these have to happen for people to start paying attention.
I am deeply sadden to hear this happened to the stage manger and am even sadder to know she will never be able to return to the work she loved in the same way. I have always had it drilled into my head that my biggest concern in theater should always be safety; of the people I am working with but also myself. That being said I do always try to make a mental note that before I start anything to be fully aware of my surrounds and make sure I am comfortable working there. That being said I am in no way saying what happened to the stage manger is her our fault. It is the more the responsibility of the theater to make sure all its workers are safe. If the company is watching out for the workers pretty soon there will end up being no workers left. So seeing that the simple fix that could have avoided the situation entirely could have been a sign or locked door, I feel the stage manager is completely in the right to file a civil case against the theater. We all just need to do our part in checking the safety of ourselves and other in a theater, because if not us then who?
Safety is the most important aspect of theatre- especially during periods of load-in and strike. This accident is unfortunate and my heart goes out to the stage manager. If the company had properly labeled and locked the Juliet door they would not be dealing with such issues. I know it may or may not be the first thing on a crew members mind whether or not they should be labeling things for safety precautions because let's face it, this is a pretty intense and reckless job field. However, this can be an eye-opener to future workers and theaters that anything can happen and that you should be prepared for the worst.
Another Entertainment Accident!
Here’s what’s scary about this incident: this could happen anywhere. How often do we have a trap open for a bit of time? A lot.
We do a lot of stupid stuff on stage. All of us have done something incredibly stupid and been just fine. This type of incident is what happens when we do something careless and stupid, and it doesn’t turn out okay.
It’s sad, but I don’t know that the stage manager wasn’t partially responsible for the incident herself.
As the stage manager, she is responsible for the safe operation of the stage. She went up to the second level to focus an instrument. She left the trap open. I don’t know how it happened, but did she step backwards into the trap? I’ve done that. You’ve done that. It’s something that happens. More care needs to be taken so that it’s something that happens less.
God, it is so disappointing and upsetting when these things happen. Some of the most simple things- a lock, a sign, a bit of caution tape- can be the most crucial to a person's safety. It is so awful for me to think that because of this slip-up, there is a woman who can no longer *move* for the rest of her life. She can't *walk* because someone didn't do their job. She can't even do her job anymore! I sincerely hope that the company takes full responsibility and takes some action to help her out.
This is really frightening, because we do things like this all the time. The number of times I've left a door open while I grabbed a tool etc. is rather large, and I'm fairly aware of personal safety on a job site. In OSHA, we talked about the concept of "near-misses" and how only 10% of "incidents" lead to tragedy, whereas 85% of them have no terrible outcome. This exact scenario could have happened 100 times before, and because there was no injury, no one thought further marking was necessary. It also seems like the stage manager was part of a touring company, and that she may or may not have been as familiar with this space than other resident managers would have been. A really unfortunate reminder to make sure to keep an eye out not only for things employees will see, but things unrecognizable to people who are new to a space as well.
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