Author Topic: SCENERY: Hydraulic Scenery accident, London "Lord of the Rings"  (Read 15763 times)

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squarewheelbike

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Re: Hydraulic Scenery accident, London "Lord of the Rings"
« Reply #15 on: Aug 22, 2007, 02:35 pm »
I'm a former automation operator from the West End. Without going into too much detail, all I can say is if it costs money, then it's a higher priority than H&S. I saw someone nearly cut in half whilst unconcious, that next day management tried to convince me that it hadn't happened... I know what I saw!

squarewheelbike

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Re: Hydraulic Scenery accident, London "Lord of the Rings"
« Reply #16 on: Aug 29, 2007, 02:55 pm »
Just had some up-dated info through the Automation old boys network. Basically there were no safe edges on the particular trap as there should have been no-one anywhere near it when it was moving!

KMC

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Re: Hydraulic Scenery accident, London "Lord of the Rings"
« Reply #17 on: Aug 29, 2007, 03:04 pm »
Just as I thought, check my post from the day this happened.  How stupid, safe edges will save lives and equipment.
« Last Edit: Aug 29, 2007, 03:08 pm by kmc307 »
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squarewheelbike

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Re: Hydraulic Scenery accident, London "Lord of the Rings"
« Reply #18 on: Aug 30, 2007, 07:12 pm »
Indeed, however as I said, if it costs money... As we all know though, accountants have no idea what a "safe edge" is! On a similar note I was given a full tour of a brand new English venue yesterday, where I will start working next week. When enquiring of the Chief why so many obviously easy and necessary options hadn't happened, I was told it was because of, "value engineering"! It doesn't take much to work that one out. As we say over here, "Thatchers Britain".

Lola

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Re: Hydraulic Scenery accident, London "Lord of the Rings"
« Reply #19 on: Sep 23, 2007, 11:06 pm »
I have worked on shows in the past with scary unsafe automation.  In one case, the other ASM and I went to the PSM and refused to run the show, we were still in tech, until things were done to ensure everyone's safety.  Emergency stops and video cameras and steel barriers were installed before the next tech at great expense.  I wonder how long it would have been before they were installed had we not refused to work.  This was about 15 years ago and health and safety is certainly looked on a lot differently now.  I'm surprised, considering the number of injuries that took place on LOTR in Toronto, that that kind of safety equipment wasn't in place from the start.  I know those things cost money but bad publicity is worse and considering the poor showing the show had in Toronto, there is a lot riding on the London production.
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squarewheelbike

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Re: Hydraulic Scenery accident, London "Lord of the Rings"
« Reply #20 on: Jan 18, 2008, 09:04 pm »
I've just had a definitive answer on this one. The performers leg actually diverted the safe edge out of the way of it's normal path, so it didn't cut out. Sadly it seems he won't work in the industry again, but with the UK becoming as litigious as you lot, hopefully it won't happen again.

KMC

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Re: Hydraulic Scenery accident, London "Lord of the Rings"
« Reply #21 on: Jan 19, 2008, 07:47 pm »
I don't understand....

If the safe edge is diverted out of its normal path or encounters any resistance, that's when it's supposed to trip.  That's the whole point of a safe edge.  Do you have any technical details?  I'm very intrigued by this.  Safe edge type systems should be designed so that if any element of the system fails, whether it's an electrical short, something out of place, communication error, etc... the lift is unable to move; that's how these accidents are prevented.

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squarewheelbike

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Re: Hydraulic Scenery accident, London "Lord of the Rings"
« Reply #22 on: Feb 01, 2008, 06:19 pm »
Essentially the safe edge that was used, and is most common over here is designed to be tripped by something that it encounters at a 90 degree angle. At a previous venue I managed someone left a set of ladders in the pit before moving it. The result was the safe edge was "diverted" from it's normal path by the ladder and led to substantial damage. Hope this explains it a bit better.

 

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