Civilian vs. Techie

[Anonymous067]

This is worse than Techie vs Actor...at least the actors know not to walk underneath moving electrics.

The other day I watched some kid run and SLIDE under an electric that I had requested be brought in (and called 5+ times if I might add), he had barely 2 feet to spare, and he was on his knees.

The person bringing in the electric was going waayyy to fast, and it was also bar heavy (forgetting terminology right now??), which didn't help anything.

Bottom line...people who don't pay attention piss me off...

 

[LightingPenguin]

He's lucky his face didn't run straight into the bar

Although, it would have been a good lesson.....

 

[Anonymous067]

Well, I would've made sure he was ok... (I'm kinda required to do that...)
And after I knew he was ok, I would have yelled, and then laughed.

 

[MNBallet]

Well, I would've made sure he was ok... (I'm kinda required to do that...)
And after I knew he was ok, I would have yelled, and then laughed.

You should have yelled. Then you could have defined your "fallout radius"

sorry, couldn't help it

Ken Pogin
Production / Tour Manager
Minnesota Ballet

 

[mstaylor]

I assure you it would have been the last time he tried that little trick on my crew. Stupid has no place around a stage with moving pipes or trusses. He could probably do it fine 100 times but it only takes one.

 

[JChenault]

I'm not sure what your position is in your theatre - but I would suggest that you take the point of view that whenever any accident or near accident occurs in your venue, you need to ask yourself what you could have done to avoid it.

In this case I would ask what a civilian was doing on the stage while a pipe was being brought in. It is probably unwise to have anyone on the stage while pipes are moving in and out who has not had the safety lecture. Do you need a better way to secure the premises when you are bringing electrics in and out?

The second question I would ask is why was the pipe out of weight? Does your flyman need some training on how to run the system safely? Was he just tired and made a mistake? Is there an inherent flaw in your facility ( like no loading rail) that makes it necessary to bull pipes in and out occasionally?

If the kid had been hit - and had seriously injured himself, these are the kinds of questions you would be asking yourself. Use this event as a wake up call to examine how you can make the operation safer.

Please do not think I am beating up on you here - not my intent. I'm glad no serious damage was done to the kid in this case - the trick is how to reduce the chance that some other idiot kid will hurt himself.

 

[Anonymous067]

Our band director likes to add things to the flys without counterbalancing. We didn't realize it was out of weight until my flyboy brought it in. It was the first time that fly had been touched in 3 months and nobody told us it was out of balance until we had to bring it in. As soon as we realized it was out of balance, we corrected the prob.

 

[Tex]

Our band director likes to add things to the flys without counterbalancing.

The band director needs to be informed that someone was almost injured by his negligence, then the rail needs to be locked. The band director doesn't get a key.
My current rail has a locking cage, but at my former school, I had the welding department make some bars that were padlocked in place in front of the rope locks so that they couldn't be moved. Worked great.

 

[JChenault]

Our band director likes to add things to the flys without counterbalancing. We didn't realize it was out of weight until my flyboy brought it in. It was the first time that fly had been touched in 3 months and nobody told us it was out of balance until we had to bring it in. As soon as we realized it was out of balance, we corrected the prob.

So it sounds to me as if there are two things this near accident should prompt you to do. One is ( as suggested by Tex ) to talk to the band director. If the talk goes well I would probably not go to the extremes of adding locks to the rail - but this is a personal opinion.

The second thing I would do, however, is make sure your flyman knows how to check the weight of the lineset before he unlocks it, and to make sure that he does so when appropriate ( which is just about anytime except during a performance).

 

[Clifford]

An electric is a batten with power distribution for stage lights, in this case, part of the facility's fly system.

 

[LightingPenguin]

I can not understand you fully. Electrics just means the Vehicle?

What do you mean?

 

[photoatdv]

Fordjj-- by "electric" he means a dedicated pipe (part of the flysystem) for lighting. They are often called electrics because they have circuits on them.

See click on the yellow electrics in the first post.