Serious Injury on Spiderman

Good to see everyone can keep a sense a humor during this epidemic of theatre accidents.
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derekleffew said:
Good to see everyone can keep a sense a humor during this epidemic of theatre accidents.
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You just love those "xtarnormal" videos don't you. You always seem to be the one to find them for everything!
 
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I'm trying to piece together what seem to be incongruent pieces of information:

From BroadwayWorld.com:
"We're told via a stagehand that this was NOT a flying sequence and that Spider-Man was NOT supposed to drop at all. He was supposed to run to top of the ramp as if to jump with the lights then set to go to black. The cable that snapped is what stops him from going over the edge, and that is what failed. He then fell approximately 30 feet."
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From this Washington Post Article:
The castmate who spoke on condition of anonymity said the cable to Tierney's harness snapped. But one special-effects expert raised the possibility that the rope was not hooked up securely.

Scott Fisher, president of Fisher Technical Services Inc. of in Las Vegas, which builds equipment for aerial stunts for the show, said the rope was supposed to be clipped to the stage at one end and the performer's back at the other.

"The stage crew would have been responsible for making the connection for hooking him up," Fisher said. "The actor is responsible for making the final check that he's good to go. It's sort of like packing your own parachute."

He said the script called for the stuntman to lurch forward at the end of a ramp as if leaping to Mary Jane's rescue. "He runs and stops and freezes in a position that you wouldn't normally be able to hold unless you had a little support from behind him," Fisher said. "If that's not hooked up and he leans forward, he's going to fall forward."

Fisher said the rope was not part of his company's onstage flight systems. But he said it was unlikely to have snapped: It is a 10,000-pound line.
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From ActorsEquity.com
AEA Statement re Spider-Man:
Actors' Equity worked today with the Department of Labor, OSHA and the production to determine that the cause of the accident at last night's performance of Spider-Man was, in fact, human error. Further protocols are now being implemented, including redundancies recommended by Equity, the DOL and OSHA, to address this situation as well as other elements of the production. Equity continues to vigilantly monitor the production for the safety of its members.
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On the one hand, the stagehand and the castmate say the cable snapped, plus the video clearly shows a cable breaking.

On the other hand, Fisher says there's the line was "unlikely to have snapped," or maybe a harness hookup problem, and Equity says it's human error.

What did Fisher mean by "it was unlikely to have snapped"? Did he just mean that there is a low percentage chance of it snapping, but this time it DID snap?

But more importantly, why would AEA say it's human error if it was a cable snapping? Maybe it was human error that lead to the cable snapping?
 
So I'm looking at the vid. Check these pics.

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Image #1 show spidey where he should have stopped, according to the description of the action, " He leans forward, further than you normally would be able to without some support ..."
Notice the arrow indicates the 'Line' attached to him.
Image #2 is his OMG moment, Notice Line is still attached at harness.
Image #3 he gone line is still paying out.
If I had done an Image #4 you'd notice no line hanging off the bridge.
Harnes didn't fail, wire didn't fail at the harness. I'd have to say someone forgot to tie in the other end of the line, offstage.
 
Van said:
So I'm looking at the vid. Check these pics.
Image #1 show spidey where he should have stopped, according to the description of the action, " He leans forward, further than you normally would be able to without some support ..."
Notice the arrow indicates the 'Line' attached to him.
Image #2 is his OMG moment, Notice Line is still attached at harness.
Image #3 he gone line is still paying out.
If I had done an Image #4 you'd notice no line hanging off the bridge.
Harnes didn't fail, wire didn't fail at the harness. I'd have to say someone forgot to tie in the other end of the line, offstage.
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I think that van is right in that forgot to tie in the other end of the line if the change that they are making is:

"Under the new plan, one offstage crew member will attach the harness and related cables, wires, or tethers to the actors, and a second stagehand will verify that the attachments are made. That second stagehand will then verbally notify a stage manager that the attachment is safely connected. The actor will also verify that the attachment is made. Previously, only one stagehand made the attachment; there was no second stagehand to verify or communicate with the stage manager, and the actor was not required to check his harness. " Taymor Meets With 'Spider-Man' Cast After Accident - NYTimes.com

"wearing a harness and a tether that was supposed to prevent him from free-falling, but “someone missed their cue and forgot to anchor the tether,” according to a production person who worked on Monday’s performance. When Tierney jumped, according to this person, the tether trailed behind him, instead of securing him to the equipment."

Beyond ‘Spider-Man’: 10 Onstage Mishaps - Metropolis - WSJ
 
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I wonder if anyone is pursuing legal remedies against the patron who took (and in my opinion should never have released) the video footage we're all watching/analyzing? I thought cameras weren't allowed in Broadway theatres?

I've told this story before: Years ago on a show I was working, when a performer fell after failing to clip into a rope, security wanted to confiscate the rope. I said, incredulously, "You want the rope that he DID NOT clip into?" They said, "Yes, it's evidence." So we gave them the rope, which was never seen again.
 
Here's a new article from Play Bill which includes some new information on that OSHA investigation and the reaction from Equity.

Here's a good summary from Stage Directions for those trying to get caught up on what has happened.

In the end it sounds like a stage hand failed to snap the stuntman in properly and the stuntman failed to do his double check. Safety protocols were created and not being followed. How many times has What Rigger? ranted to us about following proper procedures and protocols to the letter kids?

By the way, he isn't allowed to talk about where he works but trust your old buddy Gaff here, What Rigger? is the real deal. He's got one of the coolest jobs in the world if you ask me. He is responsible for the lives of several people in a couple of different amazing flights/stunts on a daily basis. He is connected and has a lot of friends. If he says Fisher is not at fault and should be trusted for all things cool and dangerous, believe him.
 
How do they figure that all four accidents are human error? I can understand the lastest one but not all. Also the light cue was late or else we would have never seen the fall. My understanding was it was supposed to look like he goes off and is caught by the rope. If so then the lighting call was as far off as the rope trick.
 
mstaylor said:
How do they figure that all four accidents are human error? I can understand the lastest one but not all. Also the light cue was late or else we would have never seen the fall. My understanding was it was supposed to look like he goes off and is caught by the rope. If so then the lighting call was as far off as the rope trick.
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Its also possible that the light cue wasn't called because someone (the SM?) realized something was wrong and was too busy trying to figure out what was wrong/how to stop him from falling.
 
This is just a guess on this one kids, but here's why I think that nothing "snapped" or "broke".
Assuming use of either: wire rope, kernmantle rope, or Technora as what the stunt performer was attached to.
Assuming that the design factor is minimum 10:1.
Then plain and simple, the line did not break and as an almost universal rule would not break under normal use, or even this kind of use.

My assumptions may be incorrect and I am just greatly ballparking things here, but things have to go pretty wrong to snap any of the above common materials.
Breaking carabiners? Even harder to do, assuming use of an ANSI stamped 'biner that can hold the proper kN load.
 
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photoatdv said:
Its also possible that the light cue wasn't called because someone (the SM?) realized something was wrong and was too busy trying to figure out what was wrong/how to stop him from falling.
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I'm actually surprised that the light cue went at all. Had someone just fallen 30' on one of my stages, 'blackout' would have been the last thing I'd have done.

I also wish these videos would stop saying "the rope snapped". First of all, the media and we, as the general public, do not know that for sure. Secondly, the term 'rope' makes it sound like our rigging professionals just fly people using whatever 'ol "rope" is handy at the time, and third, the delivery of the story just makes it sound like there is absolutely no calculation that goes in to these things. I know they're trying to simplify the situation so most anyone can understand but gosh, a little too layman there. It's almost to the point of being an "Annoying Theatre Cliche". "Nobody knows why that rope snapped". Someone knows exactly what happened and why; it just hasn't been released to the general public. Granted, this is probably old coverage.
 
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Les said:
I'm actually surprised that the light cue went at all. Had someone just fallen 30' on one of my stages, 'blackout' would have been the last thing I'd have done.

I also wish these videos would stop saying "the rope snapped". First of all, the media and we, as the general public, do not know that for sure. Secondly, the term 'rope' makes it sound like our rigging professionals just fly people using whatever 'ol "rope" is handy at the time, and third, the delivery of the story just makes it sound like there is absolutely no calculation that goes in to these things. "Nobody knows why that rope snapped". Someone knows exactly what happened and why; it just hasn't been released to the general public.
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Well Said.
 
Still doesn't seem to add up. I agree with Les... "Someone knows exactly what happened and why; it just hasn't been released to the general public."

That video posted by ruinexplorer pretty clearly shows a line breaking (a little after 0:17).
 
I thought all the paries involved agreed that the line was never hooked to begin with. It may be the party line or it is what happened. I would think if something failed they would be less likely to jump right back into production. If it was equipment failure, how does adding the extra precautions they are putting in place change anything.
We may never know exactly what happened because of liabity issues.
 
And these were nonlocking aluminum carabiners. Everything here should be steel autolocks.
 
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