I would not normally post from other forums, but in this case, I find what was posted on Stagecraft yesterday is very useful in filling in the details. Details even I was far short of in my last post thus made assumptions to especially about Thomas. As listed in another news item about stagecraft being back, the more websites you take part in, the more wide the range of information you have access to. This discussion has also been taken up on lighting
network.
Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 11:10:43 -0400
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Subject: Miami Hearald Article regarding Thomas accident
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the article is pasted below...it is pretty long
Kim Hartshorn
Posted on Sat, May. 08, 2004
MIAMI
Harness is focus in fatal fall
The veteran
stagehand who fell to his death at the David Bowie concert was
wearing a
safety harness but had not hooked it to a
safety line, officials said.
BY DAVID KIDWELL, EVELYN MCDONNELL AND KEVIN DEUTSCH
[email protected] <mailto:
[email protected]>
A Pembroke Pines
stagehand who fell to his death Thursday within sight of David
Bowie fans rarely worked at heights since suffering a near-fatal fall at the
1989 Super Bowl, friends said Friday.
Investigators also said Friday that the fatal plunge onto the
stage at the
James L. Knight Center in downtown Miami was probably caused by
Walter ''Wally'' Thomas' failing to clip on a ''fall arrest''
safety harness he
was wearing.
Some friends and fellow stagehands said they aren't willing to concede that the
fall was entirely Thomas' fault.
''First, I was stunned he was on a
truss spot to begin with; he didn't usually
go high anymore,'' said Frank Townsend, who said he has worked with Thomas
since 1978. ``And second, I'm very upset he was allowed to get on that ladder
without his fall arrest.
''Ultimately, it was the lighting company's responsibility to make sure all the
local roadies follow the rules,'' Townsend said. ``They are supposed to stand
at the bottom of that ladder and not let anyone get on it without the proper
gear.''
A spokesman for the lighting company on the Bowie Tour -- Light & Sound Design
Fourth
Phase -- said Friday that his company is investigating whether it had
any involvement in the accident.
''Right now, I don't even know if it was our equipment he was using,'' said Bob
Manners, the California company's senior vice president of business affairs.
``I can tell you we are investigating it.''
The federal Occupational
Safety and Health Administration also is investigating
to see whether
safety rules were violated.
Thomas -- described by friends as a 25-year
stage veteran, professional and
safety conscious -- fell to his death about 8:25 p.m. Thursday amid the usual
flurry of activity between the warm-up act and the main event.
The fall occurred at the rear of the
stage and was witnessed by some
concertgoers. Other stagehands immediately lowered a concert banner to obscure
the scene while others rushed to his side.
Thomas was dead at the scene. The Miami-Dade medical examiner's office said
Friday that the cause of death was ''blunt trauma'' and all but ruled out
speculation that Thomas may have died from a heart attack before the fall.
Larry Cameron, operations director at the medical examiner's office, said
doctors were awaiting lab and blood results.
Thursday was the second time Thomas suffered severe head injuries in a work-
related fall.
On Jan. 22, 1989, Thomas was part of a crew working on a Bangles concert in the
parking lot at Joe Robbie Stadium during the Super Bowl when a hand-operated
hydraulic lift malfunctioned and sent him plunging 30 feet, police reports say.
''A gust of wind started blowing causing the lift to topple over,'' a Dade
County police report stated. ``The victim fell and hit his head on the
asphalt.''
Thomas missed months of work and received workman's compensation benefits
totaling $408,244.
''He still has all the scars on his neck from all the tubes and stuff,'' said
fellow
stagehand and friend Armando Coronel. ``He didn't like to work up high
very much after that.
''I don't know what he was doing up there [Thursday],'' Coronel said. ``But
what happened to Wally happens once every 50 years. It's nobody's fault.
Sometimes this stuff just happens.''
Tom Coll, the local boss of the International Alliance of Theater &
Stage
Employees, said Thomas was among about 75 local union members working at the
Bowie concert.
''I don't know why he wasn't attached,'' Coll said. ``I was standing there when
one of the guys on the
road crew helped them get into their harnesses. I heard
the guy talk to them about how they were supposed to use it. And I heard him
tell all the guys to make sure to clip off.
''This was a tragedy,'' Coll said. ``Wally was more than well-liked around
here, and we want to know as much as anyone what happened. There's no way he
could have fallen if he was using that fall arrest.''
According to Miami homicide Detective Ed Avila, Thomas and two others working
on the spotlights were each wearing devices called a ''full body harness'' --
an OSHA-approved device specifically designed to prevent such falls.
The harness is supposed to clip to a
safety line that dangles from the
truss
above. As the
stagehand climbs the ladder, a pulley
system loosely takes up the
slack in the tether.
''It's supposed to act sort of like a seat belt,'' Avila said. ``When a sudden
jerk of a fall hits the tether, it engages and stops the fall.''
Avila said the two other workers wearing the harnesses reported that they were
not using the tether because the
stage was too dark and they couldn't find it.
Coll, who was there, disagreed. He said Thomas, a union member for nine years,
had enough experience to know how to clip on the tether and climb that ladder
even if he were blindfolded.
''Plus, it was
intermission,'' Coll said. ``The lights were up and it wasn't
that dark.''
OSHA'S INQUIRY
Luis Santiago, regional director of
OSHA, said investigators from his office
could take as long as two months to determine whether any
safety rules were
violated but that the ultimate responsibility rests with the company that hired
him.
A review of
OSHA records shows that workplace falls account for about 13
percent of all work-related deaths. In 2002, 714 of 5,524 work deaths resulted
from falls. Of that, 126 were falls from ladders.
Santiago also said his office has questions about the ladder used at the
concert.
''Frankly, I've never heard of this type of ladder before,'' he said. ``Within
our standards there is no ladder of this kind envisioned. I think that's
something we really need to look at.''
Santiago referred to a somewhat flexible and collapsible ladder constructed
from heavy steel cable and rungs made of steel rods. The ladder is designed to
be rolled up. It is
portable and easily retractable during theatrical events.
Santiago said it is unclear whether the movement of the ladder could have
contributed to the fall.
Stagehands interviewed said the ladder is standard issue at concert events.
Friends said Thomas was obsessive about
safety, always carrying
safety
equipment.
''He was always on the safe side, and he always carried around everything he
needed. I can't imagine how this happened,'' said Don DeRosa, 45, who described
himself as Thomas' best friend.
''He loved life and lived it large,'' DeRosa said of his single friend, with
whom he graduated from McArthur High School in 1977. ``You just can't believe
it until you actually see him laying there in a coffin. He'll never die as long
as the people who knew him keep him close in their hearts.''
LOVED THE JOB
DeRosa said Thomas loved his
line of work. Even after his near-fatal Super Bowl
fall and generous compensation, he refused to stop working.
''He had a brush with death once. He already
beat death that time. He cheated
it. He cracked his head like an egg,'' the friend said. ``You think that would
have been enough to deter him from going back to the job.
''He said, `I'll never have to worry about finances again,'' DeRosa said of
Thomas' financial settlements after the 1989 accident. ``He was set for life.
``What kept him in the business was the excitement of being behind the scenes
at the concerts. He loved being in the middle of the action.''
Herald staff writer Karl Ross, database editor Tim Henderson and researcher
Elisabeth Donovan contributed to this report.