Working overhead

[shiben]

Why was the guy on rail not wearing gloves? They save skin... and could even save someone's life in a situation like this...

The people running the venue are incredibly unprofessional, not even wearing closed toed shoes, much less safety toes, gloves were nowhere to be found, their crew was playing WoW instead of working most of the time... My department got called in to do things like Electrics and setting up chairs, and do all the work that would be in view of the audience.

 

[rochem]

Why was the guy on rail not wearing gloves? They save skin... and could even save someone's life in a situation like this...

The subject of wearing gloves while running the rail has been heavily debated here, and I've worked with people who feel that they have a stronger grip and more awareness of what's going on when not wearing gloves. See this thread.

 

[mstaylor]

I have never worked a rail but I rig arenas so I pull weight all the time. I also framed houses for years. In neither profession do I wear gloves. I can let motor chains in as fast or faster than any of my riggers that wear gloves. I like to being able to feel what I am doing. The only thing I wear gloves for is if I am focusing and I can even do that if I need to.

 

[renegadeblack]

I was fly-oping a show with a rig by Foy and they guy from Foy said as well that he doesn't like gloves because he can't feel what's going on as well. That being said, I wore gloves when I actually was flying the person.

 

[photoatdv]

I always (unless I forget them or they're on the other side of the theatre) when flying because I feel that I'd have a smaller chance of losing an out of weight line. And especially when training people (I have seen them freak out and let go) I can easily grab the line without losing the skin on my hands. I also like being able to slow it gracefully by letting it slide through my hand...

 

[themuzicman]

At work/college I call rail clear when loading weights and loose tool when I am working with non-tethered items overhead. Otherwise, it's business as usual.

When I do work for community shows and events, I keep deck clear for their safety, but when people know what's up are below I just give calls and make sure I got some safe space.

 

[Footer]

loose tool when I am working with non-tethered items overhead.

That really should never be an issue.... It takes 30 seconds to attach a piece of tie line to any tool.

 

[Anonymous067]

Sorry if this thread has gone off subject from the first few posts, I only read the first few.

At the HS I work for, when we throw weight, nobody is allowed under the rail while we throw weight. Our TD is the only one allowed (legally) to throw weight, so he usually coordinates the whole operation.

Also-I think there may be more liability issues in a HS with minors than in professional theaters, plus in PRO theaters you don't have actors running around during load in. My theory is perhaps this is why the deck is usually cleared during HS tech and not professional. This isn't to say that accidents cannot happen anywhere however.

 

[MNicolai]

Sorry if this thread has gone off subject from the first few posts, I only read the first few.

At the HS I work for, when we throw weight, nobody is allowed under the rail while we throw weight. Our TD is the only one allowed (legally) to throw weight, so he usually coordinates the whole operation.

Also-I think there may be more liability issues in a HS with minors than in professional theaters, plus in PRO theaters you don't have actors running around during load in. My theory is perhaps this is why the deck is usually cleared during HS tech and not professional. This isn't to say that accidents cannot happen anywhere however.

One of the venues I work at it is connected to a high school. For school shows it's staffed mostly by semi-professionals, but roadhouse shows it's purely professionals and any students on staff are only allowed to be on staff because they are fully competent and capable to serve in the capacity they've been hired for.

There's always an underlying notion of danger when shlopping bricks because the previous school that the drama director taught at actually did have an accident where someone dropped a brick from the loading bridge and it practically paralyzed the tech director. He had been off stage when they started moving bricks and walked on just as the brick was dropped. The details of who was doing the weight transfer and if they made the proper calls or not for "HEADS!" are unknown to me. The brick hit the guy in the head and after many surgeries is now able to function, but he's maybe about 35% of the person he used to be.

A number of things have to go wrong for that situation to play out the way it did. The TD should have known people were transferring weight. Maybe he even did. The people on the bridge should have not dropped the brick in the first place, but even then they should have called out to anyone on the stage floor. At that point, anyone on the stage floor should have dived for cover (easier said than done when you've just walked on stage and don't necessarily if a line set has turned runaway or if a brick is falling out of the sky.

To make some good out of a terrible situation, I now have a story to tell students if they ever start acting oblivious to what's going on around them. That also gives the school a drama director who always understands and communicates the dangers of working in a professional-scale theatre to his students when he takes them in there.

I've been talking with the arts center manager there to install a warning light system when weight transfers and other rigging operations are taking place.

 

[Javert]

At my high school, we don't officially have to clear the deck at all - only call a warning including line #, and tie off the line if it is significantly out-of-weight.

Unofficially, we tend to clear to centerline if throwing more than one or two bricks from the midrail, clear entire stage for any weight change at all done at grid height.

 

[ruinexplorer]

Though we don't clear the deck, all crew are aware of any loading of weights being done and non-essential work near the rail is paused if possible. In the past few years, multiple venues that I have worked have required hard-hats whenever work is being done overhead and are a required tool for all theater/arena calls. In my current venue, since we have multiple levels that may be under overhead work, all our hard-hats are required to have safeties on them.

 

[derekleffew]

... all our hard-hats are required to have safeties on them.

I'm not going to ask where one finds the integral safety attachment point for which to clip the safety onto.