Your worst theatre injury

I've fallen off of a stage once. We were loading out a music festival, and there was a 4x4 hole in the deck between the stage and the wing for the roof tower to go through. And stupid me backed right into it and fell about 10' bouncing between the truss and the legs for the decking on the way down. It sucks and I was pretty beat up for a couple of days but I was lucky there were no major injuries.
 
I was dropped by a fellow dancer from about 3.5 feet. Pulled every tendon, ligament, acl, etc. from around the knee. Had to have reconstructive surgery and while I still work as a director of middle school productions (choreography, building, etc.) it was a career ender. BEEEEEEEEE careful! It happens so dang fast.
 
I've broken all my toes at least twice at different times (I can;t find any steel toes boots in my size). They're all crooked and bending funny ways.

This wasn't me, but I saw a guy cut of the tip of his finger with a table saw. Lotsa blood. Pretty cool.

I saw another guy screw the webbing of his thumb to a board (still have NO idea how he managed to do that).
 
Didn't happen to me, but I had a friend in NYC who was killed when a 50lb Pig Iron on one of our fly ropes fell from 45' in the air and collided with his head. The worst that happened to me was when I was working on a scaffold, and an idiot technician climbed up the same side of the scaffold I was working on, but on the outside, and the whole thing tipped (top of the scaffold, and my work platform, were about 25' up) propelling me off stage once the scaffold hit the ground. Broke two bones in my arm, dislocated my ankle, and got bruised up. Not fun.
 
Many condolences to you and your friend's family.

Reminder to all loaders ***MAKE SURE THERE IS NOBODY UNDER YOU WHEN YOU ARE LOADING WEIGHTS***
 
photoatdv said:
Many condolences to you and your friend's family.

Reminder to all loaders ***MAKE SURE THERE IS NOBODY UNDER YOU WHEN YOU ARE LOADING WEIGHTS***
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Heard a great one the other day. A freind of mine works for a stage rigging company, apparently a couple of years ago a TD ,at a college, and one of his students were mesing around in the theatre after hours. They had been drinking and fo some reason they were messig with the flys. They got a pipe out of weight, pipe heavy. They had a runaway, and the abor goes shooting to the sky. They hadn't locked down the pig plate. the arbor tops out, pig jumps off, whacks the kid in the head, kids family sues my friends company. It cost them $50K just to make the suit go away. I don't know if this belongs in this thread or not but the prvious story reminded me of it.
 
I personally have only had a few bumps and bruises. But on the other hand I've watched others receive substantial injuries in our theatre. including crawling into a metal spike up in the ceiling rafters resulting in several stitches. Also I saw one of those metal bars that run up the middle of double doors fall over and smash someones head to a pulp, that one resulted in 30 or so stitches and a plastic surgeon.
 
terminalvelocity16 said:
I personally have only had a few bumps and bruises. But on the other hand I've watched others receive substantial injuries in our theatre. including crawling into a metal spike up in the ceiling rafters resulting in several stitches. Also I saw one of those metal bars that run up the middle of double doors fall over and smash someones head to a pulp, that one resulted in 30 or so stitches and a plastic surgeon.
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How would the metal bar between the doors fall out? Did they forget to replace some screws after a load-in/out?
 
No injuries here but during HS we had a kid taking lights down from our catwalk, he was walking down the stairs and tripped, fell down and the light ended up his chest. They called 911 and all that good stuff...he was OK though. This is why we normally used a rope to haul lights up and down :D
 
Had a 150lb cart full of platforms get away from me and my partner on a hill, ended up riding it/being stuck to it down the entire hill trying to steer it away from a car (which, THANK GOD, it did not hit. I managed to pull it away a few inches and it barely missed it) and ended up being smashed into a cement wall along with all of the platforms. Bruised, broke some platforms, damaged some property, but I didn't hit the car!
 
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I have been SO blessed!

I have a scar in my hand from ramming a knife into it while undoing zip ties. I have another one from a cruise ship install. My knee is a little messed up from getting run over by a cherry picker on a cruise ship.

In my time I have done some stupid stuff. I almost fell off an acoustic ceiling. I used to stand on the top run of a 30' A-Frame ladder, I hung backwards off of a trolley 50' above the stage, I unclipped myself to walk across steel at the top of an arena, I have hung upside down off of catwalks, held linesets way (dangerously) out of balance, been rolled around on rolling A-Frames and cherry pickers with no stabalizers in, stood on the safety rails of cherry pickers, climbed truss towers with no fall protection, walked truss with no fall protection, etc. I am surprised I didn't get hurt worse or killed. Stupid, stupid, stupid stuff I did to prove that I was a "good techie".

Man was I an idiot.

Mike
 
Hopped down off the front of a stage...3.5 feet or so... right before doing sound for a dance recital. Must have landed wrong and by the time the recital was over, I couldn't move. I was out of work, immobile, on my back for 3 weeks. Luckily only a muscle sprain, but...still sucked.
 
LightingPenguin said:
Had a 150lb cart full of platforms get away from me and my partner on a hill, ended up riding it/being stuck to it down the entire hill trying to steer it away from a car (which, THANK GOD, it did not hit. I managed to pull it away a few inches and it barely missed it) and ended up being smashed into a cement wall along with all of the platforms. Bruised, broke some platforms, damaged some property, but I didn't hit the car!
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While it's admirable that you didn't hit the car, everyone should remember;
When a peice of heavy equipment gets away from you, unless someone else is in mortal danger, get the heck away. No piece is worth a broken neck, or a trip to the hospital.
 
Probably just being scared to death...I'll explain.
During Strike, of course, noone ever balances out the fly system. So here we are putting in the new drops and the one i happen to unlock is way off balance and me, being stupid hold on to the rope and fly up about 6 feet in the air. not too high but enough to earn me the day off and some bad mental distress.
It was a good joke afterwards though! haha
 
photoatdv said:
Well someone SHOULD balance the fly system or tie it off, even during strike. The rope locks are only designed to hold about 50lbs (though they often do hold more).
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At the risk of bringing up a really old debate, they shouldn't be relied upon to hold any weight. It's a brake, a tension device designed to keep the line from moving until you say so.

On a side note Did I ever tell anyone about the Scottish Rite temple accross the street that has Wooden Arbors, no real rail to speak of and no brakes at all. ..... For another thread I guess.
 
Nothing too bad for me. Scariest for me I think was when a barn door got knocked while moving a set piece. It ended up bouncing off my arm., but if I didn't react it would have hit me right in the head. Fell from aprox. 20ft. I ended up with a cut on my wrist/arm from where I blocked it and a headache after I hit myself in the temple trying to save my head.
 
Yeah, I never count on a brake to hold any weight. I always tie/cinch/lock off a lineset before I take it out of weght.

Mike
 
Not an injury to me, but my first day on the job as an ME at a new arts center, I was hanging off of a catwalk focusing a unit and after I got it right, I dropped the gel and missed the clips, the gel landed, corner first on the TDs head. Luckily he didn't look up when I yelled "heads!"

Mike
 
I was using a table saw, and the piece was alittle too small, and it kicked back on me and hit be right above the groin...I was black and blue for about two weeks...you live and learn i guess...
 
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