Safety and Possible Injury
In August 1998, Jérôme Charron died in a reverse bungee ride accident at the Ottawa Exhibition in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada when he was hurled 40 meters into the air before plummeting to his death as his harness had detached. In February 2000, the firm responsible for the ride, Anderson Ventures, was fined $145,000 for this incident. Provincial inspectors had inspected the ride just 4 days before the incident and approved it, but did not see the strap because it was in a nearby box.
Ordinarily, the bungee cord is changed to adjust the body weight of different riders. The operator in Ottawa instead used a lead between the carabiner and the bungee cord for this purpose. Using a lead is faster than changing the cord, so more rides can be offered; however, using a lead is less safe than switching bungee cords. The problem occurs when the lead cord wraps around the carabiner, tightens and through friction undoes the twisting safety mechanism that keeps the carabiner locked. In this case, the operator was using dual carabiners. On the bounce back up, the lead cord tightened, causing both carabiners to open. This fact was discovered by the Ottawa Police who investigated the death. A video of the incident depicts it.
Read more about this topic: Reverse Bungee
Famous quotes containing the words safety and, safety and/or injury:
“The Declaration [of Independence] was not a protest against government, but against the excess of government. It prescribed the proper role of government, to secure the rights of individuals and to effect their safety and happiness. In modern society, no individual can do this alone. So government is not a necessary evil but a necessary good.”
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)
“To emancipate [the slaves] entirely throughout the Union cannot, I conceive, be thought of, consistently with the safety of the country.”
—Frances Trollope (1780–1863)
“Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)