Death of Michael Lush
On 13 November 1986, self-employed hod carrier Michael Lush was killed during his first rehearsal for another live stunt. The stunt, called "Hang 'em High", involved bungee jumping from an exploding box suspended from a 120 ft-high crane. The carabiner clip attaching his bungee rope to the crane sprang loose from its eyebolt during the jump. He died instantly of multiple injuries, and the Breakfast Show was 'cancelled as well as all future editions' on 15 November. This led to Edmonds's resignation.
Although the inquest recorded a verdict of misadventure, the jury were informed of several failures on the part of the BBC. Graham Games of the Health and Safety Executive stated that the clip could have been opened by the weight of a bag of sugar, and demonstrated that the clip sprang loose 14 times in 20. David Kirke, a bungee specialist from the Dangerous Sports Club, stated that a similar stunt he had been involved with used three ropes, as opposed to the one rope used by the BBC, and shackles in the place of carabiner clips. There was no safety officer on hand, and no supervision or demonstration from a trained stuntman. There was also no way for Lush to contact the ground once he was in the air, and nobody in the air with him in case he changed his mind; the jury heard that he delayed for almost two minutes before finally being instructed to make the jump. Furthermore, despite advice against it, the BBC production team had insisted on the use of an elasticated bungee rope.
The BBC made an ex gratia payment of approximately £120,000 to Lush's family. While the coroner recommended that safety officers be available during any such future stunts, BBC managing director Bill Cotton stated that there would be no future programmes that exposed members of the public to risk. After the inquest, Noel Edmonds was quoted as saying "If I was to continue my career at the BBC I would want to be fully confident about any production team I was provided with." He returned to the BBC's Saturday night lineup two years later, presenting Noel's Saturday Roadshow.
Read more about this topic: The Late, Late Breakfast Show, Accidents
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