I almost passed out just by reading this story. Whew...
I have heard other horror stories resulting in Death from
K3LYW,owner of United States Towers. You would sell your
crankups if you heard some of these.Ken KP4XS/W4
On Fri, 16 Feb 1996, "Rich L. Boyd" <rlboyd@CapAccess.org>
wrote:
>
>
>Rich Boyd KE3Q
>
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>From: tony wyn jones <tony@gwyepu.demon.co.uk>
>To: rlboyd@capaccess.org
>Subject: Re: crankup caution
>
>HI Rich,
>
>(In reply to your message dated Sunday 11, February 1996)
>
>Well, I can but relate to a sticky situation I found myself in
a few years ago while
>doing a local VHF contest field-day. Being an enthusiastic
teenage know-all, I decided
>to climb a 60ft crank-up, and attach a 500w floodlamp at the
30ft point, so we could
>have an illuminated contest site at night. (we are already qrv
at this time, and pulling
>the VHF array down in mid-contest was not acceptable to
everyone!)
>
>After the contest, I was asked to retreive the halogen lamp,
and decided to climb the
>crank-up. I didn't even have a climbing belt (WAS I STUPID!),
but 30ft wasn't that high
>to an enthusiastic teenager......Whilst undoing the lamp's
fastening with one hand,
>and holding on to the tower with the other, the top and middle
sections of the crank-up
>collapsed about 2 feet into the bottom section.
>
>I was violently jerked, and for a split-second was left
dangling with one hand firmly
>crushed in-between two sections, and blood proceeded to gush
out and run down the tower
>leg. I nearly passed out, but somehow managed to hang on with
my "good" hand. Unbenown
>to me, someone had tried to wind the mast down, and it had
become jammed, but about 2 ft
>of wind-up wire rope slack had been released, and when I
climbed to the 30ft mark, and
>jerked the sections, dowm came the mast, thereby trapping my
hand and severely damaging
>my fingers.
>
>What was annoying was the fact that the "team" hadn't noticed
anything was wrong, and it
>took some considerable time to alert them that a serious
accident had happened (one guy
>came to the bottom of the mast to see if he could help, and
passed out as blood poured
>over him!).
>
>I could only be released by someone climbing the mast with an
iron bar, and forcefully
>lifting the top two sections in a crowbar fashion. I had been
essentially trapped at the
>30ft level, and had lost lots of blood, and then had to climb
down with one hand! When
>I got to the bottom, feeling giddy and weak (faint!), another
HERO passed out when he
>uttered " let's have a look at this scratch then!".........
>
>I was taken to Hospital over 20 miles away, and my fingers were
sown back on my hand,
>although today have lot's of bad scars, the only tell-tail
sign is that my "ring" finger
>and my little finger are bent like bananas.
>
>I am NOT proud of this episode, and consider I was extremely
lucky not to have passed-out
>and lost my grip of the mast at the 30ft level, and may be
loosing all my fingers at that
>point!!!
>
>I've never sent much to the Internet reflectors, as I have to
receive my mail this end
>through a 3rd party, and sending to the "group" is hassle. I
would be grateful if you
>would consider forwarding or reproducing this message to any
reflector you may think
>appropriate, in the hope that it prevents others from doing
such lethal things as
>climbing crank-up masts!!
>
>(Did I type all the above with all these bent fingers Hi!)
>
>73 de T O N Y .. GW4VEQ
>
>--
>Tony Wyn Jones
>tel: 01248 750262 [Ext:290]
>fax: 01248 750093
>DXcluster: gw4veq > gb7adx
>BBS Packet: gw4veq @ gb7osp
>BT Gold: 10092:LLA3060
>Internet: tony@gwyepu.demon.co.uk
>
>
>
>
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