[TowerTalk] anti-climb, litigation, attractive nuisance

[jimlux]

This may actually be a non-issue...
Are there any reported cases of someone unauthorized climbing a amateur 
radio tower and getting hurt/killed and a lawsuit happening?

Dumb idiots climb electric transmission towers all the time, and I 
recall hearing a story some idiot trying to chop the guy wires on a AM 
broadcast tower.  Those are, I would argue, qualitatively different than 
a ham tower, both in attractiveness and accessibility.

Anti-climb devices are a "good idea" in general, but I've seen an awful 
lot of "panel over the ladder secured by a padlock" things over the 
years, but I've not seen any more elaborate schemes (except, perhaps 
where there is a "access to the roof for theft" kind of risk)

Maybe the reason for anti-climb devices is good-sense, not "avoiding 
litigation".

some casual googling (since I don't have access to Lexis..)

pretty much all the stuff I can find is either
1) just advice - make sure nobody can climb the tower
2) embedded in zoning/planning regulations "The tower shall provide a 
means to prevent unauthorized climbing"
3) discussions like the one we can find


Lots of stuff about people killing themselves on towers - but they were 
all about things that were more "occupational" (e.g. Joe Blow climbing 
tower, and forgetting to hook in, and falling off).  There was a "tower 
tech's girlfriend" lawsuit..



http://caselaw.findlaw.com/tx-supreme-court/1322270.html

14 year old climbing 90 ft 69kV electric transmission tower as 
attractive nuisance.

"After spending the evening drinking beer and malt liquor at a friend's 
house, Billy Edwin Byrum, age 14, walked outside and down the street 
about half a block to a utility tower and began to climb it."

lots of stuff about the tower (barbed wire, etc.)

" At 1:18 a.m., Billy started to descend when there was a bright flash 
and all the lights in the area went out. Billy's body fell to the ground."

interesting note that the attractive nuisance idea came from kids 
playing on railroad turntables in the late 19th century

it goes on to discuss that
"Many families and children live nearby.   The tower is easy to climb, 
and several other children in the area did so routinely before Billy's 
death.   Billy himself had climbed it many times without injury."

and the real issue is whether Billy was aware of the danger of arcing 
(as opposed to simply touching the live wire), and whether a 14 year old 
(and receiving poor grade in special education classes) could be 
expected to know about flashovers, and whether the utility had the duty 
to warn of such things, etc.

"The public knows that it is dangerous to touch a live wire, but very 
few know that there exists danger of death from this powerful current by 
near approach to the wire so charged, without actually coming in contact 
with the wire.   Only those who are engaged in the business, and those 
who have stood beside some inanimate form whose scorched and burned 
flesh bears mute evidence to its tremendous power, know this."