Why won’t people learn? Safety is important, even in China!!
Posted by: Chris in China, CommentaryFirst, a disclaimer: I’m no expert. There, that’s all.
Several months ago, a popular outdoor rock climbing wall in Ritan Park here in Beijing had an accident - or should I say, one of the climbers had an accident. From what I have heard, someone (happened to be a foreigner, although this isn’t really relevant to this story) was near the top and on his way down when, and again, from what I heard, his Belayer kind of, sort of, let go. Yes, let go. Apparently there was no equipment malfunction - but who knows… Information doesn’t exactly flow on trees here.
Any way, as I wasn’t there to witness this, I do, however, suspect this: the victim’s belayer was a foreign girl, probably chatting with her friends and not paying attention to the climber when she needed to most. Guilt on her.
But this post isn’t about her. I can only hope she learned her lesson and will never ever step foot in a situation that requires her 100% focus where people’s lives depend on her.
So, the victim fell quite a ways down. From what a witness told me, his body hit the padding but his head smacked on the hard surface of the ground. Ok, so there was padding in front of the wall, but it really was a sorry excuse for padding - nowhere near enough. If there was “enough” padding (I am purposely leaving that nice and vague), should someone fall on it, the chances of survival would be increased quite a bit. From zero.
The climbing wall was closed down for a couple of months. Why? Who knows.
Fast forward to last weekend. The climbing wall has been opened for a couple of weeks and I have friends who brave it each week. To my shock, the padding was still crappy. One of my friends told me they doubled the amount of padding. Here are some photos I took:
Look at the padding above. This is “double what it used to be”. Unbelievable…
And the paddings aren’t even snuggly fitted - there’s a real nice gap there!
It’s a good thing the belayer has this under control - otherwise “KERSPLAT!”
Alright. So, there STILL isn’t nearly enough padding around this wall. What are these guys thinking!?!?! Is one death not enough to warrant more padding? Will another accident that results in a death make them realize they should do more to improve safety? I hope it doesn’t have to come to that…
In the climbing wall management’s defense (if they deserve any), I was told also by my friend who frequents the wall that the management did considerably improve their oversight of the activities - specifically focusing more on the under-trained belayers. Let’s hope that’s enough to prevent any further accidents. But, things happen… you know?
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September 7th, 2007 at 5:57 am
Wow, a climbing topic on Chris’ page! I guess I’m qualified to respond to this one
Many of the climbing gyms in the US (but not all) require the use of a Gri-Gri, which will catch a falling climber even if the belayer isn’t holding on. They’re not 100% foolproof but could help eliminate many of these kinds of accidents, caused by distracted or inexperienced belayers. Of course, they’re something like $80 so it might cost $1000 for the climbing wall to equip all their ropes with them.
Which leads to my next thought: what incentive does the wall have to keep customers safe? Is there much threat of legal action in China? Unfortunately, the belayer IS responsible here (assuming I’m reading the story right) and I don’t think you can claim any sort of negligence on part of whomever owns the climbing wall. If you fall 40 feet onto your head, it doesn’t matter what kind of surface you’re landing on.
Anyway, climbing is dangerous, blah blah blah. I hope accidents like this won’t stop people from getting out and doing something outside of their comfort zone. Just be ready to accept some personal responsibility for what you do!
September 7th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
Matt,
Come on, if there was some good padding, IF he fell on his back, his head wouldn’t have smacked on the hard ground - so he could have survived, no?
September 24th, 2007 at 10:56 am
Hey!
I have been climbing there for years and never had a problem. The only difference? My girlfriend! This is my insurance. It’s way too easy to transfer the blame to other when one is at fault. Yes they could make it safer, but we’re all very happy to climb for 40RMB a day. Besides if you don’t trust your girlfriend to do the job, they belay you for free. They actually have 3-4 people doing just that all day long and within the 40RMB budget.
As a side note, I paraglide too, and fell (50 meters - 4 broken vertebrae) and survived. Who’s fault was it? Mine, only mine.
And yes the highest cause of mortality is probably.. stupidity. It didn’t kill me, but I was lucky.
Fred