Posted on 06/22/2019 5:27:19 AM PDT by SMGFan
A 12-year-old North Carolina boy died on Thursday after falling from a rock-climbing wall earlier this week.
Matthew Lu was climbing the rock wall during his birthday party at the Altitude Trampoline Park in Lowell, N.C. He fell about 10 to 15 feet, WSOC-TV reported.
After the fall, the boy was airlifted for “potential brain injuries,” police said.
Witnesses said that Matthew was unable to move and barely breathing when paramedics arrived.
Altitude Trampoline Park’s executive vice president of global operations, Courtney Wilde, said the company is in contact with the family.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
very tragic.... most of these place require a climbing belt and belay.....Hard to understand how this happened....
So OSHA won’t let me get 6’ off the ground without a “fall restraint” system at work, but a 12 year old can climb to 15’ without one for fun? Me thinks Altitude Trampoline has a problem. This should not happen.
free climbing. what could go wrong?
“Hard to understand how this happened....”
Yes, it is. There’s no explanation in the article either.
My guess is that a teenage employee didn't do his job.
I used to climb with the Colorado Montain CLub. My buddy was a single guy and over time I noticed that he too frequently was not paying attention to me when I was on belay. Sort of soured me on the experience.
Very sad & tragic. Happened at his birthday party no less. Whoever turns out to be at fault, his parents will probably be beating themselves up over this for the rest of their lives. Prayers for his family.
I only ever took the one class, didn't really get into it beyond that. So I don't know if those rules are common or the instructor's own personal twist on things. I do remember he was seriously into it. If you got stuck he would free climb up next to you and say inspiring things like "If you screw up and knock me off, I'm grabbing you..." ;-)
“My guess is that a teenage employee didn’t do his job.”
A teenager should never be in charge of a child’s life.
My guess, an adult F’d up.
Our adventures with quarry walls were not that professional. We lived out on the edge of town. This was back in the day when the neighborhood kids headed out in the morning with instructions to be home by dinner. The quarries were out in the woods. They were old, with enough weathering and rockfalls over the years to make them climbable. Some sections were pretty formidable. Others were for sissies. Our parents knew the kids were playing in the quarries but figured they couldn't stop us. The quarries were probably less dangerous than the creeks and, from time to time, the river (when we got that far afield), but in my time no one got killed. We did get cornered by fearsomely large cows once when we were exploring down the wrong side of the creek, but the big kids were able to ford the creek and fetch help.
THAT, is sheer insanity.
It is a trampoline park so I am guessing that the rock wall was over a foam pit - kids are supposed to be able to let go and fall into the foam pit. I’ve also seen big rope walls over a foam pit. I’m guessing the kid let go or fell and then at least part of him missed the foam pit landing.
10 to 15 feet? Back in my day we had jungle gyms that were taller than that made of steel or iron and sitting on top of hard asphalt.
I know those trampoline gyms have the rock walls on top of large foam mats. This had to be a tragic fluke of some sort.
Every indoor shooting range I’ve been to in the last few years requires ear and eye protection to protect itself from liability. Looks like this place made a big mistake by not doing the same.
Yes they do. Our grandson had a fall from 20 feet at a rock climbing gym and broke his back. He has fully recovered and is back at work as a fire fighter. Very lucky he was not paralyzed.
Several problems when it happened. He is not a small guy and they had a little teenage girl belay for him. Should have refused and waited for someone else but he was a regular at this gym and felt confident it would be ok. She assured him she could hold him. She wasn’t paying attention and was not wearing gloves. When he fell, she managed to somehow slow him down but he still hit hard. Landed on his feet and then sat down hard. Girl’s hands were cut to ribbons. Even with safety measures, human error and inattention to details cause accidents.
We climb in the wild. The only people I let belay for me are my husband or brother. They have more interest in keeping me safe than a minimum wage teenager at a gym.
But I recall early 70s a child did fall from the tall ladder on a very high slide. All I recall is he was hurt badly and was taken to hospital.
definitely taller than the one in photo
https://c8.alamy.com/comp/A836KA/empty-roundabout-and-slide-in-playground-A836KA.jpg
If you’ve got a 3D HDTV, rent or buy the most recent version of “Point Break”. You get about 90 minutes of that stuff, all the way through.
I recall bayonne Park had many slide like one pictured and jubgle gyms
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