Prosecution, really?

[glassgowkiss]

This is kind of scary:

Read

I realize people are upset, but this is looking for a scapegoat at it's best!

[rob]

This sounds par-for-the-course for the Italian justice system. Didn't they charge some scientist with manslaughter once for failing to accurately predict an earthquake?

[DPS]

Not to mention they railroaded that nice girl from the UW.

[obwan]

It's really to bad that this had to happen - the mentor/instructor or someone a bit more experienced should have been in charge and checked all the gear. Youngsters climbing assume that everything is a go. God Bless.

[ivan]

didn't these people kill jesus too?

[mattp]

Yes, but they killed Jesus because he was against taxes. Ask O'Reilly.

 

The original point here, however, is not without merit. Manslaughter?

 

[chris]

Matt, this might be a mistranslation of Italian and the Italian legal code - since I think its more appropriate, I wondered if "manslaughter" should have been translated as "negligent homicide", or if "manslaughter" in Italy is the equivalence. Anyone know someone fluent in Italian who can read the original news story, since all the English versions appear to be a Google translated, edited for grammar version of the same release?

[glassgowkiss]

It's really to bad that this had to happen - the mentor/instructor or someone a bit more experienced should have been in charge and checked all the gear. Youngsters climbing assume that everything is a go. God Bless.

Really? when your climbing partner gives you a rack of draws, do you individually test them? Because I never did (even though I climb now for 35 years). I am probably going to start now, but up to now I never did beyond just a visual glance. Sure as heck I have learned from my and others mistakes, and I feel lucky this way, I guess others are less lucky. But throwing prosecution into this mix is a dangerous path for all climbers, as mistakes always will happen, I just hope it's not me.

[LUCKY]

Sounds like someone put together petzl draws with the carabiner through the rubber band instead of the carabiner rubber band to hold the carabiner fixed

Who ever did this should not be considered a climber and be prosecuted under IDtentee ERROR and not judicial law.

[Coldfinger]

Kids: Have to agree with earlier post here, kids really don't get how dangerous climbing can be. Having a good deal of instruction and belay time with youngsters, I have to say that we need to treat climbing with children a little differently than with adults. Not to say they can't be as safe as adults, rather, imho, you have to go over ALL the details and do it differently than when with adults. Really important to hammer the importance of safety habits into their heads. I would add that Parents can often be a very unwelcome distraction/hazard if they don't know wtf is going on.

 

I have come to understand that another child's mother provided the draws. Remains to be seen WHO rigged those draws. This issue will be a hard one for whoever rigged them, I hope it wasn't a child.

 

I can remember making more than a few DIY items when I was young, so it probably is a good idea to visually check the child's harness, runners, draws and belay gear for that as part of the belay check or at least at the start of the day.

 

As a side note, I am NOT a big fan of climbing on fixed or other people's gear as it is often hard to inspect and impossible to know its history.

 

Inspection: Sad as it is the kid should have checked his draws/equipment. And the adults should not have been handling equipment they didn't inspect or possibly even understand. I have come to inspect each piece of pro, whether trad, ice or sport quickly as I clip and move past it. Simple habit, not much effort and allows me to focus on climbing. If you understand the function of each and every piece of the system, this really is pretty simple.

 

Rubber Keepers: There are two basic designs for these rubber devices:

 

1. A rubber loop sewn into the dogbone, which make it harder to rig incorrectly, but not impossible.

 

2. A rubber piece, like the Petzl String, that sits over the loop, and is NOT sewn into the sling. The added benefit of this design is the keeper also protects the nylon dogbone from abrasion where it can and does rub against the rock. In addition to the way these were rigged in the accident, these are never to be used with any kind of open sling!! Petzl warns against this explicitly in its instructions and here is a good video on the topic: UKC safety video

[rob]

Gee, thanks for all that.

[Coldfinger]

You're welcome