[BC] Almost a Darwin award!

[Mike McCarthy]

We had the same BASE jumper situation here at one of my stations 10 
years ago.  I was the contractor at this station less than a week when 
I got a call saying the fire department was at the site, come quikcly.

This guy also got his chute snagged on a guy line and rode the guy 
line down to about the 120 ft. where it got hooked by a johnny ball.  
yes, it's an AM tower...and a hot one at that.

Fire department called in a 100 ft. hook/ladder from another 
department and hooked an extension ladder onto the end of the main 
ladder to reach this guy.

Station sued him to receover repair charges to make sure the tower was 
not damaged and to injoin him from ever walking on the property again. 
Fire Department sued to receover their charges as well.  Cost him over 
$15K 10 years ago.

Since then, no more jumpers.

Lots of no trespassing signs and razor wire on the fences around the 
towers.

MM

> That guy is a real idiot, but tied with him is the Cessna 210 pilot 
who
> clipped a fire truck trying to take off from a road and ran his 
plane into a
> ditch and trees after running out of gas and landing on the road to 
start
> with
> 
> Paul Smith
> Sarasota, FL
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: broadcast-bounces at radiolists.net
> [mailto:broadcast-bounces at radiolists.net]On Behalf Of Davis, Jack L.
> (KTXL)
> Sent: Friday, October 28, 2005 3:03 PM
> To: 'broadcast at radiolists.net'
> Subject: [BC] Almost a Darwin award!
> 
> 
> We had an incident last night where a BASE jumper climbed up one of 
the 2000
> foot towers in our local antenna farm and jumped.  Unfortunately for 
him he
> hit the 5th guy wire and slid down onto one of the sand dampers at 
about 200
> feet.  It took fire rescue from 7:15 PM until 12:10 AM to climb up 
the guy
> wire and lower him to the ground.  In Sacramento County this is 
considered a
> misdemeanor and is only punishable by a $1,000 fine and or 6 months 
in the
> county jail.  I have met with the other Chief Engineers from 
stations that
> own tall towers in the area and we are all going to contact the 
District
> Attorneys office and ask for the maximum sentence to try and 
discourage this
> activity.  We have had base jumpers in the past and not much has 
happened to
> them when they are arrested.  We have also contacted the Fire 
Department and
> they have agreed to go after the guy for expenses incurred during the
> rescue.  Considering there were 5 fire agencies, the county sheriff 
and the
> CHP plus 3 helicopters and life flight this could be a bigger 
penalty then
> the judicial route.
> 
> 
> 
> I learned a few things out there last evening that we as a group 
should be
> aware of:
> 
> 
> 
> 1)       Secure the tower.
> 
> 2)       Trip the breakers or pull the fuses on the elevator when 
not in
> use.
> 
> 3)       Post signs prohibiting trespassing (This is very important 
from a
> liability standpoint, if you have no sign the courts my hold you 
liable for
> injury)
> 
> 4)       Report all incidents to the local law enforcement agency
> 
> 
> 
> If you are interested here is a link to a news story about the 
incident:
> 
> http://cbs13.com/topstories/local_story_300235941.html
> 
> The link did not make it so you will have to cut and past it into 
your web
> browser.
> 
> 
> 
> Jack Davis
> K6YC
> 
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Reply to <towers at mre.com>
>From my traveling acount...