[BC] Two Clear Channel workers fall from a Denver radio tower

[Glen Kippel]

On Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 3:55 PM, Cowboy <curt at spam-o-matic.net> wrote:

>
>  "riding the line" is, in fact, legal, with several proivisos.
>
>  This isn't the first time I've heard of exactly this accident, for various
>  reasons, and usually close to the ground as was this one.
>
>  -------------

In 1992 KAMB was in the process of relocating the transmitter site from just
south of Hornitos, to Schultz Mountain, a few miles northwest of Catheys
Valley.  We were putting up a 180-foot tower, and the tower crew seemed to
be treating this job as a mere trifle and a bagatelle, as they had just
finished a gig on Sutro Tower.  Well, they had just finished and one of the
crew decided to ride down on the gin pole.  Unfortunately the rope broke.
He fell about 100 feet and landed on the rocks.  If that wasn't bad enough,
the end of the gin pole fell on his side and nearly speared him in half.  I
didn't see it; I was inside wiring up the remote control.  But everyone was
screaming and hollering at me to get on the car phone.  I raised the 911
operator in Stockton, who kept asking for my street address.  All I could
say was, "Lady, we're nowhere near a street, send a Med-Evac to a mountain
top four miles northwest of Catheys Valley, which is o Highway 140 east of
Merced.  Look for a tower.  Ground access to the site is through George
Gordo's ranch on Indian Gulch Road."  By the time the chopper arrived, the
tower guy had expired.  I don't know if hecould have survived anyway.  By
the time the tower company paid the OSHA fines, I am sure they didn't make
any money on the job.  But, no tower job is so small that it isn't
hazardous  Of course, I don't do towers.  I get a nosebleed if I stand on a
chair.