Accident at Winter Garden — Page 2

Just so horrible. May he rest in peace. Without a stage crew, there would be no plays or musicals for us to see and admire.

May he rest in peace. That was classy of Jordan Roth to have the marquee lights up for the late Pete Wright this past weekend.

August Wilson is Jujamcyn right? And Winter Garden is Shubert? I didn't realize stage crew folks for a Jujamcyn theater can work for a Shubert theater at the same time.

HogansHero said: "Fosse76 said: "ghostlight2 said: "Alex, the news report says he died at the hospital."

Actually, the article stated he was pronounced dead at the hospital. That doesn't mean he didn't die on the scene. Generally, only a physician or nurse can pronounce a death (it varies by state). Since they usually don't get dispatched to the scene, the pronouncement doesn't happen until they arrive at the hospital."

EMTs (and others who are not doctors) can pronounce in New York. In the early days of the pandemic, some deceased people were taken by EMTs directly from home to the refrigerated morgue trucks after they pronounced.

ETA: He could have been dead but EMTs are trained to continue efforts until certain protocols have been followed. The hospital was close by, so it is entirely possible they had not given up.

ETA #2: The Times report clarifies (a) that it was indeed a ladder (from the fly floor) and (b) that he was doing routine maintenance."

In the UK a ETA/Paramedic can pronounce so me one dead, if their injuries are not compatible with life, the ambulance then takes them straight to the morgue.

Obviously a bit late now but 50/60 feet is very high to climb without a harness, surely Pete should have been wearing a harness, for this very reason.

A little more about him, for those interested. May he rest in peace.

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-worker-fatal-fall-broadway-theater-mourned-20201116-yzt73csvbfdznaalgtjl3k7iri-story.html

Normally Fly floors are 60 to 70 feet above stage level. It's common for stagehands to work on ladders while working on the Fly floor. It's not always practical to hook into something with a harness to secure yourself while doing this. Same could be said for other areas of the Theater - The Grid, false ceiling, Box booms, Etc. He was restoring a louver on an air conditioning duct when he lost balance and fell off the ladder and over the side rail to the Fly floor and to his death. This work is common and dangerous. There should be a larger and detailed discussion about OSHA rules and show installations. In reality if all OSHA rules were followed shows would take many more weeks to load in costing millions more in capitalisations . It's a practice that isn't discussed and just assumed the Stagehands will ignore and get the job done. They get paid well for a reason.

morosco said: "This question is not specific to this particular accident. Are Broadway stagehands required to wear hard hats during load in / load out?"

They are now although it wasn't widely enforced. The practice only started within the last 5 years unless it was a major theater renovation. It also depends on the theater owner and the department heads. There was an accident this year at the Golden theater where steel fell from the grid hitting both the fly floor and the stage. Stagehands on the Fly Floor were severely hurt. Since then you saw wide spread enforcement of hart hat rules while on stage. With the incident at the Winter Garden a hard hat wasn't going to save him.

Stagehands do get paid well and the reason shouldn’t be about life and death, which unfortunately in this case was fatal.

We all know Health and Safety and can be laborious, for this reason it is often ignored, but basic safety like wearing hard hats and steel cap boots is simple, working at heights you should be secured to something, as ghostlight2 suggested.

We have all burnt ourselves put something in and out of the oven. but ultimately it is 100% possible to do this without burning yourself.

This story and the the Golden Theatre incident reminds me of construction workers in Las Vegas, with high fatalities and the authorities simply looked the other way, that is why the Las Vegas Sun won the Pulitzer for its reporting on this.