Absolutely amazing to me that investigators of the recent circus accident are focusing on the failure of a SINGLE carabiner that was used to suspend the ENTIRE 1,500 pound trapeze & performers. It was apparently rated @ 10,000 pounds. Is that a downward force or stationary rating? A trapeze certainly cannot remain stationary. There would be a tremendous pull toward the ground if the rig began to move.
I seem to recall from past dealings with fall protection equipment that lanyard/carabiner combinations need to be generally rated at 50,000 pounds of downward force to stop the freefall of an average person.
Watching NBC news, there wasn't even backup safety rigging to cover a failure of the primary rigging. It appeared that a single carabiner was all that was used. Some people need to go to jail.
Sorry for the technical rant here, but those of us who have been authorized to teach construction safety on behalf of Federal OSHA get a bit upset when things like this needlessly occur. It will be interesting to learn of the investigation outcome.
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