| Name | Age | Sex | Injuries | Injured areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| McKinney, Francis E. | 35 | Male | Fractures, ruptured aorta, death | Leg, pelvis, heart |
A party of six cavers descended a pit near the Ventosa Entrance of the Rio Camuy Cave System on the morning of 26 March 1975. They spent their time working on dye tracing and surveying projects. Francis E. McKinney (35) was the last person to ascend the 50-meter pit. About 5 minutes later, near 6:30 p.m., a whizzing noise was heard, followed by a loud crash and then a scream from the bottom of the pit.
Steve Williams called to McKinney who answered in a loud voice. Brian Smith immediately left to alert Frosty Miller and Terry Tarkington, who had gone out of the cave already. It was determined that the main rope had not broken and it was safe to use it for rappelling. Williams descended and found a Jumar ascender attached to the main rope about 23 meters from the floor. The Jumar had a piece of broken polypropylene rope attached to it. Williams found McKinney lying on his right side, resting his head on his right arm and speaking in a loud voice.
He was able to describe his own injuries which included a definite break in his left leg and probably in the pelvic region. He also thought he had a possible lower spine injury and possibly a break in either his right arm or wrist since his right hand was going numb. Help was sought from other cavers in the area as well as medical personnel from Arecibo. For the next 21/2 hours McKinney had intermittent pain in the area of his abdomen but none in the chest or stomach.
Shortly after 9:00 p.m. he began to have labored short breaths and chest pains. About 5 minutes later his breathing stopped and Williams started mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and heart massage. Frank Shire rappelled down to assist. After about 30 minutes no favorable response was obtained. The body and all gear were removed from the cave by 5 a.m.
Analysis
Francis was the last to climb the pit, so no one saw the accident. However, it is possible to partially reconstruct it:
1. Francis was an experienced vertical caver and had done many pits more difficult than Ventosa. For example, he was the second person down Surprise Pit in Fern Cave.
2. The rope was wet and muddy, both from a constant drip over the lip and from the boots and gear of the five cavers who ascended before him.
3. Francis was using a new (to him) vertical rig of two Jumars with a chest box. He had climbed a clean dry rope for fifty feet in practice three times near Oak Ridge and had done a dirty sixty-foot pit the preceding day. On both occasions he had complained that the lower Jumar was sticking so badly that he had to use both hands to move it.
4. The upper Jumar was found about seventy-five feet above the bottom of the pit. The polypropylene ski rope connecting the Jumar to the foot loop had abraded and failed at the point where it passed through the chest box.
5. Francis, himself, did not know what had happened.
6. Francis disconnected his own box from the rope to help Steve descend.
7. Steve does not remember taking Francis' lower Jumar off.
8. The rope, Bluewater III, was essentially new. There are worn streaks on the rope in the area where Francis fell and occasional heavily worn spots. Had these been caused by hauling gear out they would have been on other parts of the rope, both above and below the section of the fall (considerable rope was on the floor of the pit during the ascents and descents).
9. The teeth of Francis' Jumars contained a lot of mud. The accident was apparently initiated by the failure of the upper Jumar sling. Polypropylene ski rope has very poor abrasion resistance and broke after rubbing in the chest box. Francis must either have been "thumbing" the lower Jumar or had taken it off to work on it when the upper sling failed. He had a chest loop and extra Jumar in his pack. This safety would have caught him. (This was reconfirmed by actual tests a few days after the accident.)
Our reconstruction is that the upper Jumar sling failed while the lower Jumar was being thumbed. We cannot postulate a mechanism which would explain the rope damage found but the damage would seem to rule out the possibility that the lower Jumar was off the rope. During the rescue itself, those at the top hoped that his injuries were not too serious as he was quite lucid. Steve did not tell us that he found a Jumar 75 feet up as he was trying to keep Francis in an optimistic frame of mind. This he was able to do.
His injuries were such that there was no way to save his life. The fall caused a fracture of the sacrum which led to a rupture of the aorta 3.8cm (1.5 inches) long at the time of the autopsy. It must have originally been a puncture wound almost sealed by the bone fragment which caused it and then been enlarged during the removal of the body from the cave since the amount of blood passing through the aorta and the pressure which it is under imply that Francis would have died within five minutes had the original rupture been that large.
What can be learned? Among other things:
1. Loose woven polypropylene ski rope is poor sling material.
2. The ability of Jumars to catch and hold, not merely grip and hold, needs to be evaluated.
3. We need to design a "bendable" stokes litter.