No injured cavers recorded.
During a Southeast Regional Association Weekend a number of cavers visited Stamp's Pit in Tennessee, a nice 192 foot freefall drop. The pit is hazardous however, due to a great deal of loose rock around the upper edge. One group arrived to find another already descending the pit. The first group was allowed to complete their descent and leave the bottom of the pit to explore before the second began their descent. As they descended, a third group arrived and waited in turn. Soon a fourth group arrived, rigged a second rope and descended. The second and fourth groups were only doing the pit and began to ascend simultaneously. Meanwhile a fifth group arrived and rigged a third rope. They received protest from the waiting third group and encouragement from the fourth group. It wasn't long before a member of the fifth group began his rappel and a rockfall as well. Cavers from groups two and four were ascending in tandem so there were four cavers on rope at the same time. The rockfall included stuff "up to the size of watermelons" but only one caver was struck, in the back by a baseball-sized rock. Unbelievably, a second member of group five then prepared to descend and had to be physically forced by the group there to wait until the climbers on rope had reached the surface. There was no further incident.
Analysis: Davison points out that "the same activity should be conducted on each rope simultaneously" so that no one is exposed to someone else's rockfall. The real point in this incident however, is that if one acts in a sufficiently irresponsible manner, in the face of protest from those endangered, and such act results in a fatality, a court of law could well judge such to be manslaughter. Think about it.
NSS News April 1979 p86.
This record was last updated on 27th Apr 2024 at 23:11 UTC.