Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal Volume 3 Number 1

Notes and queries

Fatal accident due to rope

The most recent example of how not to use the rope comes, not from the Matterhorn or Sgurr nan Gillean, but from Peterhead. At an inquest held there on 1st December on the death of Henry Hanley, a convict, who was killed by falling down a quarry face, from which he was engaged, along with another convict, in removing loose material, it was proved that the two men were tied to ropes, held at the top; but how the ropes were fastened - whether by a running noose or a sailor's knot - there was no evidence to show, although several witnesses were specially interrogated on the point. Hanley slipped, and, his rope being slack at the time, he fell ten feet before it tightened - sustaining injuries, which are described as "the fracture of the breast bone in three places, the breakage of several ribs, and a double fracture of the left leg." The medical man, who conducted the examination, was of opinion that; apart from the injuries to the chest, the other injuries would not have proved fatal. Probably the left leg was broken after death. His view was that the sudden jerk of the rope, when it became taut, snapped the ribs and crushed them into the lungs. The rope, which was intended for the deceased's safety, was therefore the direct cause of the accident. Had it been held taut, the fatality would not have occurred. He was unable to say what distance of a drop would produce the injuries above described; but he thought that in the case of a man of 149 lbs. (Hanley's weight) it would begin to be very serious after six feet.

If the above opinion is correct, a new terror is added to mountaineering, and fresh testimony furnished of the absolute necessity of keeping the rope taut. It seems also to point to a possible danger in hitching a bight of the rope round a projecting knob of rock as is often done by way of additional security.

W. B.