Newcastle, CA (PRWEB) June 02, 2012
The Miami Marlins have been busy filtering questions from a climbing wall accident that caused an 11-year-old girl to fall 18 feet to the ground. News stations across the nation have been reporting the horrific video footage showing a climbing wall drop a little girl to the concrete floor, resulting in a concussion and serious back trauma. It was confirmed that the climbing wall was not an Extreme Engineering climbing wall. Video footage, filmed from the little girls fathers camera phone, caught what seemed to be a cable failure on the belay device.
Jeff Wilson, president of Extreme Engineering and the patent holder of mobile climbing walls stated, Our thoughts are with the little girl and her family. I cant speak for the climbing wall company in question, but I can say that we are proud of Extreme Engineerings safety track record and the reliability of our engineered equipment. With over 17 years in manufacturing and designing climbing wall devices and other amusement equipment, we are proactive in maintaining safety, and educating our customers so they can continue to maintain their Extreme products with safety in mind.
The climbing wall incident has been reported on ABC News, Good Morning America and NBC. Jeff Davis, the father to the little girl (Emily) who fell from the climbing wall stated, I just wanted to know she was breathing. (Report from ABC News). The media has claimed that there was a harness failure but this is extremely rare and most likely not the probable cause. Based off the video footage it seems it was either a cable failure due to lack of maintenance or a mechanical failure in the auto-belay design. It is still hard to determine on the short video clip but Im certain it was not the harness, says Wilson. Extreme Engineering is providing assistance on the accident and available for an expert opinion on the failure. Although this is not an Extreme Engineering product, I am available to answer any questions on mobile climbing walls, auto-belay systems and how this could have been preventedmy goal is to continue to keep the industry safe, says Wilson.
Jeff Wilson serves as a committee member on the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) ASTM F24 and also has served as an expert witness on various cases that focused on mechanical failures. Being the patent holder and inventor of the mobile climbing wall, auto-belay and other amusement devices, Wilson has become a resource in climbing wall safety and design. Extreme Engineering is also offering to review the climbing wall that caused the accident with a full report of what failed and caused the little girl to fall. It angers me when companies build inferior products that are not safe. There is a reason why products are engineered and designed a certain way. Not everyone can build a safe, reliable productI hate seeing the public get hurt especially if it could have been easily avoided, explains Wilson.
News reports state that the little girl suffered a concussion and serious bruising, but luckily no broken bones or internal organ damage. She is now talking and has started walking again.
With 4 best new product and 6 total industry awards in the entertainment industry, Extreme Engineering has proven to a premier provider in zip lines, climbing walls and other extreme, interactive products. Jeff Wilson is a mechanical engineer with over a dozen patents in the amusement, medical and aeronautical industry. For more information on climbing wall safety and design please feel free to email info@extremeengineering.com. The media is welcome to contact us. Please feel free to visit http://www.extremeengineering.com. We have full operating manuals, service bulletins and other safety related documents available online.