----- Original Message -----
From: "Carol Serr" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, September 03, 2004 12:07 PM
Subject: Re: privy diggers


>
> Actually John, these bottle hunters are all over the country...and have
> been digging such privies, etc. for Many yrs...and I dont remember hearing
> of cave-ins or deaths...or even accidents....even tho they dont use
shoring
> or take other precautions


Carol
Trenches and pits don't collapse every time - several years and several
thousand trenches and pits may have been successfuly dug in the meantime but
when one does collapse (and the possibility is there in every excavation- it
is the good ground that kills you) the result can be castrophic. Two videos
I saw during my trench rescue training stick in my memory. One was footage
of two ambulance paramedics working to stabalise a worker who had been
injured by a pipe in a trench. Between frames of the video the sides of the
trench collapsed. In one frame it was still standing, in the next the
paramedics and their patient were buried under the collapse. I don't know
what the time sequence between video frames is but it seems quicker than my
reaction time. One paramedic never walked again.
The other was a video of a young grave digger who was trapped from the waist
down when the grave he was digging caved in on him. Emergency crews worked
for several hours to free him, a relatively easy job one would think
perhaps. Unfortunately he died before they got him out.
So all you archaeologists out there, think before you enter a deep (1.5
metre) excavation. Check with your local Occupational Health and Safety
authority regarding the regulations and precautions. Don't put the lives of
collegues, students or volunteers at risk. If you don't give a damn about
your own life at least think of the effect on your loved ones and the poor
souls from the emergency services who have to dig your remains out then try
to sleep that night (and the next and the next and the ....)
Am I being overdramatic? Contact your local emergency service who have
responsibility for this type of specialised rescue and talk to them and see
whether the risk is worth it.
John