05.09.2010

Chile Death Wish

A true Death Wish today, taken by a reader in Santiago, Chile last week involving ladders and overhead wires.

Sadly the quality is not the best, but thanks to camera phone technology we do have a picture. A man is working on some overhead lights which hang from a suspended cable, however to reach them he has lent his ladder, possibly an insulated one? Against another set of overhead power lines.
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Death Wish from Chile-ladder on the wires

As if all this was not enough on its own, the ladder is leaning towards the street at a busy intersection , so should the ladder slip off of the wires – that’s assuming he is not shocked first – he will land in the traffic.

Then just to put a cap on it in order to reach the lights he has to lean out sideways to a position that results in more ladder accidents than all the others combined. People often foot a ladder to stop the feet sliding backwards, but in fact the most common ladder accidents come from side slips caused by users reaching out like this fellow.