Teen killed after towing strap snaps

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Jason

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Such a tragedy, and so close to Christmas. No full details yet, it's floating around a couple of the news sites.

A 14-year-old boy was killed last night after being struck in the head with the hook of a towing strap.

The incident occurred in bushland off Dundowran Road, 15 kilometres west of Hervey Bay, about 7.15pm.

It is understood the teen was with a group of people towing a car when the strap snapped sending the hook at his head.
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The local boy died from severe head injuries at the scene.

Police have declared his death non suspicious and will prepare a report for the coroner.

Snapped Towing Strap Kills Teenager At Hervey Bay

A 14-YEAR-OLD boy has died after he was struck in the head by a steel towing hook at Hervey Bay on Sunday.

A Department of Community Safety spokeswoman said the boy was with a group of people towing a car in bushland about 15km outside of Hervey Bay when the cable came loose, sending the hook into his head.

It is understood he was knocked unconscious and suffered serious head injuries.

Ambulance crews headed on foot into bush near Walligan just before 7.30pm to reach the boy, though flooding in the area made reaching him difficult.

Police have confirmed the boy, a local from the area, later died from his injuries.

Boy killed after being hit in the head with a steel hook | Courier Mail

Stay safe out there.
 
Couple of lessons to learn from this:

* Keep everyone clear of the recovery operation

* Use dampeners on any and all straps, cables or ropes under tension.

I have one already. I think I'll invest in another so I can put one on each end of the cable.
 
Couple of lessons to learn from this:

* Keep everyone clear of the recovery operation
* Use dampeners on any and all straps, cables or ropes under tension.

I have one already. I think I'll invest in another so I can put one on each end of the cable.

Very important point to remember there Tony ... we had a snatch strap break on us this past weekend. All people were clear and i also had both cars back to back when the strap broke, so we had the canopy's between us IF something happened.

other points to remember is -
Never use hooks for towing ... always use rated shakles.
Never put anything on the tow ball to recover from - use shakels to rated recovery points on the vehicle (preferably fixed directly to the chasis)
 
Always use the correct gear for the job too. All too often you hear of people (especially farmers and people in the outback) being injured or killed by using the wrong equipment for the job. There's usually a very good reason why things are purpose-designed.
 
it must of been the hook that broke not the strap. otherwise the hook would not of been sent flying. i'm only guessing that they tied it to a factory tiedown point that was far too weak to perform what was required. Car was most likely pretty bogged with the rain that is around.
 
hmm that sucks. so young.

goes to show how dangerous it can be if done incorrectly. ive walked away from people wanting to use a towball to recover from. and ive seen one let go, not real wicked.
 
During my club's driver's awareness program we are taught that all tow ropes be they static or snatch need a dampener.
The trainers do a demonstration where the snatch strap gives way sends a shackle flying back at about 300km/hr piercing an old bonnet up against a huge tree. (someone with too much time on thier hands actually worked out the recoil speed)

It is said that shackles should not be attached to snatch straps however, check out some of your recovery points and you will see that that is possibly the only way secure the strap.

Always use a dampener, it can be as simple as a blanket or spend the $35 at arb and get one specifically and only use equipment appropriately rated for the sitiuation, this includes the recovery vehicle.
 
I'm going to add some more to this, because it needs to be said - too many people don't HONESTLY ask themselves this question.

How much would YOU pay so that you DIDN'T have to visit someone's grave every year, to commemorate would should have just been a fun weekend?

It is a combination of the right gear and the right approach. Always let experienced recovery people guide everyone.

I might sound like I know what I'm doing or talking about, but if we're out on a track and need to do a recovery, I'm letting Craig be the boss. He's done it before, I've only read the theory and understand the physics.
 
My 2c is that it was most probably a cheap towing rope. Seen one today at a hardware for $15 with two hooks. Probably started off okay with dodgy hook position and the rope gain tension, then hook slips and kerzap.
 
they say hook so i reckon it was a dedicated TOW strap, like this...

331796_lg.jpg


i dont know whats worse...

a. knowing a friend died because you didnt know what was the right recovery gear

b. KNOWING you used the wrong recovery gear thinking 'yeah it'll be fine'

i just wonder who it was that actually put the tow strap on the car, the car owner or the recovery car?

either way its a bullshit sad story for this time of year :(
 
copied off outers

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensl ... 18wa0.html

Addison Yates was sitting in the back seat of a four-wheel-drive bogged in bushland mud when the hook of the tow rope being used to pull them free came loose, catapulting through the rear window like a slingshot at a speed of up to 160kmh.

The hook hit the 14-year-old boy in the head, killing him.

Details emerged today of the tragedy, which occurred outside Hervey Bay on Sunday evening.

Addison had been 'bush bashing' with two mates when they became bogged on a sodden dirt track in the Vernon Conservation Park, in Walligan.

Four friends in two other 4WDs tried to haul the vehicle out of the mud.

Addison's friends, believed to be aged between 17 and 21, connected the three 4WDs together in a convoy with snatch straps.

The region had been soaked with rain earlier in the day, but the rain continued to fall as the group tried to reverse the bogged vehicle out of the mud on Dundowran Road.

Addison sat in the back seat, facing backwards to watch the action.

But the group had underestimated the tension two vehicles would place on the towing straps.

Detective Sergeant Bruce Hodgins said the force was so great on one strap the metal hook was sheared off the tow bar and catapulted back towards Addison.

"It acted like a slingshot," Sergeant Hodgins said.

"The two vehicles put an unbelievable pressure on the strap. There was also incredible pressure on the middle vehicle.

"The hook bolts couldn't take the pressure."

The tow strap used was designed to bear a load of five tonnes, but the two vehicles created a load of about seven tonnes, Sergeant Hodgins estimated.

He said Addison and his friends often went bush bashing and were not unfamiliar with the terrain in the reserve.

"Did his friends act irresponsibly? No," the police office said.

"Did they underestimate the force of the two vehicles? Yes."

Queensland University of Technology physicists Stephen Hughes and John Barry estimated the hook would have catapulted through the rear windscreen of the 4WD at between 100 and 160kmh.

However Dr Hughes, a medical physicist, said the force would not need to be great to cause fatal head injuries.

"Even the slightest bump on the head can be fatal," he said.

"The person in this case would have suffered severe brain damage if they had not died."

Emergency crews waded through chest-deep water in a flooded creek to reach the group after searching for them for hours.

"It took some time for police and ambulance crews to get to him," Sergeant Hodgins said.

"[Addison's friends] offered what assistance they could, but they realised there was little hope."

Addison was the son of Hervey Bay Pastor Darryn Yates, who operates the Church by the Bay and a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre. A widower, Pastor Yates runs the centre with his new wife, Jill, after Addison's mother Dianne died.

Friends and family expressed their grief and disbelief on social networking site Facebook yesterday.

"He was such a kind and giving person. Why did he have to die?" one friend wrote.

Anther said: "He was the nicest kid. Man you are goin' (sic) to be missed so much."

Sergeant Hodgins said the tragedy served as a warning to others planning to go four-wheel-driving in the holiday season.

"This could have happened to anyone, anywhere," he said.

"It could have been a mother, or a very young child sitting in that seat."

He recommended training courses in towing bogged vehicles to help prevent future accidents.
 
Look at that recommendation at the end there.

I'll say it again. Experienced people should manage vehicle recoveries. And more importantly, everyone around needs to be smart enough to listen to them.

TWO vehicles? They created that disaster. I'd hate to be in their shoes, because right about now I'd feel particularly down - with myself.
 
Look at that recommendation at the end there.

I'll say it again. Experienced people should manage vehicle recoveries. And more importantly, everyone around needs to be smart enough to listen to them.

TWO vehicles? They created that disaster. I'd hate to be in their shoes, because right about now I'd feel particularly down - with myself.


Done in the correct safe manner, theres nothin wrong with using 2 vehicles to recover.
Sounds most like it was just shit luck, possibly someone didnt use rated bolts on there recovery point.
 
I don't think luck is the right word to use, there's generally no such thing as an "accident." It's tragic, and we've probably all done things that we were blissfully unaware of the danger of it, and got away without any consequence, but it could have been avoided if they had of been educated in the proper way to recover vehicles, had the right gear, and taken the time to do some basic common sense calculations.

A good (but sad) lesson for all of us.....
 
Done in the correct safe manner, theres nothin wrong with using 2 vehicles to recover.
Sounds most like it was just shit luck, possibly someone didnt use rated bolts on there recovery point.

Maybe so. Timing would have to be perfect and the people conducting the recovery would have to be experienced enough to manage this.

By the sounds of it, they were neither experienced nor properly equipped.

I stand my ground: they may have been trying to conduct a recovery in a manner that would be completely acceptable with the right equipment and with people that had the right skills, but it seems neither were present.

For a start, passengers should have been removed from the participating vehicles - only those essential to the recovery should have been in the vehicles. If they'd started with THAT, then the whole tragedy would have been fixed by a call to O'Brien Glass, instead of the NSW Ambulance Service.

That they used poor equipment and didn't manage the area properly just proves that any of us that want to go 4WDing and may need to perform some form of recovery really need to pay particular attention to the equipment and the task, making sure that the people are safe first etc etc.

We - those of us reading this forum - can learn from this.

I spoke to Dave earlier, and began voicing my desire to continue the day-trips that we've been doing, but to start looking at education in different arenas - mud trails, water crossings, rock climbing, sand driving and - importantly - PROPER vehicle recovery procedures. We got cut off in the conversation, but we'll pick it up again later on - and hopefully, we'll be able to show people the right way to do things.

The goal should be to remember the day as a fun day out, not the day we killed a mate. That's a point that I'm going to deliver in the outings - especially ones where we are actually doing real recoveries.
 
we dont know they used poor recovery equipment. Maybe those bolts had been used in recoveries hundreds of times before and finally given up. How many people go through there car and change all the high stressed bolts regularly?
Its easy for us to sit here and say what they did wrong and how they should have done it but we wernt there and will never know the full story of it with all the little details. Yes maybe there shouldnt have been any passengers in the car ill give you that, but it could have just as well been the driver then.
 
I guess you're right, but me being a very thorough and naturally investigative person, I always am of the opinion that saying "oh well it was just an accident" is the easy way out, and avoids actually learning why it happened and trying to prevent it from happening again. If we never did that, we'd still be swinging in trees....
 
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