Tourist stranded on glass bridge triggers safety concerns

  • Thread starter Deleted member 41971
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Deleted member 41971

Guest
so this happened :sick:


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Bigfoot

Grand Master
It seems to me that the glass deck was irrelevant to the incident. A suspension bridge of this type is going to move around in strong winds, whatever the deck was made of. A glass deck didn’t cause the railings to be damaged. The reason for the tourist being trapped was that some glass tile sections were blown off. This could easily have happened with tiles of a different material. The design and / or construction of the bridge was not up to the environmental conditions it experienced- nothing to do with glass.
 

barlew

Godlike
It seems to me that the glass deck was irrelevant to the incident. A suspension bridge of this type is going to move around in strong winds, whatever the deck was made of. A glass deck didn’t cause the railings to be damaged. The reason for the tourist being trapped was that some glass tile sections were blown off. This could easily have happened with tiles of a different material. The design and / or construction of the bridge was not up to the environmental conditions it experienced- nothing to do with glass.
Hahah I'm sure that's exactly how the dude rationalised his situation as he was clinging on for dear life!!!
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Ummm.....something smells fishy here.

As a sailor winds and wind speeds are something I'm intimately familiar with because I've spent over 20 years dealing with them. The report talks of winds gusts up to 150kph, that's over 93mph and is a category 2 hurricane. You will find it extremely difficult to stand up in winds of that speed, much less walk across an exposed bridge. Not only that, but wind accelerates up valleys, often very significantly, so the wind speed may well have been well over 100mph on the bridge itself.

I've been in a storm force 10 in a yacht (in the English Channel) and those winds are only 60mph, yet standing up in the boat was an impossibility except in the troughs of the 8m high waves(!) I reckon it would be near impossible to walk across a glass-bottomed bridge in winds gusting over 100mph and anyone who attempted to do so would be certifiably insane. Not only that but based on my experience of 60mph winds it would be impossible for anyone to hold on to the bridge supports against those kinds of winds.

I took this before the winds got too strong for me to stand up in the companionway holding my camera. Wind speeds here are only around 50knots (57mph) note that everyone is clipped on - and we're in a wave trough here...

Pentangle II Sept 2004 007.jpg
 
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barlew

Godlike
Ummm.....something smells fishy here.

As a sailor winds and wind speeds are something I'm intimately familiar with because I've spent over 20 years dealing with them. The report talks of winds gusts up to 150kph, that's over 93mph and is a category 2 hurricane. You will find it extremely difficult to stand up in winds of that speed, much less walk across an exposed bridge. Not only that, but wind accelerates up valleys, often very significantly, so the wind speed may well have been well over 100mph on the bridge itself.

I've been in a storm force 10 in a yacht (in the English Channel) and those winds are only 60mph, yet standing up in the boat was an impossibility except in the troughs of the 8m high waves(!) I reckon it would be near impossible to walk across a glass-bottomed bridge in winds gusting over 100mph and anyone who attempted to do so would be certifiably insane. Not only that but based on my experience of 60mph winds it would be impossible for anyone to hold on to the bridge supports against those kinds of winds.

I took this before the winds got too strong for me to stand up in the companionway holding my camera. Wind speeds here are only around 50knots (57mph) note that everyone is clipped on - and we're in a wave trough here...

View attachment 26020
Excellent bit of Information! So we are calling the news report a crock?
 
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