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Italian cable car plunges to the ground, killing at least 14

#3
Prayers for those lost . I tend to scrutinize every large mechanical thing I come across . Amusement rides , Airplanes even elevators . I am a CNC Service Engineer by trade and make a living because everything breaks . Everything fails . Quite sad when preventive and predictive maintenance miss something .
 
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#5
Alphatreedog said:
Prayers for those lost . I tend to scrutinize every large mechanical thing I come across . Amusement rides , Airplanes even elevators . I am a CNC Service Engineer by trade and make a living because everything breaks . Everything fails . Quite sad when preventive and predictive maintenance miss something .
Click to expand...
See and I have a fear about those things falling down because of cables breaking...stress fractures...metal fatigue...plain old rust and corrosion...some of them are so high and offer such beautiful views but...no thanks...I used to ski a lot and even had issues with the chair lifts but at least I was over snow and was able to convince myself I would survive a fall lol.
 
#9
Anointed1 said:
See and I have a fear about those things falling down because of cables breaking...stress fractures...metal fatigue...plain old rust and corrosion...some of them are so high and offer such beautiful views but...no thanks...I used to ski a lot and even had issues with the chair lifts but at least I was over snow and was able to convince myself I would survive a fall lol.
Click to expand...

LOL guess you never travel over suspension bridges.
 
#15
uneven wear on one of many sheaves that the cable rides on can cause an untwisting/twisting fatigue on the strands of the cable which will cause individual strands to break and a cable to fail rapidly which is why they must be inspected on a regular basis. We shall see what they find as a cause.
 
#22
That's a terrible accident but I can only think of Jaws in Moonraker when I hear "cable car".
jaws moonraker 007.jpg
 
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#25
GrumpyOleFart said:
Zip lines are fantastic.
Same as abseiling and rappelling.
Give it a go.👍
Click to expand...

Yeah part of me just won't go for that lol...it truly is a natural fear of heights. Once in Vegas they put the wife and I up in a pretty nice suite for a few days after we won a bunch of money...50 some floors up or so if I recall...it was a corner unit and had a full balcony that wrapped around the entire suite...I was finally able by the end of the stay to walk out one of the sliders and walk close enough to the edge to touch the railing lmao 🤣 cool view though...a couple of the pics...

20160513_235146.jpg


Daytime

20160512_172840.jpg
 
#26
I have always wondered why the cable cars/chair lifts do not have some kind of gripper braking system in case of cable failure. There are thousands of cable lifts throughout the world with minimal failures so I imagine the current standard of traction cable systems are just fine as long as the inspections, and PM's are kept up to date. Catastrophic cable failures are extremely rare (lifts, cranes, elevators.....)

I wonder what the safety ratio on the cable is? Most American standard cranes and rigging is 5:1. Being traction lift it's a somewhat different game.....There is a certain amount of wire breakage per lay and length.

If this happened here it would be YEARS before we would really know the root cause if ever as with a fatality it would be tied up in legal.
 
#27
Alphatreedog said:
Prayers for those lost . I tend to scrutinize every large mechanical thing I come across . Amusement rides , Airplanes even elevators . I am a CNC Service Engineer by trade and make a living because everything breaks . Everything fails . Quite sad when preventive and predictive maintenance miss something .
Click to expand...

Ever since I was a little kid.

"What if this breaks?"
"What if I slip and fall off this 100' cliff?"
"What if my tie rod end breaks and I lose steering?"

I got to a point where I can tell myself "well, if your wife and kids are on the roller coaster and die in a fiery crash, would you rather be dead next to them or a depressed train wreck for years? Death doesn't sound so bad."
 
#29
chevy_man said:
"What if my tie rod end breaks and I lose steering?"
Click to expand...
That actually happened to me once LOL...pulling a camp trailer too no less. I was coming down Stampede pass in WA State which is a gravel road full of switch backs...pot holes and washboarded out. In the middle of a switch back bam...had the truck veered the other way it would have been over the side trailer and all...it would have been ugly and I probably wouldnt be here. Instead it nosed the other way into the mountain...scary moment in time =/
 
#31
"The cause of the incident remains unclear, but local reports suggest the cable may have failed about 300m (984ft) from the top of the mountain."

The cause is pretty clear.........GRAVITY.
 
#32
Alphatreedog said:
I remember that . IIRC Marine pilot in a jet designed to cut cables .
Click to expand...
No cable cutting stuff on a Prowler (I thought it was a Harrier, but it wasn’t). Lots of accusations by Italian courts and anti-nato labor government types. But just a tragic accident. Wiki link posted above.

For some reason I thought it happened in late ‘80s, but was 1998.

Sirhr
 
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#34
missed said:
I have always wondered why the cable cars/chair lifts do not have some kind of gripper braking system in case of cable failure. There are thousands of cable lifts throughout the world with minimal failures so I imagine the current standard of traction cable systems are just fine as long as the inspections, and PM's are kept up to date. Catastrophic cable failures are extremely rare (lifts, cranes, elevators.....)

I wonder what the safety ratio on the cable is? Most American standard cranes and rigging is 5:1. Being traction lift it's a somewhat different game.....There is a certain amount of wire breakage per lay and length.

If this happened here it would be YEARS before we would really know the root cause if ever as with a fatality it would be tied up in legal.
Click to expand...
en.wikipedia.org

1976 Cavalese cable car crash - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

The 76 disaster had brake systems, etc. but they were turned off(??!!??) when the cables cut each other.

Sirhr
 
#36
From that article "Italian engineering legacy" hahaha first thing I think of is FIAT, then Alfa.

Looking into this some and seeing some others comments is why it makes more sense when one of my buddies calls Italy, shitaly.
 
#37
NoDopes said:
Don't forget about this. They knew it would happen and were warned.
www.theguardian.com

What caused the Genoa bridge collapse – and the end of an Italian national myth?

The Morandi bridge tragedy killed 43 and left 600 homeless – but also dealt a hammer blow to Italy’s engineering legacy
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
Click to expand...

While this is tragic and I certainly feel for the families of the victims.....it does bring to mind the fallacies pertaining to Italian engineering ! How do you sink an Italian submarine......put it in the water! 🥴 memtb
 
#41
There is/was/may still be a gondola/cable-car lift in Vancouver, that goes "Sea To Sky" or something like that. A number of years ago, (less than 10) somebody climbed up and cut the cable. Almost ALL of the gondolas were destroyed. Took a few years to investigate, and a large number of Millions to replace it all, and just finished last year. Then a month or so later, it was cut again.

I'm not saying anything was cut in Italy. But I AM saying is that there actually ARE "people" (and I use that term VERY loosely) that are eco-freaks and intend to do harm to humanity's progress.

And other stupid ideals.
 
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#43
Sean the Nailer said:
There is/was/may still be a gondola/cable-car lift in Vancouver, that goes "Sea To Sky" or something like that. A number of years ago, (less than 10) somebody climbed up and cut the cable. Almost ALL of the gondolas were destroyed. Took a few years to investigate, and a large number of Millions to replace it all, and just finished last year. Then a month or so later, it was cut again.

I'm not saying anything was cut in Italy. But I AM saying is that there actually ARE "people" (and I use that term VERY loosely) that are eco-freaks and intend to do harm to humanity's progress.

And other stupid ideals.
Click to expand...
www.seatoskygondola.com

Joint Statement from Sea to Sky Gondola and RCMP

The Sea to Sky Gondola LP are offering a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.
www.seatoskygondola.com www.seatoskygondola.com

Pretty ballsy. Those cables are holding a lot of energy and when cut, it is released. I wouldn't want to be anywhere near that whole thing when it went. I wonder if it was the same idiots that were sabotaging trains in Bellingham ?
 
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#44
As a retired Lineman I have rode in the buggies that ride on the wire. We used them to put the spacers on the bundles of wire on our 500KV lines. The wire size was 954MCM if I remember correctly.

Also, for some reason the tower numbers were never included in the bundles of tower steel and we would have to go back and climb every tower to put the numbers on. I have often put a snatch block on the shield wire, belted off to it and rode the shield wire from tower to tower. Ah, to be young and dumb again!
 
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#45
lightman said:
As a retired Lineman I have rode in the buggies that ride on the wire. We used them to put the spacers on the bundles of wire on our 500KV lines. The wire size was 954MCM if I remember correctly.

Also, for some reason the tower numbers were never included in the bundles of tower steel and we would have to go back and climb every tower to put the numbers on. I have often put a snatch block on the shield wire, belted off to it and rode the shield wire from tower to tower. Ah, to be young and dumb again!
Click to expand...
Yeah F*CK that haha 🤣
 
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#48
Seems that a few workers disabled the braking system. Three arrested.

www.foxnews.com

3 arrested in Italy cable car crash; clamp deactivated brake

Police arrested three people Wednesday in the cable car disaster that killed 14 people in northern Italy, saying workers placed a clamp on the emergency brake to deactivate it as a patchwork repair.
www.foxnews.com www.foxnews.com
 
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