Stage Fright
I was a stagehand. The lights and scenery in the theatre are set up using a bar that is lowered to the ground by a pulley. The panels are hung from the bar, while people in the rafters on a catwalk load metal bricks onto a counterweight. We were preparing a show one night and the bar was brought down. However, it was too low for the lights to be hung.
We told the operator, and he removed the break. We were surprised to find that the counterweight was already loaded. It was too late when he cut off the break. The bar flew. The stage manager grabbed a rope to try and slow down the fall. Big mistake. The rope quickly tore through his gloves and removed the uppermost layers of his skin.
The same thing happened to a guy on the loading dock. His hand was sucked up into the pulley. He lost a few fingers.
