When Foamies go BAD ....

[pete42]

Glen when we were in your town we went across the river to the parade museum had king cake (is that right?) and had pictures taken in costumes that a million other people had worn before us but it was fun seeing the floats.

I am a ham radio operator who use to do fast scan TV one year I watched pictures from a small camera mounted in one of the Rose Bowl parade floats.

they have had their share of breakdowns as well over the years.

pete

[GPW]

Pete the one BIG professional float builder here (yep, that’s where you went) , has been building floats as long as I can remember , and they have it down to a science ... Few breakdowns in their floats due to design /construction problems , usually a tractor gives out if anything ... and the “truck” parades are the Home/krewe builders who build on big flat bed truck trailers , usually a decorative shell mounted to them , so they suffer little too ... It’s all quite organized as they parade around here at the drop of a hat ... Now , that’s here in the city .... in the outer parishes , it’s more like anything goes ...

I assume the incident described was a fluke , Just too many yahoos and cabbages on a poorly designed float ... happens !!! Once again , don’t blame the foam , blame the builders ...

[wagondude]

Just did the Mardi Gras World tour a few days ago. Those pro built floats are something else. Very solid structure with safety harness attatchment points and bathrooms built in (riders can spend up to 12 hours on the float). Many of them had flat-proof wheels on them. Some of the basic float trailer/structures have been in use for decades with all service and repair done after the last parade and as the new features are added for the next. Amazing what they do with foam and paper.

Bill

[atahoekid]

As a professional safety geek, I've got to agree with whoever said, that in this case, the harnesses would have not prevented injury. In fact, if harnesses had been required they may have caused more severe injuries. When the whole structure collapses, the harness and its' tether would cause additional entanglements. The correct purpose of a harness and fall arrest equipment is to prevent injuries due to unintentional falls from heights. Unintentional falls would be things like stepping through an opening in a floor, stepping off an elevated edge or leaning too far over a guard rail and going over. One of the keys is an attachment point that is capable of sustaining the weight and the load caused by the stopping of the fall.

Anyway, that whole float looked like it was way too poorly designed. I'm surprised that it had been in and had survived previous parades. I would doubt that it had ever been loaded that heavily before. But the fact that it had been used previously does tell us that foam works great as part of a structure but like every building material it does have it's limits and it does have proper and improper applications

[atahoekid]

Glen when we were in your town we went across the river to the parade museum had king cake (is that right?) and had pictures taken in costumes that a million other people had worn before us but it was fun seeing the floats.

I am a ham radio operator who use to do fast scan TV one year I watched pictures from a small camera mounted in one of the Rose Bowl parade floats.

they have had their share of breakdowns as well over the years.

pete

Having grown up very near Pasadena, I can tell you that as far as I know, no Rose Parade Float has ever suffered a structural failure. Failure of drive trains, transmissions and mechanisms but never a structural failure that I am aware of. I know these floats undergo a very thorough tech inspection prior to being allowed in the parade and the structure is looked at quite closely. Structural failure is never acceptable when it puts lives at risk.