Ham radio operator looses hand and fingers in tower accident.

A 52-year-old ham radio operator in Athol lost several fingers and one of his hands Thursday when his amateur radio antenna tower collapsed on him while he was working on it.
Multiple agencies responded to Bearpaw Galindo's home on Caravelle Road after his wife, Gail Perry, phoned 911 and informed a dispatcher the man was hanging 20 feet in the air with his right arm pinned within a telescoping-type tower.
Perry said Galindo was repairing a portion of the 40-foot-tall telescoping tower, when a cable holding it up snapped and caused the top portions of the tower to collapse on his hands.
"I saw his fingers fly off of his right hand," Perry told The Press. "I never want to see something like that again."
According to a press release from the Timberlake Fire Protection District, crews were dispatched to the scene at 11:58 a.m., and proceeded to raise the tower in an effort to free Galindo's arm. After 20 minutes, the man was extricated and lowered to the ground.
Galindo was trapped for a total of 45 minutes.
"I can't say anything better about them," Perry said of the emergency responders. "They were awesome."
Galindo was then transported by Life Flight to Kootenai Health.
Doctors told Perry her husband was in critical condition early Thursday evening. At 3 p.m., Galindo was taken into surgery, where doctors performed a partial amputation on his left hand and a full amputation on the right. Perry said doctors estimated the surgery would last more than four hours.
"They (doctors) said that he will be in the hospital for quite a few days," Perry said.

 

Bearpaw Galindo? If the rest of this wasn't so sad, that would be funny. Get well quick Bearpaw.

 

I hate to be picky about a really sad event, but it should be "loses". It would have been better if his hands and fingers had just become "loose", since that is repairable. In any case a quick check of KE7ADT shows that "Bearpaw" is his middle name. Really a shame about this.

 

Yikes. His tragedy is a reminder and a lesson to the rest of us. NEVER climb a crank up tower unless it's fully retracted!

I wonder what he was thinking / doing? If you have a crank up, you retract it before climbing - makes it easier (besides the safety bit). If there was something that prevented it from retracting - cable hung up, sections jammed, etc., then you SURE AS HELL aren't going to climb it!

Steve
KV6O

 

Best to retract a crankup. Lock all sections with 2x4 pieces of wood, if an aluminum tower. One might
need metal angles or something stronger to lock sections, if it is a steel crankup.
Never climb on it at anyrate, even when secured. Get a real tall ladder and then use ratcheting ties
against the outermost section to secure the ladder every 7 or 8 feet, then climb using the ladder and be very careful to test the load bearing capability of each nested tower section(prior to sticking in limbs).
I have replaced the cables on mine after a hardware failure.
A crankup needs to be carefully handled. It is better to hire a professional rather than to do it wrong
and risking it. Every move should be well thought out before implementing it.

Hope he gets well soon
73s
krish
w4vku

 

Peri,
To tell the truth, now is the time for some banter when "BearPaw" is in anyones presence.
Although Very sad to say the least, laughter works wonders for healing AND mental issues when dealing with such an accident.
I don't know you, but Get Well soon "BearPaw"

All the best,

KD6SBR, Tom in Glendora, Ca. 91740

 

Hope he gets one of the new gen robotic replacements.

73
chip w1yw

 

Makes a person wonder if perhaps the tower was jammed and he was attempting to free it, and when it released the force of it coming free might have snapped the cable. That is purely conjecture on my part.

 

Wow! I cant believe a Ham would try to climb a telescoping tower.

 

This is a horrible accident and just thinking about it makes me feel sick. So sorry for him and his wife.

Very easily could have cost him his life.

The lessons we should all learn here:

- Safety comes first and second and thrird
- Always work with a buddy, two minds work better than one.
- Plan your work and never rush a repair specially involving a climb on the tower.
- If not able to use safety equipment then ask a professional or at least other ham with the right safety gear and experience.
- Always think and plan for what could go wrong before you start.
- We all have, at one point or another, done something stupid and gotten away with it but sometimes it doesn’t work out well.

I am sure many more lessons can be learned from this and it is actually good that we discuss this accident so new people coming into the hobby read and learn about it.

Again very very sorry for him and his family.

W7SY

 

What are you going to do: stare at it?

How else are you gonna work on it--short of a cherry picker??

You have to use heavy stops, such as crow bars, at several places. and make sure it is seated on the stops. NEVER trust the cables.

Perhaps you are visualizing 'telescoping MASTS'-- which look like nesting tubes.

Crank up towers are usually also called 'telescoping TOWERS'.

73,
Chip W1YW

 

I would like every body to learn from this so it never happened again the tower can be blocked up with 2x4 so the tower can knot move while working on it , l am so sorry for him lam praying for you wu2q

 

Dumb question: don't most crank-ups have some sort of latch/safety that must be disabled/retracted before the sections can move? I know mine does - a steel bar stops the inner section from dropping down, until you release/remove it.

 

Crow bars much better than 2 x 4, they can crack.

73
Chip W1YW

 

Not in the older ones.

73
Chip W1YW