But I can’t seem to find in the story exactly how they lost their fingers. So, it states that the rope broke. I’m assuming that they were the first two people on their side and the rope broke just behind them? Then it would have been suddenly only those two against however many people pulling from the other side? Sounds bad, but I’m still sort of shocked it could actually pull fingers off.
KNX News Radio, in Los Angeles (A CBS affiliate) actually had an interview, after that event, with the president of the U.S. Tug of War association (!) and she explained that the rope was probably (she didn’t know the details of the incident) too narrow in width. A good tug-of-war rope should not break. If the rope was stretched taut, and broke, it would recoil, with much energy, shoving everyone’s fingers backward, and this could break them or even tear them off.
She said that there was another accident, in times past, where someone lost an arm.
She also said that modern tug-of-warriors hold the rope from underneath, palms up, and this is considered to be a safer grip.
Is it possible that the kids had the rope wrapped around their fingers (not individual fingers, but say, wrapped the rope around their four fingers) to get a better grip?
I remember something like this happening about 20 years ago. The explanation was that they were using a nylon rope which tends to stretch under stress. The rope eventually broke and violently recoiled. People were naturally holding onto the rope as tightly as they could which made it easy for the rope to cut. I imagine also that those in front were thrown back causing a pile of bodies that may have made it impossible to release one’s grip.
I don’t know if we’re thinking of the same incident, but this (or something similar) happened at a scout jamboree in Denmark. They had used a nylon rope that stretched and stretched until it finally snapped. Many of the participants got their palms severely burnt from the friction when the rope recoiled.
This only works if you’re the last or only person on the rope. Anywhere else, and the rope is being pulled from both in front of and behind you, and it’s going to get very painful very quickly.
