My primary school once forgot a 5 year old on a trip, then made it back to the school and sent the kids home without anyone noticing she was gone; she usually walked home with a neighbour kid, as it was just a few streets away in a quiet village, and the 80s, so no parent was waiting. Apparently she’d gone to pee while they were waiting for the driver, and the bus had gone when she got back.
Her dad assumed she was next door, because she normally went round there for a bit after school, the neighbour assumed she’d just gone straight home today. The only person who’d knew she wasn’t either place was neighbour kid, who was also 5, and didn’t think to tell anyone.
She was brought back by the police a few hours later, luckily.
While my child was on a band trip 3 hrs away one girl had to go the restroom…bus left the school w/o her…We were all waiting at our own school to p/u kids at 1am. Needless to say mom wasn’t happy…the girl had the forethought to find an adult at the other school (happened to be a coach) they contacted police…Mom had to drive 3 hrs …middle of the night to retrieve her child…People were summarily fired over this…big deal in a small town, I kid you not!
Sincerely asking: how hare would it be to make a gate that could open from the inside only? Seems like it should be doable, but I can’t think of how currently.
I got left at a restaurant restroom on a church trip. I had come along last moment for a competitive kids outing as a judge. Fortunately, it was a Cracker Barrel, so I had a lot to do while I waited–some of those trapped ring puzzles, a giant checkerboard to play with people waiting to get seated,some books to read, cards to play with the, etc. The three hours passed pretty quickly. The main issue was just getting the payphone to work, for some reason.
While I don’t think you really want a mechanism that could open only from the inside, overall the Restaurant Walk-In Freezer people are already way ahead of you; in '83 I got my first real job, as a busboy in a restaurant, and was occasionally asked to help out in other areas as well, like fetching stuff from the walk-in for the cooks during startup.
The walk-in had an external latch (for a padlock) to prevent unauthorized entry, but it also had a latch release mechanism on the inside, that worked even if the walk-in was padlocked on the outside.
The ones I have experience with are your typical cowboy western style jail cell bar wall and doors with a chain and padlock. You don’t want solid barriers so that bats can fly in and out.
It’s more rigorous than that. They also shout, “Are you sure?”
Ex-wife worked for a while as a tour conductor and left a guest at a rest stop in Japan. There were a couple of busses and no assigned seating, with people moving around.
Fortunately the guy found another bus going to the same airport and caught a ride with them.
I was on a Muni Powell & Hyde cable car that departed Market Street with a load of Japanese tourists taking up the left side of the outside seats except for one old gentleman on the right because there wasn’t enough room. Everything went fine for a few blocks until we stopped at Union Square. The tour guide and the rest of the group got off and started walking west on Post; the old guy on the right just sat, admiring the view of the park. The gripman and several passengers got his attention but he didn’t grasp what they were trying to tell him until one woman grasped his shoulders and gently turned him to the left just in time to see the tour guide’s flag disappearing around the corner. With an exclamation he hopped off and hustled after the group. I would imagine there were some words exchanged about counting noses before departing with one’s charges.
I thought for sure that the term ‘Cop Out’ was from mining. Each miner had a copper coin/medallion that was collected when they left the mine. When they went into the mine they took it with them. So if a miners coin/medallion was not accounted for, they where still in the mine.
When I was young, our largish family (two parents and 5 kids) would often go on trips to national parks, etc… One of the favorite ways of making we were all accounted for was to say “Anyone who’s not here, speak up!”
Most caves have a temp about that of the local area averaged over the year. So a cave in Indiana…my guess is high 50s/ low 60s temp wise. Maybe even lower than that.
Also most caves have a very high humidity.
Combine that with what the guy was wearing that might be appropriate for high exertion levels would totally NOT be appropriate with sitting around for 60 hours…
His greatest danger, perhaps besides lack of water, was hypothermia.
I’ve had a couple of unpleasant encounters with hypothermia…and one honest to goodness coulda died encounter. And I live in the deep south.
