Jim Smith (name changed) was a bright 14 year–old with a passion for music and a boarder at a prominent Public school. A slightly built boy, his original love was Cello but as he progressed, the school music teacher persuaded him to move to Double Bass – which he really took to.
During the term, Tom played his 3/4 size Bass in the orchestra (really a bit large for a 14-year-old). The usual orchestra practice was to assemble all the instruments from the band room, which was situated halfway up a flight of rather narrow stairs. The teacher plus a helper and a few boys collected them from the room and brought them down for the afternoon’s practice.
This day Tom was late through no fault of his own. The school football team, having sat around for an hour was finally told that the match was off due to an absentee coach. Still in his kit, Tom dashed off to orchestra without changing, arriving just 30 minutes late, braving the wrath of an irate music teacher.
The Bass had not been collected so Tom was ordered to quickly go and fetch it himself. This he did, but as he lugged the big instrument down, one of his studs caught the edge of the stair and he catapulted headlong down to the bottom. Tom’s arm broke in two places and the Bass was smashed! Sadly, Tom would probably never play the Bass again.
With little Tom in the hospital, the parents were contacted as usual and at first, were quite understanding – ‘accidents do happen’! Some days later, however, when they received a large bill for the replacement cost of the expensive Bass, they then began to ask further questions as to the detail of the event, adding that the school had not been forthcoming with their original enquiry. After much back and forth and a very tardy response from the school, the parents finally went the legal route and sued the school.
What was glaringly obvious was that normal Health and Safety, common-sense rules had not been adhered to – this was an accident that was eminently preventable.
Please take care when moving instruments around, especially large instruments as not only are they valuable but do pose a risk to those moving them and to others around. And lastly, unfortunately, accidents do happen so make sure you are adequately covered by insurance.
