Tunnel vision is costing lives By Kara Lawrence January 22, 2008 06:00am Article from: (http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/) WHEN it rains, no drains. That is rule No.1 in the "art" of drain-exploring as outlined in the manifesto of Michael Carlton, aka Predator.
It is a short, snappy saying which could have prevented the tragedy which befell three young people who were trapped in a Sydney stormwater drain on Sunday. A sudden squall of rain struck, flooding the drain and killing a woman and man aged in their 20s. Another man was lucky to escape with his life after being washed from the drain into Lurline Bay, off Sydney's Eastern Beaches. Carlton, who died himself about five years ago, pioneered a secret underground movement in Australia – one now referred to as urban exploration, or urbex for short. But it was a slow and creeping death from cancer – not violent accident – that claimed Carlton's life earlier this decade. Despite his love of illegally exploring stormwater drains and other tunnels, Carlton knew that sudden injury and death stalked those who followed this dangerous pursuit. One of the founding members of Sydney's Cave Clan in the early 1990s, Carlton had explored 147 drains in six states, as well as rail tunnels, abandoned bunkers and other forbidden underground areas. Using this experience, he penned a tome of advice addressing virtually every conceivable danger in his "sprawling manifesto on the art of drain exploring". In the document, which is dated 1999 and posted on the internet, he advised on how to avoid being trapped in the dark, succumbing to toxic gases and encountering nasty microbes from filthy water or nesting bats. Yet Carlton saved his most important advice to his followers for the final chapter, aptly entitled: "Oh s..., it's raining, help!" "A large catchment can dump a couple of megalitres of water into a drain in a few minutes," Carton wrote. "This and its debris (wood planks, old refrigerators, bottles, etc) will travel down the drain with frightening speed ... 50km/h and higher. "You will be continually bashed around by the turbulence and totally powerless to grab anything at such a speed if it catches you. "If you don't drown you will probably suffer serious physical and psychological trauma." It is a terrifying insight into what must have confronted the three who were exploring the Kingsford stormwater drain, nicknamed The Fortress by Carlton himself. The Fortress holds a memorial shrine to Carlton and the Cave Clan website yesterday held a posting by someone who noted the irony. "Please tell me those poor kids didn't die visiting Predator's memorial," said the posting. As sudden heavy rain struck Sydney about 6.30pm on Sunday, the rain would have poured into the drain and begun the tumultuous journey to the sea – specifically Lurline Bay south of Sydney – where it emptied via a large grate with vertical metal bars. The first sign of trouble would have been the subtle movement of air in the still dry area. The whisper of distant moving water would have gradually built to a roar. Then the three would have been swept from their feet – bashed by debris as they struggled uselessly to fight the water. Finally the metal bars against which the water rushed would have suddenly stopped their progress. The survivor, whether by his own efforts or pure luck, managed to pass through these grates and into the sea, before being rescued by a heroic local teenager who risked his own life to do so. "Predator" made the gap in the bars with a car jack, as he revealed in his own manifesto, which detailed his exploration of the seaside end of the drain. The dangers of such pursuits would boggle most minds, but a then-member of Cave Clan gave an insight into their odd attraction during a 2006 interview posted online yesterday. The member, Silogen (members rarely use their real named for fear of being prosecuted), said it was a case of feeling unique, of wanting to "see what other people don't see". "It's like caving except it's caving with the novelty of being below suburbia," Silogen said. He said numerous Sydney landmarks had hidden troves for the intrepid beneath them. "It's just amazing being underground. It's amazing being under the Sydney Opera House and, you know, paddling out of a stormwater drain that comes out (underneath) the Opera House," he said. "It's amazing being in abandoned cable tunnels that run under The Domain or walking through the subway tunnels underneath St James in the middle of the night," he said. "Silogen" also said that, while urbex involved trespassing, there was no malice. He also said there had been no injuries among Cave Clanners in almost 20 years because "we know our stuff". It is unclear if the woman and man killed on Sunday were Cave Clan members – but various postings on caving websites denied they were members. Steve Contos from the Sydney University Speleological Society made it clear yesterday his group of cavers would not go near stormwater drains due to both the legal and safety risks. He said that not only were there immediate dangers but Sydney sewers were also built to overflow into stormwater drains, which presented a raft of health risks. "The closest we'd get to urban caving is a couple of sea caves – certainly no stormwater drains," he said. It is a pursuit which Predator acknowledged could needlessly endanger amateurs when, as happened on Sunday, something goes wrong. "The last thing you want is to inflict the responsibility of rescue upon some poor SES member or fireman who really doesn't need to risk his life getting you out," Carlton wrote. "To jeopardise the lives of such people is selfish and stupid." _http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23088617-5007146,00.html_ (http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23088617-5007146,00.html) **************Start the year off right. 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