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Tate Modern crack claims 15 victims
Benedict Moore-Bridger, London Lite26 Nov 2007
Fifteen people have been injured by a work of art at London's Tate Modern, figures show. The accidents all involve the latest installation in the gallery's Turbine Hall - a giant crack snaking across the gallery floor.
Four of the 15 accidents have been reported to the Health and Safety Executive, and the museum is now considering whether to use a Perspex sheet to cover the 167-metre long crack.
Shibboleth 2007, which opened seven weeks ago, was created by Colombian artist Doris Salcedo to symbolise racial hatred and divisions within society. But in some places the artwork is wide enough for a toddler to fall inside.
Dennis Ahern, head of safety and security at the Tate, told colleagues in an internal email that people could easily trip or fall if not paying attention, "with the potential for significant leg injury".
He added that if existing safety features such as lighting and use of signs were not sufficient, the museum should consider applying extra measures. "Such options could include, but are not limited to, higher levels of control of entry, barrier or demarcation lines, Perspex bridging over certain sections or other physical interventions which may become required."
The Tate is facing four legal claims relating to the giant corkscrew slides that filled the hall last year.
Reader views (4)
This is all nonsense. Children should not be unsupervised from their own parents. People can injure themselves in many ways it happens. People learn through making mistakes, especially children. I ran into a glass door when I was 6. I didn't do it again. We didn't ask the shop to replace their glass door with a more visible door! People fall off curbs, people get hit by cars, people fall up and down steps. A notice is surely enough to say... there is a crack in the floor, please exercise reasonable caution!
- Richard Lee, Chester, uk, 23/04/2008 10:27
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Sorry I consider this a hazard. As for the other comments on here all that was said was that some of the cracks were big enough for a toddler to fall down. Not that a toddler had fallen down one.
But 15 people have been injured. If this had been a crack in a floor in a place of work health and safety would have been down on them like a ton of bricks.
Why should the Tate get away with a health and safety issue such as this.
Oh of course it's a work of art, silly me I forgot.
- Morrigan, Cardiff, 12/12/2007 22:25
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I agree with the previous comment. What happened to the idea of people looking after their own children? Should the Tate modern counter claim that the parents failed in their duty of care to their toddlers? There are plenty of warning signs for parents to heed and just because they're in a museum doesn't take away their responsibility. Would these same parents have left the toddlers beside a trench that was dug for water repairs?
- Ken Morris, London, 04/12/2007 22:06
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Oh, for goodness sake! At some point people have to become responsible for their own actions! If toddlers are falling in the crack, it is their parent's responsibility to have them on reins as we did 30 years ago. I may adore my child, but I don't expect everyone else to respond to "little beautiful" in quite the same way!
Take the kids in the toilet with you, don't leave people hanging around desperate while he describes in full detail what he is doing and how he doesn't want Mum in there!
Same for Art, if I were a judge, I would hold the adults responsible for their own safety, their child's or that of their senile granny. They are acting in loco parentis. End of story! That the parents could be loco, stupid whatever, the responsibility still lies with them!
- Carlyle Braden, Croydon, UK, 01/12/2007 12:26
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