Michigan Votes Forum

Dear Sen. Gilda Jacob

The needless death of a child or any person is a tragedy that we all can feel and share in the grief. Perhaps if someone had simple inspected the pole they could have foreseen a problem.

However I fail to see how your bill SB 357 to change regulations on public playground equipment to include flagpoles, requiring public flagpoles to be made of aluminum or a material that is considered by the industry to be high strength and lightweight material. Would have any effect on the recent tragedy, now or in the future.

Even lightweight material becomes a missile when wind factors are added in the equation. I have seen pictures of a single blade of straw penetrate a telephone pole when aided by the wind (Tornado). Of course we must consider the weight of the pole increasing with the diameter and height of the pole, not to mention the size of the flag it self.

If you are going to truly protect the children from a flag pole falling and injuring or killing them would you not have to regulate the height of the flag pole to below the height of the child? Then we get in to the tripping factor, if we limit the height to a 3-foot flagpole we would have to build a fence around it high enough so the child cannot climb over and get near the flagpole.

We would also have to make the fence out of some kind of material that when the children ran into it they would also not get hurt.

Well you get the idea; of course I’m sure the financial cost to the people of Michigan is not a factor in how much we can spend on your futile project that in the end would not assure anyone that they would not be hurt or killed if a Flag pole fell on them!

wolf:

Well you get the idea; of course I’m sure the financial cost to the people of Michigan is not a factor in how much we can spend on your futile project that in the end would not assure anyone that they would not be hurt or killed if a Flag pole fell on them!

I think in your enthusiasm to protest government mandates, you overstate the possible financial burden to the people of Michigan. My reading of the text of this bill indicates it apllies to flag poles only on playgrounds. It seems to me an easy choice, either build flagpoles that meet playground safety rules, such as this bill would mandate, or don't put a flagpole in the playground. Put it somewhere else.

 let's see. a flagpole fell on a student at a school during a windstorm. doesn't that school have the duty and responsibility to the parents and citizens to protect every student? what was that student doing outside in that particular windstorm? why was the pole so substandard that it fell over in that particular windstorm? why were any students allowed outside in such hazardous conditions? why was that pole not inspected to determine it's safety?

i see many things that have gone wrong in this scenario, flagpole materials were the least of them. this law seems to mandate something that common sense and care for the students should have handled easily. but i see that there is no common sense in our schools, as they allow students outside in windstorms, and there is no care for the students, as they have substandard flagpoles in the first place.

tell me, does it take law like this to make the people who run the schools be responsible for the safety of the school facility and the students on it? obviously it does.

 Does anyone know what the flag pole that fell was made of?

I assume the Senator is referring to this tragedy, but not 100% sure.

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/14080610/detail.html

You can contact Senator Gilda Z.  Jacobs, Huntington Woods District 14 Democrat Phone (517) 373-7888 fax:(517) 373-2983 1015 Farnum Building, Post Office Box 30036 Lansing, MI 48909-7536

The bill is short sighted at best.

First of all, the flagpole that recently fell on the student appears to ahve been made of steel as they say it rusted from the inside out. Further, it also apears to be about 60 years old from other articles. Basically, the school failed to maintain their flagpole, did not use good judgement in allowing their students to play around a product that was deteriating and during high winds to beat all.

Secondly, there are aluminum flagpoles that would qualify accordingly to this bill but still fail the standards set up by the NAAMN association. Flagpoles are made from steel, stainless steel, bronze, aluminum and fiberglass. They will all fail under certain conditions and all need periodic maintenance and inspections. Especially when they are 60 years old.

If the senator wants to help prevent accidents of this type, the building codes for schools, parks and playgrounds would be the place to start. I would suggest the following:

1) Flagpoles with traditional exterior halyards only. This would eliminate high maintenance costs, require parts that are of less weight, and remove the need for a counter weight which are nortorious for falling.

2) Require flagpoles to exceed the NAAMN specifications by 25% or more as a safty factor.

3) Require flagpoles to placed away from areas of pedestrian traffic by 1.5 times the exposed height of the flagpole.

Then require these places to:

1) Perform regular inspections and maintenance of flagpoles.

2) Restrict children from hoisting a flag on flagpoles that are not inspected on a regular basis. This should include inspections after storms.

3) Restrict children from hoisting a flag on flagpoles during high winds, etc.

Why is it government's job to regulate flagpole construction?  There are so many options when installing flagpoles that meet with current technology standards.  Laminared qood, fiberglass, steel, aluminum.  This law proposal tells me that we need a part time legislature in Lansing.

And why do they spend time on something that has happened one time. These guys have too much time on their hands. Bathtubs kill a couple hundred kids every year. Maybe they can create a bathtub agency to study this terrible problem. It shouldn't require more than about 10 or 12 overpaid government lackeys. Hey, I just created 10 or 12 jobs. Can I be president now? This is fun and what the heck, it ain't my money.