March 4, 2008
Jeb Corliss Responds to Vallone's "No Jump" Bill
Yesterday we noted Council Member Peter Vallone Jr.'s latest mission: putting an end to stunts. Of course, one of the best examples of this daredevil activity is brought to us by Jeb Corliss; after attempting to jump off the Empire State Building in 2006 Bloomberg wasn't too happy with this thrill-seeker. Or the judge that dropped the charges against him. But now the city is revisiting the case and trying to appeal the decision.
Possibly heading back to court soon, we're guessing his lawyer Mark Jay Heller wouldn't want him leaving public comments about the incident. However, yesterday Corliss responded to both The NY Sun's article, as well as our own. In his comments he notes that base jumpers are not the problem, it's the people who jump to commit suicide that are disregarding the safety of others. He goes on to describe the real issue, the lack of security on the ESB's observation deck
"As you can see from the video of me at the Empire, a person can get over those bars in about 10 seconds with 3 security guards standing 3 feet away. These security guards were tipped off that I was coming and they knew my whole plan. Yet they were still unable to stop me from getting over the bars.Seems like their security is the issue here. This is not a legal issue, nor is it a suing me for 12 million $ issue. Neither one of those things will ever stop a suicide. This is an issue of implementing adequate security so suicides are no longer possible from their observation deck. No law will ever stop a suicide. No amount of money they sue me for will ever stop a suicide."
In a second comment he notes that parachuting from buildings should not be made illegal, as parachutes were originally made for people who needed to escape burning buildings. Maybe the city should work with him on training those working on high level floors how to base jump. Corliss himself declares, "I would much rather work with the Empire State Building and New York then against them."
His full comments can be read here and here. And a fun fact about his lawyer, Mark Jay Heller -- he's also the lawyer for the "Son of Sam" David Berkowitz, Steven Acevedo and is known as a "high- profile attorney who has been involved in a number of celebrity, divorce, paternity, child custody support and visitation cases." So, probably Britney Spears's lawyer, too.
UPDATE: Vallone, through his communications director, responds to Corliss. When we asked his office how many fatalities have been caused by people like Corliss, the response was, "To be honest, we're not aware of any fatalities related to BASE jumpers to date." Read his response after the jump.
First, our bill explicitly allows for jumpers who have "received permission from the property owner," which means that movie/TV stunts are under no threat.Second, our bill only applies to people who are using some device (like a parachute) either to climb or jump from high structures. It is not meant to address suicide jumpers. While they may also pose a threat to the public, it seems implausible that we could deter such mentally unstable individuals with a mere misdemeanor charge.
We agree with Mr. Corliss that more security at the ESB and other high places would be better than less, but that has little to do with daredevils like himself who clearly flout security restrictions in order to further their own notoriety.
The simple fact is that actions like those of Mr. Corliss endager the public. Although he may be an "expert" at BASE jumping, there are many BASE jumps that go wrong, even those done by professionals. Even though there may not be scores of people jumping from NYC buildings every year, we believe that one innocent fatality is too many. If our law can stop this one accident, we consider it worthwhile.
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Has anyone every actually committed suicide from the ESB?
Is it even legally required for buildings to stop suicide seekers? I would think they couldn't be held liable for the actions of someone who is determined and unstable. Does anyone know what the liability is?
Yeah, 10 seconds for someone who trains to do it and is in good shape. No slob who wants to off himself is going to do all that to jump off the ESB...only narcissists like Corliss.
Here is an idea, the city can sell stunt licenses and make money off the whole thing.
Just pondering, but since he mentions the original intent of parachutes, would it have been possible (maybe not probable, but possible) for lives to have been saved if there had been proper training of people working in higher floors of the WTC on the use of parachutes? I mean, we have life preservers and lifeboats on ships. Why not parachutes for skyscrapers? I know the cost of implementing this would probably be phenomenal, but has something like that ever been considered?
MT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_State_Building#Suicides
Gothamistgal: Parachutes are entirely impractical. Most modern skyscrapers do not have windows that provide egress. (Otherwise people might fall out...) You'd have to get the population of the building to the roof, make sure everyone was rigged up properly, and somehow manage to coordinate people jumping from the buildings and clearing the ground beneath -- and making sure people aren't jumping in the way of responders or landing on fire engines. And you'd have to do this in a timely and organized fashion. And you'd have to hope whatever was affecting the building wouldn't impede the path to the ground -- can you imagining having to parachute through, say, a huge cloud of smoke? No sight, impaired breathing, and an increased likelihood of panic.
Not to mention the possible fatality level of giving a parachute to an untrained office worker. As one of those office workers, I'd rather take my chances on the fire stairs than trust my life to a parachute I don't know how to work. Sure, we could train people, but having seen the incredibly crappy attendance at floor fire drills (and the incredibly cursory nature of those drills) I doubt it'd be at all effective.
Basically, Corliss is floating a bullshit idea that he knows would never work on the scale of an entire building in a pathetic attempt to justify his selfish behavior.
AHT - Thanks for your thoughts :-)
AHT- While I agree it probably isnt a plausible idea in that it will never happen, think about how many lives could have been saved at the WTC, many people ended up jumping out of windows parachutes or no. You cant always get down a fire stairway, but you can usually bust through a window if you have to.
It obviously isnt something that would ever be used often, I just think the idea has some potential merit.
chubbyonekanubby: The WTC was a singular event. Few building evacuation scenarios would or are that catastrophic. If an individual was trained well enough to use a parachute properly (thus, not creating another victim for emergency services to deal with) and wanted to supply themselves with one in the event of an emergency, that's cool. But I just can't see it working as a mass evacuation plan.
There are parachutes made for escaping skyscrapers. But the real experts (not this self-aggrandizing twerp who calls himself a "trained athlete") say they're very dangerous to use. Skyscrapers have a lot of tricky air currents around them even under normal circumstances. Add the heat from a fire and things get really messy. One bad gust and you'd slam right back into the side of the building, the parachute could collapse and you'd still plunge to your death. Better to wait for New York's Bravest, especially since most skyscrapers are quite fire-resistant (assuming no jet airliner crashes into them).
If the ESB was on fire, then Corliss is welcome to jump from it. Until then, somebody tell that egomaniac to shut the hell up. There are plenty of other places where he can jump, but he just has to jump from the ESB and if he can't, he'll wail like a baby. There are rare occasions when I hope somebody's parachute doesn't work. This is one of them.
Answer me this: If Corliss was all fine and dandy with doing it on the up and up, then why the big production with hiding everything under the fat suit? Maybe because the twat knew ESB management would never allow it. But now all of a sudden, his argument is that he would rather work with them. So why didn't he? This guy is more of an attention whore than David Blaine, except he doesn't care if he endangers anybody else, because nothing can possibly go wrong when he's doing it, right?
Vallone seems like he is interested in working on non issues. "If our law can stop this one accident, we consider it worthwhile", really? You mean this theoretical accident that has never happened? In the entire history of base jumping, never, not once has a base jumper hurt another living human being.
So I guess we should outlaw riding bikes in NY city next and then driving cars as well. Oh wait, lets stop people from walking around too. Because all of these activities have caused more injuries in one year then base jumping has in NY cities history.
Looks like Vallone wants to tackle issues that are fluff and will get his name in the papers. Work on real issues and leave human rights alone. Parachutes can save a humans life. Had there been 10 parachutes in the world trade center, there could have been 10 more survivors...
Parachutes save human life, they do not endanger it...
Jeb Corliss