This article is from page 8 of the 2006-11-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
A WOMAN’S nightmare of seeing her husband plunge to his death while performing a circus act with her, was recalled last week.
The inquest into the death of Vitaly Kharapavitski (26), a Berarussian trapeze artist who died while performing with the Russian Royal Circus in Scariff, heard that he had been performing with his wife Sasha, when he fell some 20 feet to his death.
Vitaly and Sasha had been suspended on a cage attacked to a cable and hoist, when the accident happened at the GAA field in Scariff, on August 28 last.
Ennis Coroner’s Court heard a deposition from Vitaly’s wife Sasha, who accompanied him in the act. She said he put up the equipment that evening, with his assistant. “My husband is very careful and makes sure everything is safe,” she said.
The equipment in which they were performing should be changed every five years and had been changed three years ago.
“I was in a harness, suspended underneath. He was in the cage. He was leaning out of the cage. Suddenly I fell to the ground. I did not hear anything, or see anything,” she explained. She heard someone saying he had no pulse. “I knew he was dead,” she said.
Eddie Moloney, who was one of 300 people at the circus, recalled in his deposition, the steel cable either snapping or coming loose. The cradle fell 15 – 20 feet, bringing the couple with it.
“His head crushed under the steel cradle and some of his limbs had been trapped inside it,” he recalled.
Patrick Doyle, who was close to where the accident happened, said it appeared to him that the man threw his wife clear, saving her life in the process.
Ringmistress Michelle Courtney said the act had been rehearsed an hour before the show and “all went well.”
“They are normally very meticulous in everything they do and if there is any doubt, they wouldn’t have performed,” she said.
Dr James O’Driscoll, who carried out a post-mortem examination on Mr Kharapavitski’s body, said death was due to cardiac respiratory failure, associated with the fracture of his skull into multiple small pieces.
Coroner Isobel O’Dea said it appeared that Mr Kharapavitski “pushed his wife out of the way and her injuries were less severe.”
She said the Health and Safety Authority had carried out an inspection on the circus, where the equipment for the act was set up.
The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.