[mtaman02]

Originally Posted by Wayne C.

safety officers are a good idea and are widely used in industry

but even more valuable would be officers who regulate the numbers of teammates in the pit area. How often is there a huge crowd of people milling around and potentially getting into trouble. Why not set up the cheering section in a part of the field seating and use it as a base of operations?

It is a miracle that with all the machinery in the pits that someone hasn't been injured in all these years. I think that is a testament to the quality of FIRST teams. WC

Well at the regionals i attend i see about 12 people sitting in the pits and about 5 - 7 of them actually doing work. i find this as a saftey hazard b/c some regionals have small pits and walkways. many times when i was on 522 we always limited the number of people in the pit arear so that work can be done hassle free and safely. We kept the Mechanics / Drivers and Coaches in the pits all together thats about 6 right there, occasionally we kept the battery man on standby there or the strategist to let the coaches know about upcoming matches etc... AS far as team members are concerned the cheer squad should really stay out on the field as the team enters with the robot then cheer the team back to the pits and then return to the field to watch some more fun matches.

Having a safety captain in the pits for each team will hopefully ease pit traffic and easy congestion in that teams pit area. That is probably why FIRST has made this new rule b/c they see how crowded pits get and they just want to keep the game challenging / fun and most of all SAFE