Safety is #1 - The community needs to know why Shiraishi fell to the ground

Ten years ago, I confronted some of the very best and most famous climbers in the world because they were using the GriGri in a dangerous way. They did not use the velat loop for their screw carabiners, instead it was placed where you tid in twisting the Grigri 90 degrees. This made it harder for the Grigri to lock, and actually during that time several bad injuries were reported. 8a warned and explained why a twisted Grigri did not work properly in several articles. We also suggested a new Grigri method, which Petzl copied later. Four years ago, I confronted Petzl that their GriGri video that had been shown 500 000 times recommended a dangerous method. Finally Petzl took it out. Later Petzl started to recommend a new Grigri technique but the problem is that only some 10% of climbers use it today and there are very few experienced climbers among them. For me checking safety is like a disease and actually last week I witnessed the worst safety situation ever. A 40-year-old at 80 kg made her 12 year old daughter at 30 kg belay him leading. As I saw she was secured to the ground and they were using a Grigri I did not confront him until he was safely at the ground, although I had previously asked if they wanted some assistance. Actually, it turned out that the daughter was lead belaying for the first time and that was why the father screamed instructions. Furthermore, he had secured her to the ground with two meter slack. Of course, it is always very unpleasant to confront somebody about safety but this is something the whole community needs to take more responsibility about. Safety is #1 and do not forget the tragic loss of Tito Traverso some years ago. My point is that companies, athletes and the whole community must give higher priority to look over the shoulder and confront climbers who are not doing it right. Regarding the 14 meter ground fall for Ashima Shiraishi, I hope Petzl and the gym will make an investigation how her father could have made such a mistake as we all can learn from it. For me it seems impossible that a very experienced belayer can drop a 40 kg climber to the ground from 14 meters, if he was doing everything right. I mean, it seems quite unlikely that this was the first time he made that mistake out of those several thousands of times he has belayed her. Climbing is growing, especially among the kids, and sooner or later all parents will know that the best female climber and the potential Olympic winner in just four years was dropped to the ground by her very experienced father. We cannot just pretend that nothing has happend and keep climbing. Just imagine Ashima being dropped to the ground from 15 meters outdoors, perhaps hitting a rock.