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Saat ini sedang banyak beredar tentang email “Triangle of Life” yang berasal dari Douglas Copp. Saya dikirimi beberapa email baik dalam ubahan ke bahasa Indonesia maupun dalam bentuk file PowerPoint-nya. Artikel aslinya dapat anda baca dalam bahasa Inggris. Anda dapat melihat versi PowerPoint-nya disini.

Email diatas ini yang membuat saya penasaran tentang kebenaran “Triangle of Life”. Akhirnya saya mencoba bertanya kepada uncle google dengan keyword “Triangle of Life”.

Dari penelusuran lewat halaman ini, akhirnya sampailah pada website ini. Berikut ini petikan dari website tersebut:

Sent from

Rocky Lopes, PhD
Manager, Community Disaster Education
American Red Cross National Headquarters

Recently it has been brought to my attention that an email from Doug Copp, titled "Triangle of Life," is making its rounds again on the Internet. "Drop, Cover, and Hold On" is CORRECT, accurate, and APPROPRIATE for use in the United States for Earthquake safety. Mr. Copp’s assertions in his message that everyone is always crushed if they get under something is incorrect.

Ternyata “Triangle of Life” tidak bisa dibilang benar dan cocok untuk digunakan. Karena rekomendasi untuk masyarakat Amerika "Drop, Cover, and Hold On" seperti yang dijelaskan oleh Rocky Lopes, PhD. Mungkin ini yang lebih cocok dengan daerah dan kondisi disana. Masih dari halaman yang sama, Palang Merah Amerika menyarankan menggunakan metode yang aman yaitu “Drop, Cover, and Hold On”. Artinya jika terjadi gempa, segera berbaring (Drop), kemudian cari perlindungan yang terdekat (cover) dan jangan banyak bergerak/berpindah tempat (Hold).

Siapakan Douglas Copp ?

Dari penelusuran lewat artikel aslinya, saya mendapatkan file PDF berikut. Ternyata kredibilitas Douglas Copp masih dipertanyakan. Dari file PDF tersebut, saya menemukan hal yang menarik berikut ini:

According to Albuquerque Journal reporter Leslie Linthicum, in New York Copp promoted an off-the-shelf gas detector with his own sticker slapped on, blackened his face for the camera, freeloaded and lounged in a donated hotel room, failed to check in with the command center, ignored instructions of authorities, and was a shameless self-promoter hawking video to Inside Edition and making claims to having been in 2,000 seriously life-threatening situations and 892 collapsed buildings. He claimed to have rescued 40 people at ground zero. He claims to be been written up in 50,000 newspapers. Later he managed to collect $649,885 in victim compensation based on claims now being investigated by the Justice Department.

Linthicum dug deeper. Copp claims to have a degree in engineering, be a U.N. expert, and to have video of himself rescuing a 12 year old from the debris of a 1999 earthquake in Turkey. She learned that Copp has no engineering degree but failed an engineering course in university. Phillip Boulle of the U.N. International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction in sworn affidavit says, “Copp has fraudulently misrepresented himself regarding the United Nations”. The video from Turkey? The translator for the French rescue team “Secouristes Sans Frontieres” whose operations he apparently insinuated himself into says, “that’s not possible”. Already discredited amongst professional urban search and rescue teams, none of Copp’s multitude of claims of leading search and rescue efforts and saving lives, spending hours underground could be substantiated.

Kemudian bagaimana dengan “Triangle of Life” ??

Berikut ini petikan dari file PDF yang sama:

Yes. Copp is correct that there are places that after a building collapse are called “triangles of life”. These “life safe voids” are the first places that search and rescue workers look for survivors. It’s generally true that the larger the object and stronger the less it will compact. But don’t be fooled. The force of earthquakes moves large and heavy objects. We don’t know a) whether it is possible to anticipate where the life safe voids will be before the collapse, and b) whether it is possible to get there during the strong shaking of an earthquake. What we don’t know in advance (but is worthy of research) is the expected collapse patterns in particular buildings or where these life safe voids will be when the shaking stops. If your building tilts in one direction, the “large and heavy object” that you are near, could crush you against the wall….

Copp says “People inside of their vehicles are crushed when the road above falls in an earthquake and crushes their vehicles” and that in the Loma Prieta earthquake everyone killed would have survived if they had been able to get out of their cars and sit or lie next to them, because of the life-safe void nearby. The problem is similar: observing a crushed car with a life safe void next to it doesn’t mean much. The car itself may have moved after the shaking started. There is a lot of evidence of cars and truck overturning in strong shaking. If everyone got out of their cars and got down next to them, a lot of people would be dead or seriously injured from the weight of the car jumping or sliding on them.

Kesimpulannya:

• “Triangle of Life” tidak akan menjamin anda akan selamat dari bencana Gempa Bumi. Berhati-hatilah ketika menggunakannya.
• Gunakan metode “Drop, Cover, and Hold On” ketika terjadi Gempa.

Update: diambil dari http://www.kahl.net/action/triangle_of_life.htm. Berikut pertikannya:

The “Triangle of Life” email contains advice that is not consistent with information developed through earthquake research.
DO NOT SIMPLY FOLLOW THIS!
READ ON TO LEARN WHY!
Learn more about EMAIL HOAX LETTERS on the VIRUS AND HOAX ALERT website.