Bearing in mind I was not there, etc., I had to look at that in slow motion to see what happened. I've never encountered one of these "Cooper Tunnels" in my (very) short USPSA history as a D shooter. Apparently each slat dislodged is a procedural, if I read rule 10.2.5 correctly. So his stage was effectively done when he went upright through the slats, with 6 slats at 10 a piece, that's -60 points?
Nothing against the competitor, and I hope he is ok. But as an opportunity to learn, just wanted to make a couple comments.
Maybe the stage construction contributed to the problem, given a target was available "in the tunnel" as the competitor decided to engage on the top of the pile of slats at the end of the tunnel length. Perhaps it could be anticipated that one or more slats at the end of the tunnel could come down and present a tripping hazard to a competitor, such that targets should maybe not be able to be shot until beyond (3 feet?) the end of the tunnel? I admit I know nothing about stage design; and this may be a stupid comment.
Of course by this point he was on a pile of wood sticks, and given he did not appear particular agile based on his gait, shooting the stage, he appeared to catch a foot at the awkward moment he was holding his pistol one-handed. Which of course whipped back beyond the 180 when he unsuccessfully balanced himself, going down hard onto the ground.
Hard to say what I would do in a tunnel, as mentioned, I've never seen one of these obstacles. I am 5'6", so on the lower end of stature where I could probably crouch-walk through and not disturb any material overhead.
I try very hard to keep a firm, two-handed, indexed finger grip, pointed down range, at all times. Being a lefty, my RO is typically on my left, and I try to make it very obvious where my finger is so he or she can see it, especially moving between shooting arrays of targets (which, shooing P, I am generally reloading anyway.)
I've encountered low ports, and will try to use my elbows to brace going down; point being if I was to fall I would fall forward, two handed, and accept that I would land prone but I WOULD HANG ON TO MY GUN very very tightly indeed. I don't see any circumstances between the load and make ready and the unload and show clear that I was not laser focused on keeping the muzzle downrange.
Anyway.
I have a match tomorrow (first one in a while) and this, while unfortunate for the competitor to get a DQ (again, hope he is ok), thought it could be an opportunity to learn something by asking a few questions from more knowledgeable folks like @
Clusterfrack here.
Since this post is more in the nature of USPSA specific stuff, if preferred I can start a thread on Cooper Tunnels in the comp section, as I did a search and didn't find one.