h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Now, owing to an ingrained fear of things from the 'Outside', I found myself watching the TV on Saturday night rather than quaffing or foxtrotting as I understand most of you do at that time of the week. My main TV watching tactic is to 'flick', that is to keep pressing the programme up button until I happen upon something that catches my quixotic interest. Here is what I found.

There was a magic show on. I chanced upon this whilst a man was hanging upside-down in a straight jacket whilst suspended by a rope that was burning from the top of a skyscraper in some standardised American city. This isn't what fascinated me. I have been privvy to these feats of escapology several times before and I can reassure you that they never fail. I have yet to see one escapologist plummet to a messy death. If you are into fatal injuries, please contiue to flick until you find Casualty.

No, what fascinated me was the way the escapologist disposed of his straight jacket. There was no net to catch it as he recklessly flung it away - this fact had been established most thoroughly beforehand in order to build up the sense of danger for the TV audience. Of course most people were now concentrating on his heroic attempts to secure a safety line before his line burned through (something which should have happened five seconds earlier according to the countdown clock on screen). I, however, concentrated on the jacket's plight.

Now the jacket must have fallen to the ground from, if the TV is to be believed, 30 stories in the air. Straight jackets are substantial things with straps and buckles and so on. People were walking on the sidewalk below. What would they have thought when a genuine, straight jacket thudded into the concrete ahead of them? Or worse thudded into the person ahead of them?

My thoughts from this point on were as listed below

a) What other things might one expect to see falling from the sky on American streets?
b) Should one spend some of one's time when walking, look directly up?
c) Were Health and Safety regulations being adhered to?
d) How do Health and Safety regulations deal with death-defying in general?

Any help on these points would be appreciated.