[gtohurstjudge]

As I've gotten older and noticed my sense of balance isn't what it once was, I
won't climb up on a ladder anymore. Not worth the risk in my opinion. Anything needs done requiring a ladder I pay a young guy to do it. A good friend of mine that is my age fell out
of a ladder cutting a tree limb a couple of months ago and shattered his left lower leg and ankle.

[falcon4]

12 years ago, a local arbourist had his 16 year old nephew work with him during the summer holidays. He had the boy loading the industrial tree mulcher with branches. He turned his back and the boy was gone. Seems the young lad got his shirt caught on a tree branch. The Uncle had removed the safety bar in the past because is stopped his mulcher running when it got tripped.

Six years ago that mulcher was still sitting in the impound yard at the FESA compound.

[72projectbird]

Originally Posted by falcon4

12 years ago, a local arbourist had his 16 year old nephew work with him during the summer holidays. He had the boy loading the industrial tree mulcher with branches. He turned his back and the boy was gone. Seems the young lad got his shirt caught on a tree branch. The Uncle had removed the safety bar in the past because is stopped his mulcher running when it got tripped.

Six years ago that mulcher was still sitting in the impound yard at the FESA compound.

Oh Jesus!

I worked a chipper for a little while, and I was terrified of it. I always fed branches in while standing beside it, not looking directly into it. I also made sure that safety bar worked every time I started the machine.

[RAJ7395]

Seen/heard/read of several accidents and it's haunting to say the least.

A life guard tried to get the rope of a flag pole off of an overhead power line with an aluminium rescue hook. He touched the wire and became the ground. Two more life guards died trying to pull the pole out of his hands.

Forklift driver was showing off driving around a pole with his foot hanging out. He cut it too close and lost his foot.

A father son team was working on some building renovations and over centered the load dumped the truck and killed him and his son.

Roofer just plain walked off the roof through a skylight hole.

Beware of conveyors belts as they are very big killer. One 300 pound guy had every bone in his body broken by being flipped over and over and pounded against the ground. No safety shutoff rope installed.

Don't wear gloves when you run a drill press. The gloves will get caught and into the machine you go.

My friends nickname is 6 toes. He was riding a construction elevator with one of his feet hanging over the edge. Got to the next platform and that was it.

Be safe guys.

[fiedlerh]

A local guy went through a chipper a few years ago. Was kicking a log in with his foot. Safety bar disconnected. Co-worker tried to pull him out, but had to look away when the poor guy was halfway through.

I had to listen to my employee's reaction when the sheriff showed up to tell her that her brother had suffocated while inspecting an unventilated manhole.

An electrician I worked with thought he was checking a 1200 volt line. It was 12,000 volts. The meter instantly vaporized severely burning his hand. He was lucky he was't the ground path.

I hated those industrial elevators that were essentially a non-stop vertical conveyor belt with steps and handholds. I'm surprised no one got hurt on it. I'm sure they are outlawed by now. I used to do climb around on 120 ft tall storage silos, but I don't think I could do it anymore.

[mechanickeith]

Well,,, osha is still on site. Still looking. So far have found nothing major. Waiting for them to come through my shop. Service for the young man was last sunday. As of right now, we are up & running in all departments. We are in the process of installing a new plasma table. 10' X 20' big one! Just going day by day.

[NeighborsComplaint]

I worked for a 3PL as an Industrial Engineer and Project Manager for new construction. We were building a 350,000 SF warehouse on a site in Indiana. We hired civil engineers to provide the site design and the excavator who in turn hired the engineering company as their sub to do all the layout for the cut and fill (leveling of the site by scraping the high spots and depositing in the low spots in addition to digging a retention pond for stormwater runoff control.

One of the engineers (rookie) apparently had set up his transit right in the middle of the "haul road" the dozer used as he pulled a scraper behind him to dig the retention basin and deposit the excavated fill where the building was laid out. He set up just below the crest of the hill with his back to traffic and was wearing ear muffs due to the cold. He had no spotter.

Needless to say, the dozer operator never saw him as he came up from the basin and over the crest. He ran over the engineer repeatedly and dragged his body over the site never realizing he was even there. No one witnessed the event and the dozer operator only stopped when he saw what he thought was a pair of pants embedded in the ground.

I had to give a deposition as to the relationships between our company and the contractors involved. The deceased was a young guy with no wife or kids and the whole thing settled out of court.

[Probird]

Wow, that is so sad. Probably 15 years ago I had a close call. I'm a commercial electrician and do mostly service work. I was working on a small printing press. I didn't shut the power off like I should have done before putting my hands in it to work on a limit switch. The press operator was watching me work on it. I have no idea why he decided to go to the other end while my hands were in it but he did and turned it on. Luckily he was only jogging it and didn't just turn it on. It pulled both of my hands into it. I yelled at him and luckily he didn't hit it again. I would have probably lost both hands. I let him have it and I turned it off after that.

[Ben M.]

Originally Posted by Probird

The press operator was watching me work on it. I have no idea why he decided to go to the other end while my hands were in it but he did and turned it on.

Lock and tag!! Closest I've come to that was I was working on the ignition of a truck for a "friend of a friend" and he started trying to fire the engine while I was leaning over it wiring his distributor (ZAP). I let him have it for that and made him give me the keys and told him to go sit on a stool away from the truck. I'll bet to this day he doesn't think he did anything wrong.

I don't mess around at work though, I'll lock everything out and verify zero volts before taking off the safety gear and doing ANY work.

[herdswoman]

I spent 20 years in a Level I trauma center as an RN - took care of many industrial accident survivors...24 year old man in the burn unit whose bucket truck became tangled in power lines and his left arm was the entrance/right foot exit...19 year old with a chainsaw trying really hard to keep his left leg at the hip with a nearly complete circumferential injury.

My worst day at work was the day 4 men died as the result of bridge construction accident with truss cranes. Our unit took the overflow from interventional, as all resources in that unit were dedicated to one severely injured man who passed away after several hours of hard work. He was just too hurt...and the injustice of it all bothered me so very much. Four good men went to work that morning, and will never return home. I remember calling Jim Zeek on my drive home that night, telling him to be careful on the construction site, be careful with the equipment. I am typing this now with tears in my eyes. I have cared for drunks, junkies, homeless, prisoners under guard, elderly, newborns, and all the rest of the flotsam and jetsam of humanity that swirls through a downtown hospital. But there is something so very innocent about four men who only wanted to be on the job and support their families that it strikes my heart as sharp and clear as a tuning fork. Rings as clear today as it did 11 years ago when it happened.