Bill’s thread on safety harnesses (one of the best in months) reminded me of a very old thread I started on ‘surviving falls’, great thread start Bill
The first person case histories in these threads hit a big chord with me as Grandpa died from a fall while painting a house.
What say you all – I freely grant Taunton all rights to any stories from me if they would deem to publish a book on ‘lessons learned’ safety, first hand histories, probably one I would buy.
Replies
I would buy copies for employee's as well, make it required reading or no job!
Safety is #1!!!!!
I haven't seen any deaths, but have seen a few close calls that ended better then they could have.
October 17th, 2009
Jeremy and Lisa
Was there ever any doubt?
I was working on a Union bridge job and went to the concrete piles to make some plywood caps, The Pilebuck , a friend of mine, was holding on guy wires from a crane as he guided the piles to the deck, He waved the operator to swing in but they both forgot the high wires above, I just stepped away when he was electrocuted, The crane was on rubber wheels and he was ok, He swung the crane away and i jumped over to keep his head out of the water{there was a very big puddle}.
It was already over for him, It was very gruesome but i was in shock after just missing the same fate by 6 steps and i had to keep his head above water.
Please pay attention to wires everybody.
I don't know about most of you, but I've been on a few jobs where I got killed pretty good.................... ;-)http://www.josephfusco.org
http://www.constructionforumsonline.com
When we were pouring footings and foundations I witnessed a near miss that still sends shivers up my spine.
We were at the stage where the footings were poured and had 2' stubs of rebar sticking up. I didn't know it at the time, but here in Canada you're supposed to put these little plastic mushrooms over the stubs to stop someone from being impaled should they fall onto one.
Well, one of the framers was carrying an armful of lumber, tripped, fell backward, and was surely going to get skewered through the torso, but somehow he instinctively rolled to the side and got a mere scratch. Yikes, I still see it in my head.
Scott.
One of my early jobs many years ago - pettibone set a load of "prefab" roof panels (plywood, paper, shakes) on a truss roof. At some point the trusses just gave out - they're engineered for a distributed, not concentrated, load. WHAM! Landed on the slab about 6" from a sparky that was working below. Wow, better than a cup of coffee for wakin' ya up!
"...craftsmanship is first & foremost an expression of the human spirit." - P. Korn
bakersfieldremodel.com
About 10 years ago our crew was called in to take some measurements for scaffolding work inside the rear entrance to one of the reheat furnaces at our steel mill. The furnace is shaped similar to a saltbox style house. To get access to the rear side of the furnace, you crawl inside on your belly underneath a steel "drop" door. Once inside , the ceiling is only a few feet high, so again you crawl another 6 ft or so on your belly underneath a brick header. Once past the header, the furnace opens up into a large chamber room whereby you can stand up. The furnace is approx 25ft wide and 125ft long. That brick header runs the full width of the furnace and is about 4ft thick. and several feet high.
Well , we were taking measurements in one corner just in front of this header. The brick gang was inside jack hammering bad spots insde the furnace, in order to repair them. One guy was all the way at the far end of the header, chipping out a small patch. Four of us had just crawled underneath this header not even 5 minutes ago to get inside. I was kneeling down , winding out my tape measure to get a reading...my right leg was on the ground, strecthed out underneath this header section.
All of a sudden the jack hammer guy stops hammering, and mutters "sh_t, hey you guys better..." Right then I knew something was up, I instinctively curled my leg away from underneath the header and just then the whole thing let loose and came crashing down...all 25ft of it! The momentum threw me away from it. I had been the closest one to that header, the other guys thought I got buried under it. You couldn't see a thing cause the crash took out our temporary light stands and it was pitch black inside.
I narrowly missed having my leg cut off by mere inches. Actually, I probably would've lost my life. That brick header was really a huge steel beam inside covered with brick. It took another crew 2 entire shifts (16 hours) to clear away all the debris.
It took me a while before I could go crawl back inside one of those reheat furnaces. To this day, it scares me a little.
Davo
A good case for wearing safety harnesses. My Dad told me this one long ago. This happened at another local steel mill back in the 70's.
There was this rigging crew working high up off of some catwalk overtop the mill's steel slab (Caster) Plant. At the Caster, steel slabs are formed and poured out into one long continous slab. Every so often, automatic acetyline torches come on and cut the slab to a desired length. These slabs are very hot, they glow cherry red.
Anyway, these guys are working up above without harnesses or safety belts. One of the guys had been sick most of the day. They think this guy suffered a heart attack...he fell about a 100 feet down and hit head first onto one of these slabs. This poor guy is dead...his head is severly smashed in and his brains are running out, and his body is burning from the slab heat.
His buddy looks down and sees this, and, he faints. He too , then falls and lands down by his buddy. Now both are dead.
According to my Dad, it was very, very tragic, and very very messy. All of this could have been avoided if those guys had been tied off.
Davo
Hot mop tar roof with parapet walls on all sides, small crowded space, I went up there and checked on things, the crew seemed a little sloppy meaning they had their stuff kinda strewn about that small roof. To this day I kick myself that I didn't demand they clean up and work a little more neatly. But they were the crew of one of my subcontractors, not my crew.
One of the crew, a young guy, had just gotten a call from his wife that his little girl was real sick and his wife was taking her to the hospital. He was distracted. So when he stepped on something that was laying on the roof, he had nowhere to fall but on top of the bucket of tar. As a reflex he put out his hands to break his fall, and both arms went right into the hot tar up to the elbows.
The skin started peeling off his arms immediately. He turned white as a sheet. Ambulance came, but couldn't carry him down, so he had to climb down the ladder in that condition. It was not a pretty sight. Ended up in Sherman Oaks Burn Center, and a year later I heard he came back to work at the roofing company.
"...craftsmanship is first & foremost an expression of the human spirit." - P. Korn
bakersfieldremodel.com
hard to imagine that much pain. I've had and seen some bad burns from the hot stuff, including taking all the skin off one finger of mine.I have met a kettle man in Texas who'd had a kettle explode on him - burned something like 80% of the skin off. He got a 100% disability settlement out of it, but had actually healed up pretty good.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
table saw kickback.
in trade school ... trim carp phase making door jambs and hanging doors.
I was talking to the teacher ...
we heard a machine whine then a "thump"
one of the idiots was for some reason cutting a tapered piece out of 1x6 jamb material ... got that 7' long wedge ... wedged between the blade and the fence ... till it let go.
the pointed 7' long spear shot across the shop about 20' ... and stuck chest high into a stack of hollow core doors leaned up against the wall. It pierced thru 8 or 10 doors.
woulda killed anyone walking past.
shop fulla 20 kids ...
Jeff
Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
I’m all in favor of compiling these and other stories into a safety book.
Back when I was training for whitewater rescue, I read a couple of volumes of an oddly-titled book called
The Best of the River Safety Task Force Newsletter (a compilation of accidents from 1976 to 1982).
They later changed the name - American Canoe Association River Safety Report 1982-1985.
A lot of people read these books out of morbid curiosity mixed with a bit of schadenfreude, but so what -- they read them. And it made us all better paddlers.
Just as in these BT threads, the patterns emerge as you read. The two main causes of accidents tend to be ignorance of danger/consequences, and bad habits/attitude.
Reading story after story drills in what can happen and why. You don’t take your immortality for granted quite as much. You learn. You learn to play the odds.
I’m sure that, after reading these threads, most, if not all of us, work just a little bit safer the next day.
We need to. Everybody makes mistakes, a typo now and then. In our line of work, a little “typo” can mean the loss of a digit, a limb, or a life.
So don’t feel guilty for reading these threads. They could save your life, or the life of one of your coworkers.
Aitchkay
In aviation they have the NTSB Reporter - a compilation of completed accident investigations. I always read them with the hope the lessons - learned by somebody else would keep me a little safer.
I did not personally witness any of the following deaths, but all (except one) occured on my company's jobs across the country. We get safety reports every week on any accident that occurs on one of our jobs anywhere in the world.
We had masons die last year. One in Michigan and one in Tennessee. The one in Michigan was working on a hydro mobile, caulking a brick joint. The laborers had set the tower up in a hurry and neglected to (or forgot to) fully plank the masons platform. This particular mason (3rd generation) was walking backwards on the planks caulking and simply walked off the end of the boards. Fell 35'. He lived long enough to get to the hospital, then perished.
If any of you are familiar with hydro mobile, there are end rails built into the structure of them at the masons platforms, but for them to do any good, it has to be fully planked. If only they had, he would have backed into one of those instead of thin air.
No one is really sure how the mason in Tennessee fell. He was actually a tender, and for some reason was working alone through lunch. They were on a scaffold working on the cab entrance to an empty elevator shaft at the 4th floor level. The guard rail at the door entrance had been removed in order to build the scaffold. When everyone came back from lunch no one could find the tender in question. Sometime later in the day, someone happened to notice his body in the bottom of the elevator pit.
Speculation was that he was cleaning up under the scaffold and walked or fell off the edge into the elevator shaft.
Another job in Michigan had an elevator operator fall. He was running the temp car during construction, and I am not sure of the exact story, but somehow he got confused on what floor he was on as he manually opened the cab doors to get into the elevator to start in the morning. He opened the doors as he was talking to some other nearby tradesmen, and then stepped into what he thought was the elevator cab with out first looking. It turns out the cab was actually sitting one floor up, so he stepped off into space. I believe he fell 30 or 35' to the pit floor. Killed instantly.
One our own laborers was pinned in mid torso between a fork truck and a concrete pier. He died of internal injuries. I don't know the entire story with that one. Somehow the forktruck had lost its brakes climbing a hill on the site and the operator was trying to steer away from everyone as the forktruck was careening down the hill. Laborer had on a earphones (i pod or something) so didn't hear the shouts.
Just shows you ALWAYS have to keep your wits about you in this industry. Never take anything for granted and never get complacent. I'm a superintendent for this CM and I can't tell you how many times guys tell me ... I've always done it this way, or I've never been hurt before, or What's the worst that could happen.
Maybe it takes a couple extra minutes to put that harness on in the morning. Maybe you don't like that rope dragging behind you. Maybe you don't feel like walking to the trailer to get the correct height ladder.
Well you know what ... I don't want to call your family and tell them you've been rushed to the emergency room. Or worse. There is no excuse for not protecting yourself and those around you on a jobsite.
Shawn
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker Contracting - SE Michigan
I was on the job for this one.
I was superintendant on a gas station we were building. The outside lot ws done except for the retaining wall behind the building. We were all inside working when a guy from the city popped his head in the door and said, "do you know you have a man down out back?"
I did a quick head count and said, "not ours, but lets go"
I get out back and there is the owner of the company laying face down in a watery ditch. Truck running, door open, looks like he just fell out of his truck. I call 911, he is breathing but its labored. We flip him over and he is out of it. Cant even ask what happened. Ambulance takes him to local bandaid station, I call his son and DIL and they have him flown to a bigger hospital where DIL is Resident.
I tell the guys whats going on and I head for the hospital they flew him to.
Part of company rule is that the super stays with injured untill accident report is complete to the best I can do.
Boss was alert but in lots of pain by time I got there.
His account of what happened follows..... " I drove down to meet you guys for break and bring some doughnuts and coffee. When I got of the truck my foot slipped off the running board and I was heading down the side of the ditch that I didnt know was there with coffee and snacks in hands. Couldnt stop. I saw the rebar coming and was glad it was capped, but I couldnt miss it. I fell forward on the cap of a rebar. Thats all I remember."
His truck log showed his site time at 9:25am, I got to him at 9:40, he had been in the ditch close to 15 mins and it was cold water.
The rebar was sticking out of a footing for the retaining wall. No one was forming due to the cold weather and we had interior work.
He spent two doays int he hospital and had a "bump" in the middle of his chest the size of a big fist. He showed me, about 2 years after, that it never went away, got smaller but always had it, till he died.
I have watched some accidents happen, sometimes thats what they are. We had done things right. His was an accident.
Nothing like being prepared and having your butt covered when OSHA shows up to investigate the accident.October 17th, 2009
Jeremy and Lisa
Was there ever any doubt?
working on an AT&T project in LA several years ago a framer drove his scissor lift into an unprotected hole while he was perched at the top 26' AFF. the lift went down and do did he, If he was tied off he would have been crushed regardless.While working on supermarkets in the early 90's I watch more than one guy roll his tower scaffold into a floor sink and bring down the tower. All walked away most were only a 12' fall.We had another foreman walk off the top of a mezzanine while doing layout at a car dealership. he lost about a year of work but he is back with us now.Witnessed a guy drive a Hilti pin through the top of his foot. Not sure how he pulled that one off.ML
..... most were only a 12' fall.
Don't get complacent on the height of a fall either. 12' could kill you as easily as 50'. I don't any of the history on this one as it is a story relayed by one of my subs, but a few years ago apparantly he was on a job where a guy fell 5' off a loading dock. Fell in such as way as his head and neck hit the ground first. Snapped his neck and was instantly killed. You just never know.
Not a death, but on the school job I was running just about 5 months ago a plumber slipped off a step ladder while crimping a pro-press copper fitting. Only fell 4' but put out his hands to brace himself and shattered both wrists and and the radius and ulna in one arm. He's just now back to work on light duty.Shawn
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Checker Contracting - SE Michigan
I agree, Didn't intend to imply 12' could not be serious.I had a guy slip off his Perry scaffold where the platform was no more than 3' off the ground since we were installing 9' ceilings, and is on permanent state disability. Twisted his back just right I suppose.Had another foreman trip over a floor monument(poke through) from the floor below. He's just returned last month. Was out 8 months.Even the ones that seem small can cause big problems.ML
In the early 70's, I worked for a contractor buiding cesspools. For those unfamiliar with them, a cesspool is a dome shaped structure made of specially formed concrete blocks (some cesspools used to be made from bricks) into which a soil pipe drains. It functions like a septic tank/leachfield combination. It uses two types of blocks. The first make a cylinder, the second tapers toward the center, leaving a 3 foot diameter opening, capped by a solid concrete top about 4-5 inches thick, weighing at least few hundred pounds.
The process of building a cesspool is simple: Backhoe digs a big hole, typically 10-12 feet deep and 9-10 feet in diameter. Back up a dumptruck full of blocks so the tailgate is over the hole. Throw a bunch of blocks into the hole. Put a ladder in the hole, climb down and lay (dry) a few courses of blocks. Climb out, backfill some and repeat until the cylindrical section (about half the height) is done. Backfill as you go. Then toss the tapered blocks in around the outside, build the tapered section until you get to the finished height. Then install the top.
Two of us were in the bottom of the hole, building the first few courses. Standing on the tailgate (about 15 feet higher than we were) was the mentally challenged brother of the boss.
We heard a little voice go "oops."
We looked up to see the concrete top rolling off the tailgate and gathering speed as it headed toward us. He went one way, I went the other and the top landed between us with a thud. Without the oops, one or both of us would have been flattened.
I suppose the good news would have been the $$ saved by not needing to dig a grave.
the near misses I remember?
Condo job in Winter Park, CO. Three story buildings with about 24 units in each. they had lots of openings for sliding glass doors onto balconies. with the floor trusses, they were like big box kites.
The framing crew on one had just had the bundles of roof trusses set up on top plates and knocked off for lunch, coming down thru the structure. One guy stayed up on the third floor to nap his lunch away.
while all the crews gathered in the commons area for lunch, we had just say down to start when we heard a zephyr wind come swishing down off the mountain. when it hit that building, it lifted up about 18" right in front of our eyes, then came down pancaking one floor at a time until the whole thing was splinters piled no more than 9-10' high.
Supervisor did a quick roll call and knew that nobody was lost. The guy who rode it down had to take the rest of the day off.
Back when I first started construction work in Virginia, I was a laborer on one of the sloppiest run jobs I have ever seen since. there were piles of trash and braces with sixteens sticking out laying all over the ground to step on....
one Monday morning, after it had rained the weekend, the bricklayers got up on their three story pipe staging and started bringing up brick and laying....it was about 9:30-10:00 when the whole thing - maybe 40' long came tumbling down. several guys were riding it. Nobody got more than a couple bruises and scrapes.
The rain had softened the ground under the staging, but it had not been secured well and nobody had checked it before starting to work.
IN Florida, I was on a BUR crew and working a minimall from the alley. One guy went to set up the ladder, an AL extension one. He stretched it out to height on the ground, then started walking it up, with another guy footing the base.
Three of us just happened to glance over just as the ladder got plumb vertical and starting over towards the building. We saw the power lines and all three of us screamed, "Drop the ladder!" That guy probably never understood why, but he jumped back just as it touched the power lines and arced a big blue ball. The top three feet of the ladder melted right off into a separate section. The guy footing it had already let go since it was vertical.
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
I've been in a few. Running railroad equipment there were several close calls. Working out in New Mexico one time and heard an emergency radio call. We listened to the radio and finally figured out that the guy was screaming at us to jump. We jumped off the machine and made it probably 30 feet in the clear before I turned around and saw it wiped out by a freight train. ( We all made it) Had to walk a mile and a half to get to where it stopped.
One time an over excited foreman lined a switch for a freight train to run right into us. He realized his mistake at the last second and threw it back.
Worked weekends for a guy tearing down locomotive engines. We were lifting one up in the rack to take apart. Everyone was in the habit of walking between the frame and the engine when they walked by. I came from a culture that wouldn't do that. I always walked around much to the dismay of everyone else. (It wasted a whole five steps in their book) I almost gave into them once and changed my mind and went around the pole just as I was even with it the chain snapped and the engine crashed into the pole. Every bone in my body would have been crushed. I was very happy with myself that day.
Then there was the attic incident summer before last. I'm glad I just broke four ribs and messed up my shoulder. If I hadn't got tied up in the rafters I could be typing through a straw.
Yea that safety thing is good stuff.
I'm bringing sexy back.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yIqwyR1ays
<<just as I was even with it the chain snapped >>Late last year I was hauling pre-cast vaults for a utility company. The crane operator swung a 15,000 pound vault off of my 48' flat and over four unaware people. (unaware=supervisors) I yelled at them to move, they looked at me stupid, I pointed above their heads and they looked up and scattered. The crane operator was unemployed the following morning.People don't seem to get it about if you aren't under the load it can't fall on you.
Yea that safety thing is good stuff! Yea that safety thing is good stuff! Yea that safety thing is good stuff! Yea that safety thing is good stuff!
************Gunner, I never knew you were a rapper...AitchKay************PS Yea that safety thing is good stuff!Yea that safety thing is good stuff!
I got whack skills baby.
I'm bringing sexy back.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yIqwyR1ays
Gotcha.
I was on a framing job in south jersey and the foreman had an axe with a loose handle. He went up to axe the ceiling joists where they overlap the rafters. A framer was nailing sheathing right below him. Yep at just that time the head flew off and went right into the guys back. He lived just barely I guess he was tomahawked for real. There was no need for this to happen i was glad to get off that job
"i was glad to get off that job"You learn to recognize unsafe and poorly run companies after a while.In CO, I had the displeasure to work for a company that had a high accident rate. After working there a week, I learned that a guy had died from a fall with them, another guy had broken a collar bone in a ladder ride, and I watched a guy break his wrist falling. I saw them all do a lot of stuff I would not, and often refused to take the chances they did. When I finally announced that I was leaving, the owner said, "That's probably just as well. You seem to have an attitude problem here."
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
I had my near miss last winter, woke my #### up, fell off my garage roof while I was finishing the 2 floor room addition, nothing like rolling in the snow with your femur sticking through the back of your pelvis.
I didnt fall far at all, but it was compared to a 70 mph car crash. Trying to finish before dark and got in a hurry, learned a valuable lesson that day. Rushing isnt worth it. Too bad im so good at learning things like that the hard way.
Be safe out thereWoods favorite carpenter
Matt:
Are you all healed up and back to work?
GregT
Pretty well healed up as of now, Im not what I was a year ago physically but that will come.
Trying to get the books filled back up for this year, things are a little slow around town.
Thanks for asking Woods favorite carpenter
I had a roofing job on the side awhile ago. It was a 9 pitch, two stories plus walk-out basement. I was skiddish at first, hadn't been on too many roofs, and I was the one who put up the jacks. About the third day, I was getting a little too comfortable up there hopping from jack to jack. I was just telling the new guy to be careful as I was tip-toeing backwards, grabbing onto the soffit of one of the dormers. I backed up a little too much and was kind of teetering there for a second. It was a scary moment. I wont go on anything over one story without a harness. I remember this five story hotel we did the electrical for awhile back. The roofers never wore harnesses, and someone put a cross in the ground and wrote "safety" across it. Its amazing no one died on that job. My company takes safety very seriously. We get a bonus every year if there are no accidents.......I haven't got that safety bonus in almost four years at the company. Serious business........
One time I had to adjust the DC offset on a 1 megawatt amplifier. The procedure went like this. Charge the capacitor bank to 10,000 volts. When you're at full charge, trigger the amp and discharge into the load while capturing the trace. Measure the DC offset. Approaching from the front, touch the 6' inuslated grounding rod to the copper grid above the capacitor bank. Then walk around to the rear, touch the grounding rod to the aluminum cover on the tube mount chassis. Remove the screws and lift off the cover, then touch the grounding rod to the tip of the triac tube. Remove the terminal screw and the output cable, then carefully lift the tube out of its seat and set it down gently. Reach in and adjust the trim potentiometer a quarter turn in the appropriate direction. Then reassemble everything and repeat until the DC offset is witihin tolerance.
I must have done this about 12 times. It was getting near 8 PM. I don't know if it really was the 13th time or not but as I'm about to reach for the tube my spotter says, "Wait...did you ground it?"
The moral of the story is recognize when you need a spotter and when you do, make sure you've got a sharp one. Thanks again Tom, wherever you are.
What does one use a one million watt amplifier for?
I think it was the "Who" that started the "Wall of death", probably a million watts in total..it was LOUD.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
They kill Prophets, for Profits.
I wish it was for the "Who." It was actually for a physics experiment.
I was working on a job at a Lockheed facility (10+ yrs.ago) and a sheet metal worker fell through a hole in the roof to his death.
In the investigation they found his paycheck laying on the roof near the hole. They theorized he was reading the check and walked right into the hole. I believe he left 4 children and his wife behind.
Mike
Small wheel turn by the fire and rod, big wheel turn by the grace of god.
That goes to alertness -When I was starting out roofing, we were on a warehouse roof framed with beams about 6' OC and 2x6 T&G decking. The carpenter had just cut out a section of 5rotted ones, with the boss man watching. He said, don't step there as he turned to reach for his prybar to take them up. When he turned back again, he watched the boss walk right onto the bad stuff and go down. it was something like 16' t6o the concrete floor below. broken wrist and broken ribs.
By the time we got to the ground to see to him, he was alrteady sitting up and reaching to make sure he still had his billfold - one of those guys who carried a wad of cash.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Hey, thanks.
I was always really afraid of heights as a kid. Over time, that fear slowly diminished, so that at age 28 I wouldn't say that I'm afraid - just highly cautious. Probably too cautious sometimes, but I don't get paid enough to risk disability or death.
I drive really cautious, too, and always wear my seat-belt. Just who I am.
Last summer I took a small rot repair job on the outside of an old house, about a two week job. It was on the soffits & Yankee gutters of the roof on the second story. I needed the work and I was alone.
First day, I erected the pipe scaffold, safety bars, tied into the house, proper footing etc... doing it safe. Next day, I told myself, I am getting a harness. The top of the table where I would be standing was about 18' off the ground.
There was a parapet wall to another flat roof just below the work table & I was going to check out the drainage that ran through the wall to the scupper because there was staining in the room below. It was a 2' level distance from the scaffold to the wall top where I intended to easily step over onto. As I stepped, the hooked planking from the scaffold slid back just a little from my foot thrusting off it, which caused my other foot to barely miss the top of the wall.
Down I went, grabbing onto anything and everything I could including the cement top of the wall taking layers of skin off my arms, wacking my chin, hitting the cross bracing on the lower parts of the scaffold and finally landing on a shrub, but not before my right foot hit a part of the foundation that jutted out at the bottom. Thank God the homeowner just happened to be home that day.
I tore up the ankle and my body was terribly banged up & bruised and it put me out of work for about 6 weeks where I went for PT 3 times a week. The pain was pretty bad and I was on Oxycontin for a bit. I was very very lucky. Eighteen foot fall is nothing to fool with.
My first mistake was being alone on a job like this. Second one was that split second decision to attempt to step over onto that wall....I really gave it a thought not to but that lasted about 3 seconds before I went ahead because I knew better. Third, I shouldn't be doing these jobs anymore.
Blink....the fork in the road.
I had one job with a hack contractor way back when..I was hired carpenter help.
One day we were trying sheath a gable that was stood up w/out sheathing ( before I got there) and had a couple 2x4s 0r 6's nailed to the window hole jacks, with minimal angle braceing. On them we had 2x12 planks , over lappped at the center of the 32' or so width. From that lap was some scabbed together 2x4's down to the footer trench's upper grade. We had stepladders on the planks to reach the top of the gable.
As we worked, the 2x4 kicker was attempting to slip into the trench, and my co-idiot went over and was fixing to hit the top of the 2x4 to make the bottom "go the other way" Before I could get the word NO! out, he swung and hit the prop. Next thing I knew the house was going UP real, real fast. I clawed the wall and slammed into it as I caught the sill of a window..looked down and there was the planks and ladders in the trench, but " "nando" was no where..I then looker over and he was hanging like I was.
For some reason, we both cracked up laughing..too shocked to realize we about died. Another guy finaly brought a ladder to rescue us, we were too weak to pull up and in the window.
Same house had a truss roll day, 3 of us bailed off the roof as they dominoed...then when booming up a pallet of shakes, they were unloading the shakes off on side only and the pallet dumped, and crashed through the 1x3 skip sheathing, knocking another guy off a ladder below.
I was there 4 working days..that was enough for me. The contractor was always just tacking up or nailing with just a toenail and always said "Where's it gonna go?" I gotta wonder what ever became of him..a transplant from colorado that couldn't build to Pa snowload , muchless what they get out there.
Thanks for the glue advice, I think we nailed it.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
They kill Prophets, for Profits.
"and my co-idiot"LOL....glad I didn't have a mouth full of java before reading that. Those few words said it all.Glad the glue worked out. I got your message at the end of the day. The liberty Two building was modeled after the fabled one in Ghostbusters. There's all kinds of strange powers floating through that place which makes a cell phone do funny things. I'm still working below Mr. Penn's hat though, so theoretically I'm still safe. I'm fully expecting to one day open the Sub Zero and find myself looking through the gates of the netherworld.
Dec. , couple days before x mas, I was working at a office renovation,mid day, new inside wall, 11 ft. high, putting sheet of drywall 8 ft long and 3 ft. high running horizontal, had couple screws in studs help with settin, 6 ft. step ladder, new, placed sideways to the wall, carried up the ladder, electrician was 'helping' steady sheet, sat it up and when I went to tack sheet in place, I eather lost balance , ladder slipped , the sheet slid or all , any way , drywall came down, ladder fell sideways ( vinly floor ?) and me on top of ladder ! looked up make shure the electricians helper, who was on an 8 ft ladder 5 ft. from me, wasn't comeing down on top !
Shruged it off, little sore on left bottom rib. Finished off the day , whent home, had supper, watching news, reclined in my ezy chair, sneezed MY GOD WHAT A PAIN! I felt like I broke a rib. Next morning whent to Dr., said I bruised catalage that holds bottom of my rib and to take it easy , lol. I had to get this job ready for Jan. occupancy. Just about done now, but had get my son over weekend to help with drywall and some lifting. Still hurts , but at least I can sneeze without tears coming and also some choice words. You don't have to fall far to get hurt !
Way back in high school days, a cousin and I worked at a grain elevator.The foreman had us go to the boot pit (bottom of the elevator)where all of the dust settles from moving grain from dump pits into the grain elevator. The elevator takes the grain to the top of the elevator to a conveyor belt that then takes it to the chosen bin to dump it in. (For those non-farm boy types).We're down there scooping dirt and after awhile both are getting headaches.We go up for air and the foreman nearly c-----d his drawers. He forgot we were down there and were treating the grain with cyanide to kill bugs and we were in a baaaaddd place.There really was no workers safety training in those days.Only lasting injury was the number of brain cells that no longer function. Pete
3 years ago they were framing a shop here and went to lift the wall. It fell back on them and out of 7 guys 5 were hurt very bad. A rich guy was doing the building and he had no WC and had helpers from his labor crew plus they used a passerby. I dont know how it turned out for him but he had major lawsuits. If i work with guys im not sure about i like to stand on the end to nail a brace and have a little running room, I never had a wall come back at me but once they all pushed to hard the other way and it went over.
A women who was a wood shop teacher at a university told me a scary story. She was in her office around 5pm when she heard the table saw turn on. She went to go check out who was using it because the shop was supposed to be closed.
She finds a woman in heels about to attempt to cut a sheet of glass in half. Stopped her before it was to late.
Just heels? Cool.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
They kill Prophets, for Profits.
A few years ago I was building a center chimney. Had pipe staging set up the back side of the house and peak staging set up around the chimney, 16' planks connecting the two. Had a power ladder going to the top of the staging tower.I'd climb the power ladder to get to the top. The power ladder comes in sections, first a 16', then 8's and 4's if you need it. You are supposed to bolt each section together.Well,........that takes too much time.One day I'm heading up the power ladder and just as I pass beyond the first section, the ladder snaps. I'm standing on the rungs, falling backwards. Picture a straw bent in the middle, I'm on the top half.I was very lucky.The bottom half of the ladder fell into the staging crossbars and slid down. I landed on it, about 2' from the ground, felt like I was on a ladder trampoline. My legs got caught inside the rungs and bent the hell out of the ladder.Finished the day, (hey! I'd already had mud mixed, ready to go)Took the next 2 days off. Stiff, couldn't move very well.I bolt them now!
Rod
My great grandfather was a concrete contractor. In 1923 he was working on the Medical Arts Building in Minneapolis. At the end of the work day after nearly everyone had gone home, he took the elevator to the top floor so he could pick up something he'd left there. He came back to the elevator reading and stepped on, unaware that someone had called for the car down on the first floor and he took a tumble. He fell 19 stories.I don't know if the car had an open top or if the wheelbarrow full of debris was on the top of the car, but he struck the handles of the wheelbarrow horizontally with his legs and back. This slowed his descent enough so that the final impact didn't kill him. A broken leg and some nasty bruises were his only injuries. I'm told that the story was published in an issue of Ripley's Believe it Or Not but nobody in the family has a copy and I haven't had any luck locating one. I owe my existence to that wheelbarrow.
Keep an eye on this: http://www.lileks.com/mpls/dtown.html He has pictures and histories of various downtown Minneapolis buildings, and his website indicates he'll have some info on the Medical Arts building soon.
Thanks for the link. I didn't realize that Lileks did "serious" work, too.
one guy I worked with a lot had been on a job where they were building a sewage treatment plant. one place he was working was at the top of a tank that was about 14' diameter and 28' tall, with a drainage cone at the bottom.There was a couple of 2x8s across that cone span at the base when he stepped off backwards from the planks he was on at the top. His fall must have been something like 14' to 20', landing on his back across those lower 2x8s. Then he slid, head down, on his back untill his head was at the bottom of the drain. he had to be helped up, and his back was full of slivers, but no broken bones.
The planks breaking had slowed his fall.What was surprising there is that this was a union job, but no safety fall system in use.My first wife's father dies when working as a bricklayer on pipe staging. He was the contractor in charge and laying brick. He stepped back on his pipe staging and fell. he landed on the next set planks down only 5-6 feet, but got right up and back to work.That night, he told his wife he felt tired and went to bed early. He never woke up again - ruptured spleen bled out internally.So it is a good idea to get checked out after a fall
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
<<My first wife's father dies when working as a bricklayer on pipe staging. He was the contractor in charge and laying brick. He stepped back on his pipe staging and fell. he landed on the next set planks down only 5-6 feet, but got right up and back to work.That night, he told his wife he felt tired and went to bed early. He never woke up again - ruptured spleen bled out internally.So it is a good idea to get checked out after a fall>>I'd like to put your story (above) in bold type, full page ad, in every construction magazine. The idea that you have to fall a long way to get hurt is absurd.My truss supplier told me about a guy who would not listen about walking on unbraced TJIs. He probably thought, hey, it's just residential single story, I can't fall that far. He fell to the concrete slab. The rest of the story, well, you already told it.About five years ago a fell off a trailer. That's all. Heck, I've come off motorcycles at about a hundred. So I never gave it any thought.Until I started sh*tting blood a couple days later.We cannot afford to fall on the job, the sooner we get that through our heads, the better off we'll be.
yeah, this is reminding me of Pete's father now.I was putting on a roof in a new subdivision down near the end where there was little traffic.Directly across the street, an old man was building his own brick chimney up through the roof. I watched as he lost his balance or tripped on something about 6-7 feet back from the edge. He fell face down on the shingles and I thought he'd be fine since it was only about a 4/12.but momentum kept him sliding, so I watched as he went right off face first onto the concrete driveway, taking a drop clothe and a few bricks with him.I was on a two story roof, so it took a couple minutes to get to him. He had rolled over on his back and passed out, bleeding from a cut over his eye.it took me another couple minutes to be sure he was breathing, then get his wife to the door - she was watching TV and unaware that he had fallen - to call for an ambulance. No telling how long he might have laid there otherwise.
He had a concussion, but was back up finishing the job in a week or so.That sticks in my mind, not just because I saw it happen, but because another old guy in town died that winter falling about 9' from his mobile home roof onto his head.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
When I was a kid my dad was painting the soffits of a church with a gable about 25 feet high. This was before manlifts and all that other safety stuff they have nowadays.
So he is standing on his extension ladder with the airless gun in one hand and the paint shield in the other and leans out to get one more pass before moving the ladder (which my older brother was supposed to be holding, but instead was watching girls at the next door park) when the ladder goes one way and Dad goes the other.
He drops everything in his hands and grabs the drip edge as he goes by and is literally hanging on for his life by his fingers while my brother is trying to pick up the ladder and stand it back up under him. A 12 year old kid does not have the upper body strength to manhandle a fully extended ladder, but Dad somehow verbally encouraged him to get it in place.
We all laugh about that story now.
How about a "not falling" but still having serious injuries. BI I know out here was skip sheathing a roof many tears ago. He was working alone in a new subdivision on a Sunday, stepped on a piece of skip sheathing that promptly broke at a knot. Leg went through and the skip sheathing snapped shut on his thigh like a bear trap. BI's tools were out of reach because he had taken them off as he packed materials.
He was trapped on the roof, unable to get free, bleeding seriously from the trapped leg and no one around. It took 4 hours before a Realtor taking a "Sunday" drive through the development happened by and was sharp enough to notice that there was a problem. Cost the BI his lower leg.
They can't get your Goat if you don't tell them where it is hidden.
Ouch!I did take a "not fall" that hurt once. I stepped on my heavy duty #`10 cord which is about 1/2" diam. it rolled from under and I was near the edge, so I threw myself back towards the roof onto my right shoulder. my chin hit that shoulder as I landed hard, while clenching my teeth. That broke a molar off. I had two pieces and the filling floating around in my mouth
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
OK, I guess it is time to relate my personal experience.
We were setting trusses on a 2 story house. I was on the ground hooking and guiding them into position. I was on the garage side of the house working blind with the boom truck operator recieving signals from a man on second floor window.
The rest of the story was related to me, because to this day I can't remember.
We were setting 2 trusses at a time, approx 150lbs each. The boom on the crane was realing the trusses up, when they somehow released from the hook.. Now we had trusses alover the driveway, so I was watching where I was going to step when the trusses dropped.
Needless to say, they landed on the back of my head, nocking me out and driving me to the ground.
Woke up 3hours later in the hospital with an OSHA inspector shaking my leg. I was awake but can't remember what went on.
I guess it wasn't my time to die!
There was a guy I had worked with on roofs in Texas who quit to go to work with a steel building erection company.
A couple weeks later, a steel beam cut loose from the crane and when he woke up a week or ten days later, he was a few inches shorter.used his settlement check to buy a Dunkin Donuts franchise, so every year after that, he got a few inches wider, making that accident twice as bad for his health
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Congratulations!
Piffin receives the TimMooney 'Now That's Funny Right There' Award.
Saaalute!!!View ImageView Image
94969.19 In the beginning there was Breaktime...
94969.1 Photo Gallery Table of Contents
That reminds me of one of my ladder rides. My own fault because I set it up on a pile of tear off debris. Something like 12' to the eave of a 10/12. had a set pf roof jacks and plank immediately above.I climbed the ladder with a five gallon bucket of tar and got near the top and shoved it off my shoulder onto the plank. That thrust had an equal and opposite re-action, making the feet slide out from under. I rode the ladder down in vertical position with my feet still on the same rung. As I was going down, I was looking at a large plate glass window and thinking I would be breaking through it, but the feet sliding let the ladder and me move away from the wall fast enough that the top of the ladder came to rest on the window sill so that I was bouncing like on a diving board, still with good balance.just as I was thinking, "WHEW! Dodged that bullet!" The bucket of tar came sailing right past my face, missing it by an inch or two. It must have been teetering at the edge of that plank above for a few seconds before losing the battle against gravity.it bounced the ladder and threw me off so I landing on my tailbone, bruising it bad, and bent the AL ladder into a J shape. another 2" and my face would be even more ugly now. 8" and I might be a cripple.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Good thing ya weren't taking a whizz.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
They kill Prophets, for Profits.
Weird I just posted all the pics with this and they were there. Then I edited the post and it deleted the image html.
Musta been that razor sharp end..or Stanley spys avoiding the evidence.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
They kill Prophets, for Profits.
Fixed it.
And yeah If I was smart enough I would've consulted a personal injury lawyer. My brain just doesn't think that way I guess.
If I were you, I would consult a lawyer. If it happened last year, you probably still have time. That is at least a high four figure, but probably a five figure injury and it appears that you did nothing to contribute to it.
This happened last winter. I had just started framing a boathouse next to Mike Smiths Quarter Deck job.
I was using a brand new backup tape. A Stanley 30'.
I was taking a long measurement (about 24' but nowhere near maxing out a 30') when the end somehow popped out of and the whole tape came out of it's case. If you've ever dismantled a tape you'd see the tape has a cutout on the end where the "T" on the spring attaches. This cutout is razor sharp.
View Image
View Image
View Image
I didn't know what had happened until my helper pointed out the blood on the 2x6.
View Image
View Image
10 stitches later it hurt. My thumb has never been the same.
View Image
Oh yeah and I had to work like this for a while after. Not much fun in the middle of a New England winter.
View Image
when i was 14-15 yo CB radios were what chat rooms are now i guess... and i got into it pretty good... had the old tube type radios and 1000 watts when 5 was legal... anyway to fuel my habit i started erecting antenna towers... guess me and a buddy had done a dozen or so and we'd go up & down em like rats run'n for cheese... we got too cocky... the norm when we started was to guy wire em off as we went up... we got to dig'n a 4-5ft hole and put'n up 40-50 ft of tower and the antenna then guy'n em off... see if you guy'd em first it was alot harder to get big H-Beam antennas up there with the wires in the way...
it was a rainy day and we wanted to get this simple tower and antenna up... so we rushed it... long story short the ground gave way and the tower and antenna fell landing on the very top wires... i was near the bottom and was blown about 30 ft away .. i had one of those nice out of body experiences where i could see everyone lay'n on the ground ( 3 of us got it) blew us each 30-40 ft away and 120 degrees apart ... i looked ok but the 2 other dudes were blue... there was never a question in my mind i was fine... the fire dept got there and i got the paddles first... in my minds eye i was tell'n em i was fine go help the others...... i had some burns and we nver found my shoes... one of the other guys was fine after and the 3rd was never right after that... he lived a few more years.... but I think maybe what happened to him after was a result of that day... I went home that night and besides the burns i was ok...
and since that was the 3rd time i'd have been dead except for the help of others... I'm pretty sure it and the other experiences shaped who i am... I've since been on a burning plane @ 8000ft over the everglades and wasn't concerned...
p
dang man, that's a story and a half.
94969.19 In the beginning there was Breaktime...
94969.1 Photo Gallery Table of Contents
that's a story and a half.
definitely fulfilled the title of the thread..in aces!"...craftsmanship is first & foremost an expression of the human spirit." - P. Korn
bakersfieldremodel.com
About 5 tears ago My nieghbour was on his roof doing some repairs after a tornado passed by. My brother and his son and I just walked into out house. I heard a noise and my daughter said Mel is working on his roof. About a miniute later his son in-law came running in screaming Mel had fallen. He fell two stories just missing a pointy arbor. I started to do first aid( former RN) got 911 called about 30 minutes away. Secured site as we had some long 2x6 dangling overhead. Took off his tool belt assessed vitals and blood sugar (diabetic). Sent brothers son up the road to direct ambulance.
Ambulance came we had a hell of a time putting him on the back board and carrying him uphill. He got to local hospital, broken ribs and punctured lung send to big hospital.
Was recuperating fine the got a nastey infection and a month later they had to pull the plug.
So the next time I was on my roof I installed fall protection anchors and got a fall harness. No one goes up unless they are tied off. Period. Ladders are tied off, my fear of heights is getting worse and every time I have to climb a ladder I get a metal image of Mel lying there.
Over coffee row I heard of two more folks killed after that storm an a couple broken legs from falls. One fellow had a running chainsaw that bit him as they tumbled together.There is Macho and stupid both go hand in hand. I have been called a wossey boy etc. but I do my best so honey buns doesn't have to get the call.Look at the Darwin awards for the folks who repeat mistakes