Hideous Injury from being a Mechanic..?
Discussion
Car tyre death from 2010 - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_...
The very worst work accident I knew of was years ago at Booths scrap yard in Rotherham. A guy was burning up old oxygen and acetelyn bottles in the yard. His mistake was to see one left and started to burn that one as well, unfortunatly it was his own full acetylene bottle which reduced him to bits.
One of the most dangerous things in a garage in the 70's and 80's was the pit. Many people died when they went into them and went to sleep. Carbon monoxide is heaveier than air and collects in the pit. When the mechanic gets in he slowly goes to sleep and if not found dies. Others in a pit got burnt to death when a fuel leak or such got ignited (lamps were good for this) usually blocking their escape route.
One of the most dangerous things in a garage in the 70's and 80's was the pit. Many people died when they went into them and went to sleep. Carbon monoxide is heaveier than air and collects in the pit. When the mechanic gets in he slowly goes to sleep and if not found dies. Others in a pit got burnt to death when a fuel leak or such got ignited (lamps were good for this) usually blocking their escape route.
Jimmy No Hands said:
I work in the steel industry, there has been some nasty incidents. I remember when I first had a tour of the plant, all the way around I was saying to myself "That could kill me, THAT's going to kill me."
I'm still alive so far but you have to constantly be on your toes.
I work in a foundry which tbh has a pretty good safety record considering the operations we carry out. Most accidents we have are usually non routine activites, rather than the actual production areas. Carrying molten metal at 1500oC tends to keep concentration levels high!I'm still alive so far but you have to constantly be on your toes.
I have also worked in some large forges in the past and still to this day i don't know how i haven't seen a serious/ fatal accident.
Only 'serious' motoring accident i have had is slamming my thumb in the door of a volvo when i was a kid. Screamed at the owner to come and unlock to release my thumb. Lost the nail and feeling from the tip of thumb.....
.....done some pretty stupid things with engines though ( mainly motorbike engines in hovercraft), but never permanently injured.....
Mike
spaximus said:
. There is a famous picture I was shown at tech where a swedish guy was sat on a tyre that exploded, the imprint in the roof was where his upward flight stopped, he was dead of course. I have seen ties drop into fans, vehicles knocked off stands fall of ramps and cars set on fire all in workshops. The old adage is s
t happens so be careful always.
I remember that picture from tech, first thing that pooped into my head when I saw this thread.t happens so be careful always.I always winced when I used to check the oil in my old 911s, engine had to warm & running & with that bloody air cooling fan going that must have got a few over the years.
I remember talking to a breakdown mechanic whos colleague was holding a car steady as it was on a flat bed , suddenly the car moved backwards , he was distracted and his fingers that were located within the wheel one by one were chopped off as the car fell backwards off the flat bed.
wst said:
And the classic story is of a guy refuelling a Canberra tip tank, and sitting on an A-ladder at the wingtip while doing so (the filler is like your typical petrol station filler on those old things)... plane gets heavier, the undercarriage settles down a bit. Legs crushed. Plane has to be jacked up to free him...
I would have thought that the suspension would have settled slowly as the tank filled up, but I guess it was sticking and suddenly went down?Rotary Madness said:
Sat cross legged on the floor, using a grider on my cars sill. It snags, and throws itself into my inner thigh! Ive never thrown something off me so fast, luckily it was a grinding disc and not a cutting disc otherwise it would have been a lot deeper! This time it was just a wedge cut just through the skin, not even that much blood.
was reading through this thread and when i saw this post i had to add my only motor related injury. I had almost the exact same thing happen, however for me the grinder hit my stomach, cut about a 4 inch long quite deep gash, because the blade was spinning so fast when it made the cut it burnt all the flesh, resulting in no blood loss, however when in A&E because the disc had burnt the wound they then had to cut this dead flesh away so it could be stitched up. left a pretty nasty scar that hasn't changed in shape or size four years later. i am just glad it got caught in my trousers or it could have been much worse!My dad lost his ring finger when he stuck it into the gearbox of a machine at work.
An uncle lost his ring finger when he got it caught on a bit of farm machinery.
Another uncle lost his ring finger jumping out of a plane - got it caught on a handle above the door when doing a parachute jump.
I'm careful where I stick my fingers.
An uncle lost his ring finger when he got it caught on a bit of farm machinery.
Another uncle lost his ring finger jumping out of a plane - got it caught on a handle above the door when doing a parachute jump.
I'm careful where I stick my fingers.
Liquid Oxygen is fairly dangerous, we used it on the Lightnings I used to work on years ago.
A film we were shown during training was 'The Man From LOX'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9sIT6P_05I
A film we were shown during training was 'The Man From LOX'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9sIT6P_05I
Hydraulics are nasty for fingers - as soon as you realise your finger is in the way it's wedged too tightly to remove - cue another lost finger.
A friend of mine still has all his fingers but works with many missing odd ones of theirs - his motto is if you wouldn't put your dick there then don't risk a finger either.
A friend of mine still has all his fingers but works with many missing odd ones of theirs - his motto is if you wouldn't put your dick there then don't risk a finger either.
Jimmy No Hands said:
I work in the steel industry, there has been some nasty incidents. I remember when I first had a tour of the plant, all the way around I was saying to myself "That could kill me, THAT's going to kill me."
I'm still alive so far but you have to constantly be on your toes.
I remember having a tour of the Port Talbot steelworks as part of my degree (MatEng, Swansea) - like a sort of living Hell with flames, molten metal, everything! MANY ways to die very quickly.I'm still alive so far but you have to constantly be on your toes.
That RAF story is awful - I always thought car tyres were fairly low pressure? My car tyres are 40ish PSI. My road bike tyres are 110!
Vladimir said:
I always thought car tyres were fairly low pressure? My car tyres are 40ish PSI. My road bike tyres are 110!
Was just going to ask a question on a similar theme.Some push bike tyres are inflated to about 60 to 80 PSI. Some perhaps more.
I regularly inflate mine using a compressor and always think about if this could be potentially dangerous.
Apart from the risk of accidental over inflation by using a compressor, how much damage could an 80 PSI cycle tyre with an innertube exploding cause. (80 PSI. with a hand pump is still 80 PSI.)
Would the tyre contain the exploding innertube or could both cause some damage?
Disclaimer. I don't wear Lycra or get in the way of motorists and almost very very nearly always use the provided cycle paths.
jefword said:
Was just going to ask a question on a similar theme.
Some push bike tyres are inflated to about 60 to 80 PSI. Some perhaps more.
I regularly inflate mine using a compressor and always think about if this could be potentially dangerous.
Apart from the risk of accidental over inflation by using a compressor, how much damage could an 80 PSI cycle tyre with an innertube exploding cause. (80 PSI. with a hand pump is still 80 PSI.)
Would the tyre contain the exploding innertube or could both cause some damage?
Disclaimer. I don't wear Lycra or get in the way of motorists and almost very very nearly always use the provided cycle paths.
I foolishly used a very lightweight (Conti Supersonic) inner tube on my very light MTB once. Inflated it as usual and at about 45PSi, it blew up. The noise scared the living s*** out of me and it blew the tyre clean off the rim. No damage done to anything else but it did show the forces involved. I now inflate new tubes very carefully and allow them to bed into the tyre carcass before giving them the final pump. If my road bike tyre goes, I suspect serious trouble.Some push bike tyres are inflated to about 60 to 80 PSI. Some perhaps more.
I regularly inflate mine using a compressor and always think about if this could be potentially dangerous.
Apart from the risk of accidental over inflation by using a compressor, how much damage could an 80 PSI cycle tyre with an innertube exploding cause. (80 PSI. with a hand pump is still 80 PSI.)
Would the tyre contain the exploding innertube or could both cause some damage?
Disclaimer. I don't wear Lycra or get in the way of motorists and almost very very nearly always use the provided cycle paths.
Part of it is volume though I guess - a road bike tyre has very little, an MTB tyre has a fair bit more, a car tyre has a lot more still. But being KILLED by one sat on your lap? I wonder what the fallout was? Any law suits? That's a life ended doing what, IMO, is nothing wrong at all. Surely there was some legal action?
Wearing Jogging bottoms and no undies, moved a Pinto engine block onto my bench, placed it down and managed to get "the captain" lodged between bench and block, funny how the block didnt seem so heavy when its clamping a fair ammount of foreskin/material to a metal bench, the human penis is not a good choice of gasket material, it would blow too easily, which is not typical of my experience.....
J4CKO said:
Always wear eye protection when grinding, a disk can shatter, wire attachments spin at some rpm and wire falls off and will make light work of an eyeball.
+1000 on this.I was lazy once and took some metal fragments in the eye. They were only small, fortunately, so no damage. But a couple of hours in A&E, having metal splinters dug out of your eyeball with the sharp end of a hypodermic needle isn't a fun way to spend an evening. "Don't move your eye, that would be bad" says the Dr. Really hard when a big sharp thing is being poked into it!
Fairly non descript, but a few from my grandad (RIP).
As an apprentice in the '30s, adjusting valve clearances on a Bentley.
Removed the plugs, turned it over, didn't realise they were two plugs per cylinder...
Big whoosh, and lost all facial and most head hair.
Years and years later, virtually crippled with arthritis, nan eventually persuaded him to go to the doctor, who sent him for x rays of his hands.
He scribe up with swarfega, and pops down the road to the hospital. They do the x rays, then tell him to clean his hands to get the st off them that's clouding the image. He does so, they moan at him for not knowing how to wash.
So the nurse does it for him.
Turns out he had so many swarf fragments embedded deep in his hands the ghostly flesh on an x ray looked like a picture of the night sky!
Never saw him wear gloves or eye protection, somehow the bugger managed to retire at 70 and live for another 17 years.
As an apprentice in the '30s, adjusting valve clearances on a Bentley.
Removed the plugs, turned it over, didn't realise they were two plugs per cylinder...
Big whoosh, and lost all facial and most head hair.
Years and years later, virtually crippled with arthritis, nan eventually persuaded him to go to the doctor, who sent him for x rays of his hands.
He scribe up with swarfega, and pops down the road to the hospital. They do the x rays, then tell him to clean his hands to get the s
t off them that's clouding the image. He does so, they moan at him for not knowing how to wash.So the nurse does it for him.
Turns out he had so many swarf fragments embedded deep in his hands the ghostly flesh on an x ray looked like a picture of the night sky!
Never saw him wear gloves or eye protection, somehow the bugger managed to retire at 70 and live for another 17 years.
Dan_1981 said:
This was our local spare parts / tyre fitter / scrappy a few years ago.
It was a proper old school style place, everyone who worked there knew everything about bits and bobs for every vehicle, could lay their hands on anything in what appeared to be a random mountain of parts.
Everything was done in cash, everyone who worked there was constantly covered in oil and grease.
Sadly it appears they were a litte lax with regard to safety.
Inflate a tyre without a cage and this is what can happen......
http://www.worksopguardian.co.uk/news/local-news/m...
I live around the corner from there.It was a proper old school style place, everyone who worked there knew everything about bits and bobs for every vehicle, could lay their hands on anything in what appeared to be a random mountain of parts.
Everything was done in cash, everyone who worked there was constantly covered in oil and grease.
Sadly it appears they were a litte lax with regard to safety.
Inflate a tyre without a cage and this is what can happen......
http://www.worksopguardian.co.uk/news/local-news/m...
It is still a proper old fashioned garage, and H & S still don't seem high on the list of priorities, it's a great place to wander round though
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