Worst workplace incident/accident?

Worst workplace incident/accident?

Author
Discussion

M3333

2,265 posts

215 months

Tuesday 18th September 2018
quotequote all
https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/7076667.Fam...

A lad i went to school with. His mrs had just had there first child.

The article is pretty basic on the circumstances. He was dragged in feet first and slowly crushed right to his head. People had to have councilling afterwards due to the screams he made and the mess.

Utterley awful, the company in question are still trading to this day. RIP.

kowalski655

14,686 posts

144 months

Tuesday 18th September 2018
quotequote all
Robbo 27 said:
Commerical printers, large rubber rollers and another roller with the printing plate. These rollers are about 6 feet across and 18 inches deep.

After the print run, the rollers need to be cleaned, this should be done at crawl setting with the operative using a cleaning fluid on a cloth, takes around 15 minutes. That day, the man at the controls was in a hurry and wanted the cleaning done quickly. The cleaner was pulled through between the two rollers up to his shoulders before the machine broke.
So much for "sticks & stones can break ,my bones but words will never hurt me"

Condi

17,300 posts

172 months

Tuesday 18th September 2018
quotequote all
Nanook said:
I've never driven a potato harvester, and I'm still not that fking stupid.
Dont comment unless you've been there....

Very very easy to think 'I'll just push that down' and he'd probably done it hundreds of times before without incident, then one time he's slipped, or a piece of lose clothing has caught in the rollers. Yes he 'should' have known better, but its the nature of the people and the industry just to get on and fix the problem.

dave_s13

13,815 posts

270 months

Tuesday 18th September 2018
quotequote all
RTB said:
Three lab incidents:

1) Someone picked up a 5 litre Winchester-bottle of phenol and the bottom fell out of it covering their legs in 94% phenol. (google phenol burns.... it's nasty stuff).
Jesus...we use that stuff to chemically cauterise nail beds when surgically excising in grown toenails. Just 3 drops does it. 5litres!!! Eeeeekkk!!!

Horrible, your other ones are nasty af too. At least you know where you are accidentally lopping a finger off accidentally, far preferable.

P5BNij

15,875 posts

107 months

Tuesday 18th September 2018
quotequote all
magpie215 said:
Gareth1974 said:
Shouldn't this be in the bad parking thread?
Part of Brummie railway folk lore - 'Stacker Steadman' of Saltley Depot's finest hour in Washwood Heath Yard!

In November 1983 I witnessed the last few seconds of the Penzance - Paddington sleeper derailment at Padd, I was on my way to work at Old Oak Common and had just got off the Met-line tube from Hammersmith, there was a strange, earie silence as the dust settled.

Back in 2003 I was down at Old Oak shunting empty coaching stock with a mate, the following day he was doing the same job and the poor shunter he was working with was crushed between the buckeye couplings of the coaches, he didn't survive.

About five years ago one of our drivers was working a late night freight down the Coalville - Leicester line and found the remains of a pissed up Polish guy who'd wandered onto the line earlier and been hit by and dragged under the previous train.

The same year I was working a train in the opposite direction one afternoon and as I passed over the level crossing at Desborough saw a small red hatchback drive into the barrier on my left. Some years earlier a mate was passing over the same crossing when a transit van overtook the three cars in front of him and drove straight through the barrier into the side of the wagons.

Don't muck about on the railway, it'll hurt...


Edited by P5BNij on Tuesday 18th September 19:52


Edited by P5BNij on Tuesday 18th September 19:53

vonuber

17,868 posts

166 months

Tuesday 18th September 2018
quotequote all
Was out on site about 3 years ago doing an inspection on our design and being escorted by the Site Engineer.
He took me and a colleague down a few ladders and down to an area; I paused to take a photo only to look up and realise he had led us straight under where they were cutting out the slab above us. The saw was whizzing through the concrete right above my head; I got out of there sharpish. Reported it all through the proper channels but I don't think anything was done really.

When I was a student and doing a site placement, was walking along a protected walkway (i.e. a safe p[lace to walk) when an excavator driver decided to swing his bucket right over it; had to duck as it went right where my head had been.

Slipped on site and nearly put my hand through some non-mushroomed rebar.

Probably more I can think of if I wanted to; amazing how dangerous it is on site - and that's taking as many precautions as we can and being risk assessed and PPE'd up to the eyeballs.

When I see how some of the labour works it just astounds me - I remember taking a picture down a 12.5m shaft I'd designed and the tow guys at the bottom were cheerfully working away with no PPE.
That site got stopped sharpish by the site manager. Funny thing was they denied it until shown the photographic evidence.

I'm glad I'm not permanently site based to be honest.

j4ckos mate

3,016 posts

171 months

Tuesday 18th September 2018
quotequote all
I’ve been in a portacabin that was the last thing to be hit when then warehouse racking concertinered over,

It’s quite interesting different peoples reactions.
A few rlf a few just sat there and a few sort of stood up at the furthest point of the warehouse
I lined up against the interior wall where it wouldn’t be hit

Mr.Chips

873 posts

215 months

Tuesday 18th September 2018
quotequote all
Reading this thread has made me realise how lucky I am have been. I have had a number of incidents over the years.
1. Working in a foam rubber factory, cutting some samples from a block, using a rather large band knife. As I was pushing the bed of the band knife and concentrating on getting the sample size right, I suddenly felt my hair being parted. Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to step backwards before looking up, otherwise I would have split my nose on the knife.
2. Same place, there were some smallish samples of foam rubber on the floor that were just begging to be jumped on. As I flew through the air I realised I had got my angles wrong, so after landing on the block, I was propelled off to one side, realising that the floor was going to be quite unforgiving. Three cracked ribs and bruised down my right side, but I got off lightly.
3. Same place, myself and the other lab techs realised that if we ran around on top of the large blocks of foam, we could build up quite a large static charge. We would then crouch down on top of the block nearest to the door and zap the first poor bugger to come through the door. Other factory workers seemed to accept it as an occupational hazard, the director that we zapped was not amused and threatened to fire us on on the spot if there was a repeat. I left soon afterwards.
4. Then went to work as a school lab tech. Was helping a teacher set up a CRT with a 5kv power supply. As he asked me to plug it in, he failed to notice that I was still touching part of one of the terminals on the power pack. He seemed almost upset when I didn’t fry. Even now, I don’t know why. One of the physicists suggested it was down to the insulating properties of the sole of my Doc Martens shoes.
5. Same place, setting up a chlorine generator. Normally, as soon as the concentrated hydrochloride acid hits the potassium permanganate, chlorine is produced. However, on this occasion - nothing. I checked everything and then discovered that the acid used was conc. sulphuric, so an explosion was imminent. I managed to evacuate the teacher and kids before the bang. The fume cupboard was blown to buggery and the kid who swapped the acid over was given a major bking!
6. Finally, my late Father was working nights at an engineering works. Quite a large steel framework was suspended from the ceiling and one of dad’s colleagues was caught under it when the suspension wire snapped. Ambulance and fire brigade attended and the guy was quickly taken to hospital, talking as he was placed in the ambulance. The other workers were sent home for the night. Dad was horrified to find out the following evening that the guy had died due to internal bleeding.
Most of these incidents happened in the 1970’s and on reflection, I am so grateful that H & S have progressed so much.

magpie215

Original Poster:

4,416 posts

190 months

Tuesday 18th September 2018
quotequote all
Reading some of these stories you realise how quickly it can go from just a normal day at work to potentially RIP.

magpie215

Original Poster:

4,416 posts

190 months

Tuesday 18th September 2018
quotequote all
Reading some of these stories you realise how quickly it can go from just a normal day at work to potentially RIP.

surveyor

17,876 posts

185 months

Tuesday 18th September 2018
quotequote all
Back in my school days the school had a swimming pool. Bit of free time at the end of the session and someone through one of the bricks in that you dive for.

Unfortunately as they threw it in, someone came up, and he got a brick on his head. Everything happened very quickly. Teacher in the water dragging him out. Him into recovery position. Teacher knocked phone off cradle and sent one of us to reception to tell them to call an ambulance. We were all chucked into changing rooms at that point.

Kid survived with no more brain damage than he already had. Lucky escape.

Evanivitch

20,230 posts

123 months

Tuesday 18th September 2018
quotequote all
Local industrial site, forklift truck operator was positioning a pallet load weighing a few tons against a wall.

He got out of the forklift to see how close he was to the wall on his first attempt. Whilst he was checking, the load started to slide towards the wall and he tried to stop it. With his arm.

His arm broke and his bones began moving in parallel.

Made a full recovery.

Notreallymeeither

323 posts

71 months

Tuesday 18th September 2018
quotequote all
magpie215 said:
Reading some of these stories you realise how quickly it can go from just a normal day at work to potentially RIP.
Too right - you can say that again.

JamesRR

279 posts

86 months

Tuesday 18th September 2018
quotequote all
P5BNij said:
Part of Brummie railway folk lore - 'Stacker Steadman' of Saltley Depot's finest hour in Washwood Heath Yard!

In November 1983 I witnessed the last few seconds of the Penzance - Paddington sleeper derailment at Padd, I was on my way to work at Old Oak Common and had just got off the Met-line tube from Hammersmith, there was a strange, earie silence as the dust settled.

Back in 2003 I was down at Old Oak shunting empty coaching stock with a mate, the following day he was doing the same job and the poor shunter he was working with was crushed between the buckeye couplings of the coaches, he didn't survive.

About five years ago one of our drivers was working a late night freight down the Coalville - Leicester line and found the remains of a pissed up Polish guy who'd wandered onto the line earlier and been hit by and dragged under the previous train.

The same year I was working a train in the opposite direction one afternoon and as I passed over the level crossing at Desborough saw a small red hatchback drive into the barrier on my left. Some years earlier a mate was passing over the same crossing when a transit van overtook the three cars in front of him and drove straight through the barrier into the side of the wagons.

Don't muck about on the railway, it'll hurt...


Edited by P5BNij on Tuesday 18th September 19:52


Edited by P5BNij on Tuesday 18th September 19:53
I volunteer with heritage trains, and generally have an interest, so when I was at school I did my work experience with the railways. Two incidents I recall being told about by old hands there:

A shunter was in charge of a propelling movement of a loco hauled set out of a shed. Crossed behind the moving set, tripped and fell on points. Lost the arm and leg from one side of his body.

Another shunter, around the time MK2 carriages were replacing much older stock (P5BNij will know what I’m describing in this one, maybe others won’t). Was in the practice of standing ‘in between’ when buffing carriages up to each other and throwing the hook on. This was doable with the narrow, retractable gangways on the old stock, but definitely not advisable. On a MK2, there’s a much wider, non retractable gangway that has rubbing plates around it’s outside that form part of the union between carriages. The shunter forgot he was shunting the new MK2s, stood in between, and his neck was crushed between them. Took him two weeks to die in hospital. Can’t imagine much worse.

I also used to work as a school caretaker, and saw the aftermath of a kid degloving his finger trying to climb a fence. I heard it had to be amputated. Wasn’t nice.

Lazermilk

3,523 posts

82 months

Wednesday 19th September 2018
quotequote all
JamesRR said:
P5BNij said:
Part of Brummie railway folk lore - 'Stacker Steadman' of Saltley Depot's finest hour in Washwood Heath Yard!

In November 1983 I witnessed the last few seconds of the Penzance - Paddington sleeper derailment at Padd, I was on my way to work at Old Oak Common and had just got off the Met-line tube from Hammersmith, there was a strange, earie silence as the dust settled.

Back in 2003 I was down at Old Oak shunting empty coaching stock with a mate, the following day he was doing the same job and the poor shunter he was working with was crushed between the buckeye couplings of the coaches, he didn't survive.

About five years ago one of our drivers was working a late night freight down the Coalville - Leicester line and found the remains of a pissed up Polish guy who'd wandered onto the line earlier and been hit by and dragged under the previous train.

The same year I was working a train in the opposite direction one afternoon and as I passed over the level crossing at Desborough saw a small red hatchback drive into the barrier on my left. Some years earlier a mate was passing over the same crossing when a transit van overtook the three cars in front of him and drove straight through the barrier into the side of the wagons.

Don't muck about on the railway, it'll hurt...


Edited by P5BNij on Tuesday 18th September 19:52


Edited by P5BNij on Tuesday 18th September 19:53
I volunteer with heritage trains, and generally have an interest, so when I was at school I did my work experience with the railways. Two incidents I recall being told about by old hands there:

A shunter was in charge of a propelling movement of a loco hauled set out of a shed. Crossed behind the moving set, tripped and fell on points. Lost the arm and leg from one side of his body.

Another shunter, around the time MK2 carriages were replacing much older stock (P5BNij will know what I’m describing in this one, maybe others won’t). Was in the practice of standing ‘in between’ when buffing carriages up to each other and throwing the hook on. This was doable with the narrow, retractable gangways on the old stock, but definitely not advisable. On a MK2, there’s a much wider, non retractable gangway that has rubbing plates around it’s outside that form part of the union between carriages. The shunter forgot he was shunting the new MK2s, stood in between, and his neck was crushed between them. Took him two weeks to die in hospital. Can’t imagine much worse.

I also used to work as a school caretaker, and saw the aftermath of a kid degloving his finger trying to climb a fence. I heard it had to be amputated. Wasn’t nice.
I know someone that worked on ships in the oil business, he was on the bottom bunk and grabbed hold of the top bunk to swing himself out of bed, he had his wedding ring on at the time and proceeded to deglove the finger, it also needed to be amputated down to roughly where the ring normally was.

Jasandjules

69,978 posts

230 months

Wednesday 19th September 2018
quotequote all
Vanordinaire said:
Joiner in one of our workshops used his bare hand to guide a piece of door facing through the planer/thicknesser, managed to take about 5 mm off the top of two of his fingers...., 6 weeks later, the same guy is back at work explaining his accident to the H&S guy , 'How did I do it?' he said. 'Well I just had a piece of wood like this, fed it through the machine like this, and ARGHHHH!' . Yes, he did exactly the same thing again, in front of the H&S guy.
I damn near wet myself reading that!!

FiF

44,226 posts

252 months

Wednesday 19th September 2018
quotequote all
Jasandjules said:
Vanordinaire said:
Joiner in one of our workshops used his bare hand to guide a piece of door facing through the planer/thicknesser, managed to take about 5 mm off the top of two of his fingers...., 6 weeks later, the same guy is back at work explaining his accident to the H&S guy , 'How did I do it?' he said. 'Well I just had a piece of wood like this, fed it through the machine like this, and ARGHHHH!' . Yes, he did exactly the same thing again, in front of the H&S guy.
I damn near wet myself reading that!!
That reminds of the very minor injury shown live on BBC Breakfast TV. They had some piece about accidents in the home and one of the stats was how many folks injured themselves opening a can of corned beef. On comes the expert, it's easy, he says, THIS is how you do it completely safely, you just... aahh oowww, sucks finger.

Sorry but rofl

Jasandjules

69,978 posts

230 months

Wednesday 19th September 2018
quotequote all
Lazermilk said:
Isn't that a myth that a cigarette will ignite fuel?
I'm sure they did this on mythbusters...
I believe it was the fumes coming out of the top of the bowser - it was a case from Uni which was rather a long time ago now so I don't recall the finer points. I would have said the driver had gone onto the bowser to check it was empty but I can't recall if that is right.

ATG

20,682 posts

273 months

Wednesday 19th September 2018
quotequote all
Lazermilk said:
I know someone that worked on ships in the oil business, he was on the bottom bunk and grabbed hold of the top bunk to swing himself out of bed, he had his wedding ring on at the time and proceeded to deglove the finger, it also needed to be amputated down to roughly where the ring normally was.
A mate's Dad did the same sort of thing when he slipped while fixing the roof of a hut. Wedding ring snagged on a keyed metal railway sleeper he'd used as a makeshift ladder. Pulled the ring under the flesh of his finger, but didn't fully deglove it, thank god.

Got himself to hospital. Finger patched up, arm in a sling. Drove back home. Went back up the "ladder" to retrieve tools left on the roof. Slipped and did the same thing to his other hand.

Robbo 27

3,659 posts

100 months

Wednesday 19th September 2018
quotequote all
Two incidents not accidents.

An engineering trainee wanted a motorcycle to be like his friends.

He took his safety glasses and drilled a hole in them, then took a piece of swarf, twisted it through the hole and scratched his eyeball. He suggested that the swarf had come up from the lathe, through the glasses and into his eye, damage was permanent. Insurers took the glasses, showed that the hole had been drilled and closed the file.

Another trainee, had the ends of his fingers cut off whilst holding on to the track of an overhead crane, as the wheels rolled towards him they cut off the ends of three fingers past the first knuckle. Looked like a genuine accident, thoughtless maybe but still an accident. The trainee submitted a claim for unsafe system of working.

As part of the investigation friends of the injured trainee were asked individually what they had seen, one of them owned up, the lad had said he was going to have this accident.