Worst workplace incident/accident?
Discussion
Agriculture is the most dangerous profession in the UK by number of deaths and industrial accidents.
Worst Ive had was needing to be stitched up by a plastic surgeon and few nights in hospital. Nice scar, but luckily nothing more. However, we all know someone who's not around any more, and can name a few with life changing injuries.
The reasons are complicated, but working by yourself, with big machinary, often alone and often when tired dont help. The times you're not working with kit, you're often working with animals, and 600kg of cow, with its own mind, is plenty dangerous. Thinking back to some of the things which are considered 'acceptable' would never be acceptable in any other walk of life, and moving to a different industry makes you realise quite how stupid some of the stuff we do is, but time and money pressures, combined with it being mainly small businesses means that H+S isnt really a thing beyond the very basics. Even then, the rules are often ignored.
Worst Ive had was needing to be stitched up by a plastic surgeon and few nights in hospital. Nice scar, but luckily nothing more. However, we all know someone who's not around any more, and can name a few with life changing injuries.
The reasons are complicated, but working by yourself, with big machinary, often alone and often when tired dont help. The times you're not working with kit, you're often working with animals, and 600kg of cow, with its own mind, is plenty dangerous. Thinking back to some of the things which are considered 'acceptable' would never be acceptable in any other walk of life, and moving to a different industry makes you realise quite how stupid some of the stuff we do is, but time and money pressures, combined with it being mainly small businesses means that H+S isnt really a thing beyond the very basics. Even then, the rules are often ignored.
Edited by Condi on Tuesday 18th September 08:40
When I was a schoolboy and was the "Saturday lad" in our local Tesco I once left an entire lorryload of frozen products out in the pouring rain overnight on pallets. There was quite a lot of moneys worth of stuff ruined. Strangely I didn't get in trouble over it.
No material damage, but I once carried out a quick change to some billing software I had written some 20 years or so ago, and forgot to initialize the bill total between each bill. This meant that every customer had a bill that was the total of all bills before it - people were getting mobile phone bills for sums like forty two million quid. This got onto TV, Watchdog, radio news, Daily Mail and lots of other papers....
Only example I can find of it on the web is this....
https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/6188086.__300...
I never got in trouble for it, it was just one of those things.
No material damage, but I once carried out a quick change to some billing software I had written some 20 years or so ago, and forgot to initialize the bill total between each bill. This meant that every customer had a bill that was the total of all bills before it - people were getting mobile phone bills for sums like forty two million quid. This got onto TV, Watchdog, radio news, Daily Mail and lots of other papers....
Only example I can find of it on the web is this....
https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/6188086.__300...
I never got in trouble for it, it was just one of those things.
When I was an apprentice at an engineering company we had a hydraulically fed circular saw for cutting strips of brass in to plug pins. From time to time it would get jammed up and need the debris cleared from it. Because the operator was on bonus he didn't want to waste time stopping the machine so he would try and clear it while the saw was still operating between cuts. One day this went wrong and he lost his whole forefinger as well as making a mess of his middle one. Our floor manager had to retrieve said finger from the swarf bin underneath before packing it in ice and sending it to hospital with the casualty. They never managed to sew it back on.
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).
2) Technician entered a tissue culture room that is being fumigated with formaldehyde. Ended up taking 3 months off work having effectively chemically cross-linked most of their respiratory membranes!
3) Someone in the lab above ours spilt a large amount of ethanol over them while doing some bug cultures and managed to ignite it. This was bad, but worse was the fact that the lab door was on a combination lock and had to be smashed in with a fire extinguisher to get at her.
All these happened over 20 years ago now, I'm amazed that there weren't more 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).
2) Technician entered a tissue culture room that is being fumigated with formaldehyde. Ended up taking 3 months off work having effectively chemically cross-linked most of their respiratory membranes!
3) Someone in the lab above ours spilt a large amount of ethanol over them while doing some bug cultures and managed to ignite it. This was bad, but worse was the fact that the lab door was on a combination lock and had to be smashed in with a fire extinguisher to get at her.
All these happened over 20 years ago now, I'm amazed that there weren't more incidents!
Got another.I work in the fluffy-sounding office plant industry (though it can't be that fluffy as we all have knackered spines).
But one of my staff managed to actually pierce her eyeball on a Yucca leaf.
Manager got all H&S and said we should all be wearing googles; I convinced her it was a one-off incident.
Three months later the same employee did it again.
But one of my staff managed to actually pierce her eyeball on a Yucca leaf.
Manager got all H&S and said we should all be wearing googles; I convinced her it was a one-off incident.
Three months later the same employee did it again.
Dog Star said:
When I was a schoolboy and was the "Saturday lad" in our local Tesco I once left an entire lorryload of frozen products out in the pouring rain overnight on pallets. There was quite a lot of moneys worth of stuff ruined. Strangely I didn't get in trouble over it.
No material damage, but I once carried out a quick change to some billing software I had written some 20 years or so ago, and forgot to initialize the bill total between each bill. This meant that every customer had a bill that was the total of all bills before it - people were getting mobile phone bills for sums like forty two million quid. This got onto TV, Watchdog, radio news, Daily Mail and lots of other papers....
Only example I can find of it on the web is this....
https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/6188086.__300...
I never got in trouble for it, it was just one of those things.
Now we stop other feckers making those sorts of mistake, both are really governance failures, proper processes should prevent both those ever happening.No material damage, but I once carried out a quick change to some billing software I had written some 20 years or so ago, and forgot to initialize the bill total between each bill. This meant that every customer had a bill that was the total of all bills before it - people were getting mobile phone bills for sums like forty two million quid. This got onto TV, Watchdog, radio news, Daily Mail and lots of other papers....
Only example I can find of it on the web is this....
https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/6188086.__300...
I never got in trouble for it, it was just one of those things.
Similar, I just started a new job at big ecommerce site; my first assignment was tracking down an elusive bug, possible fraud, possible hacking, on the QT; since all the existing senior engineers had failed to find it, so internal fraud was suspected.
Seemingly random high end products, such as £4k gaming PCs were being sold for a £1. After a lot of digging I found the problem was only happening in very limited set of circumstance, a little longer and from only one supplier. When the product was sold out from the on site stock, the ecommerce software automatically checked stock levels at our supplies. The call out to just one supplier had been screwed up, transposing the price and quantity. (now one of my standard test scenarios).
Some customers had found the problem and tried to exploit it; but also discovered that if they tried to buy too many the purchase failed, since usually stock levels of these expensive products were very low and this check was performed differently at checkout so they would buy just one.
The worst H&S type accident I've witnessed was at school, two other kids arguing over who would get to use the lighter girls Javelin, one grabs it and runs off, the second a well known school bull gives chases, first kid drops it and it lands point first in ground stick up like they do, tail high. Bully runs straight onto it, face first, knocked straight to the ground, skin on his face ripped from just above his mouth to eye socket, blood everywhere. Half the kids fainted on the spot, boys and girls. Kid being chased continued to run right off the field into the main school building, as did most of the rest that hadn't fainted. I was stood there more fascinated than horrified. Teacher runs over, asks me what happened, I'm the only one with some wits still about me, he then sends me into the main building to tell them to call an Ambulance and told in uncertain terms DO NOT RETURN. As I near the main building, I met other teachers coming out and shout at them to call an Ambulance and was told already on its way. Big school enquiry, lot of trouble, no more Javelin, the one athletic sport I was every any good at.
The worst I've done to myself, was split my right thumb, top to bottom, to and round the bone. I'd slammed the door of my fathers Landy trapping my thumb, instinctively pulled it out rather than opening the door to free it. I'd literally yelped with pain which had stopped my father driving off at first. Shook it because of pain, looked at it, blood everywhere which hid just how bad it was at first. I shook it again, gripped into a baby fist (thumb inside) and waved my father off. I went in put it right under the cold tap to wash it and stop the bleeding. Took me a while and I needed to apply a tourniquet on the thumb to stop the bleeding and realise how bad it was. I put on a compression dressing one handed and called a taxi to take me to A&E, nurse took one look and took me right inside to get it seen to, twelve micro sutures. Still get random nerve tingling.
Edited by 4x4Tyke on Tuesday 18th September 10:16
Condi said:
Agriculture is the most dangerous profession in the UK by number of deaths and industrial accidents.
Worst Ive had was needing to be stitched up by a plastic surgeon and few nights in hospital. Nice scar, but luckily nothing more. However, we all know someone who's not around any more, and can name a few with life changing injuries.
The reasons are complicated, but working by yourself, with big machinary, often alone and often when tired dont help. The times you're not working with kit, you're often working with animals, and 600kg of cow, with its own mind, is plenty dangerous. Thinking back to some of the things which are considered 'acceptable' would never be acceptable in any other walk of life, and moving to a different industry makes you realise quite how stupid some of the stuff we do is, but time and money pressures, combined with it being mainly small businesses means that H+S isnt really a thing beyond the very basics. Even then, the rules are often ignored.
Yep, I have a mate who works on a pig farm. From what I understand the rules require 2 people (at least in certain circumstances - handling boars or sow with young?) but quite often they end up working alone.Worst Ive had was needing to be stitched up by a plastic surgeon and few nights in hospital. Nice scar, but luckily nothing more. However, we all know someone who's not around any more, and can name a few with life changing injuries.
The reasons are complicated, but working by yourself, with big machinary, often alone and often when tired dont help. The times you're not working with kit, you're often working with animals, and 600kg of cow, with its own mind, is plenty dangerous. Thinking back to some of the things which are considered 'acceptable' would never be acceptable in any other walk of life, and moving to a different industry makes you realise quite how stupid some of the stuff we do is, but time and money pressures, combined with it being mainly small businesses means that H+S isnt really a thing beyond the very basics. Even then, the rules are often ignored.
Edited by Condi on Tuesday 18th September 08:40
Apparently one of the old boys who works there isn't so steady on his feet these days, my mate is always worried he'll end up getting knocked over and not get up again.
Day one as an agency worker for a major chocolate manufacturer, it's a new contract (terribly managed, but that's another story). We all turn up, we're shown the lockers and where our white coats and hair nets come from, etc. Washing our hands on the way in, there's a row of sinks for the crowd of about 50 of us, and someone goes back to the locker room. There's blood on the floor, no idea why.
Lunch break, I get my rolls out of my locker, go to the canteen, but I'm not allowed in. No explanation at the time. There's police walking around on site. I sit on a bench in the locker area to read my book, eat and ignore the police.
The next day, an announcement during the shift. "Yesterday you might have noticed some disruption... to dispel rumours we just want to make it clear that one of your number, Vladimir, died. There's counselling if anyone needs it..."
Not the foggiest what happened.
Lunch break, I get my rolls out of my locker, go to the canteen, but I'm not allowed in. No explanation at the time. There's police walking around on site. I sit on a bench in the locker area to read my book, eat and ignore the police.
The next day, an announcement during the shift. "Yesterday you might have noticed some disruption... to dispel rumours we just want to make it clear that one of your number, Vladimir, died. There's counselling if anyone needs it..."
Not the foggiest what happened.
Reminded of another incident by an earlier post.
A Health and Safety officer was walking passed the loos in an office block, didnt like the smell. Went looking for some air freshener, couldnt find any but found sound lemon scented Pledge polish. He sprayed the air by the loos, not thinking that the spary would settle on the wooden floor.
A female employee came out of the loo, slipped on the polish, broke her pelvis and lost the child she was carrying.
A Health and Safety officer was walking passed the loos in an office block, didnt like the smell. Went looking for some air freshener, couldnt find any but found sound lemon scented Pledge polish. He sprayed the air by the loos, not thinking that the spary would settle on the wooden floor.
A female employee came out of the loo, slipped on the polish, broke her pelvis and lost the child she was carrying.
Been involved in claims for some nasty ones-one that sticks out was a woman putting a bundle of paper into a cutting machine,safety guard closed on her arms as they were in,trapping them,she had to watch blade descend & slice off both her hands
Chap who had part of his brainstem removed instead of a gland:in brain surgery terms thats like adding 2+2 and getting 3,784!!
Worst I had myself was catching my trainer on a half open drawer,fell over & grazed my ankle. Only a plaster needed but still had to have a full H&S meeting. They were probably worried I would sue even though it was my own fault. I dread to think what would have been needed if I had killed myself
Chap who had part of his brainstem removed instead of a gland:in brain surgery terms thats like adding 2+2 and getting 3,784!!
Worst I had myself was catching my trainer on a half open drawer,fell over & grazed my ankle. Only a plaster needed but still had to have a full H&S meeting. They were probably worried I would sue even though it was my own fault. I dread to think what would have been needed if I had killed myself
Lazermilk said:
Jasandjules said:
2. A chap decided to smoke at work. Fair enough. Of course, if he wasn't filling the petrol station up at the time it might have helped. Boom...
Isn't that a myth that a cigarette will ignite fuel?I'm sure they did this on mythbusters...
If you toss a lit cigarette into a container of petrol, it will likely go out as you're removing oxygen from the combustion triangle. Fuel vapour on the other hand wont do that. There is a fair bit of vapour when filling up a large underground tank and this may have been in the days before vapour traps/recovery (vapour recovery on petrol pumps are the only reason we don't have smoking/phone related filling fatalities).
Its the same reason you cant simply put plain old petrol into a cylinder of an engine, it needs to be mixed with air to be combustible.
An old story passed around the mining circles of Western Australia was that there was a gas leak at an LNG storage facility, the only reason two people sitting in an idling car noticed it was because the engine started racing. This is a story passed around the pub, so no idea if it's true or not.
Edited by captain_cynic on Tuesday 18th September 10:07
Jesus 
Some of these stories are making me very glad I work in an office.
I did have a near miss when I was 15 at my Saturday job at a hydraulics workshop. Stripping old high pressure brake hoses from trains, with 1.5Kg ferrules on each end, using a machine akin to a small lathe with just gripping pieces.
Get the sequence wrong and attach the wrong bit to the spinning grippy bit (stop me if I'm getting too technical) - turns out a 1.5kg lump of metal flailing around on the end of a meter of steel reinforced hose can be quite dangerous.... just missed my noggin!
Some of these stories are making me very glad I work in an office.
I did have a near miss when I was 15 at my Saturday job at a hydraulics workshop. Stripping old high pressure brake hoses from trains, with 1.5Kg ferrules on each end, using a machine akin to a small lathe with just gripping pieces.
Get the sequence wrong and attach the wrong bit to the spinning grippy bit (stop me if I'm getting too technical) - turns out a 1.5kg lump of metal flailing around on the end of a meter of steel reinforced hose can be quite dangerous.... just missed my noggin!
I was seeing a customer in Chorley years ago, when all hell broke loose at the unit next door - ambulance, police, fire, turned up en-masse. One of their guys had fallen into a large mixing hopper that made tile grout - he lost a leg, and both arms I recall.
I also had to arrange collection of a Royal Mail 7.5t truck where the agency driver had fallen asleep at the wheel and hit a tree at 56mph. Although the guys body had been removed, there were still a few teeth and other splatters in what was left of the cab. The guy had been signed up with two driving agencies without the knowledge of the other, and was driving twice as many hours as permitted.
I also had to arrange collection of a Royal Mail 7.5t truck where the agency driver had fallen asleep at the wheel and hit a tree at 56mph. Although the guys body had been removed, there were still a few teeth and other splatters in what was left of the cab. The guy had been signed up with two driving agencies without the knowledge of the other, and was driving twice as many hours as permitted.
mrtwisty said:
Jesus
Some of these stories are making me very glad I work in an office.
Not quite as bad as many stories around here but long ago as a junior support tech I was called into the printer room where one of the sales drones had managed to get his tie stuck in the photocopier. Claims he was trying to clear a jam. Some of these stories are making me very glad I work in an office.
Not sure what knot he did it in either but we were unable to get it undone (OTOH it didn't choke him like a Windsor could have), despite his protests that it was a $100 silk tie, his choice was either cut it of or marry the printer so we ended up cutting the tie of and with him out of the way I had the task of getting tie out of the printer.
One of the many reasons I refuse to wear a tie.
captain_cynic said:
Not quite as bad as many stories around here but long ago as a junior support tech I was called into the printer room where one of the sales drones had managed to get his tie stuck in the photocopier. Claims he was trying to clear a jam.
Not sure what knot he did it in either but we were unable to get it undone (OTOH it didn't choke him like a Windsor could have), despite his protests that it was a $100 silk tie, his choice was either cut it of or marry the printer so we ended up cutting the tie of and with him out of the way I had the task of getting tie out of the printer.
One of the many reasons I refuse to wear a tie.
That remind me of when I worked at Halfords after leaving school - all the shop staff had polo shirts to wear, but the store manager decided to help out fixing the gears on a bike. His tie got caught in and skinned his lips and nose as his face jammed into a spinning wheel. Not sure what knot he did it in either but we were unable to get it undone (OTOH it didn't choke him like a Windsor could have), despite his protests that it was a $100 silk tie, his choice was either cut it of or marry the printer so we ended up cutting the tie of and with him out of the way I had the task of getting tie out of the printer.
One of the many reasons I refuse to wear a tie.
Not a serious injury, but he was usually the first to shout about elf n safety in the workplace!
This one gives me panic attacks thinking about it:
"Two bakery workers died in agony after bosses sent them into a giant oven to carry out repairs on the cheap, a court heard yesterday.
The machine should have been allowed to cool for 12 hours, but was only left for two.
David Mayes and Ian Erickson were unaware of the full danger as they crawled into the oven because fans had cooled its outer reaches to 40c. Its core, however, was still at 100c.
The repair was a delicate procedure in which they had to collect broken parts from along the length of a conveyor belt which carries bread trays slowly through the 75ft-long oven.
They had removed enough trays to allow them space within the rails of the belt to crawl along with it at the same speed.
But within five minutes they were relaying terrified messages over their walkie-talkies, saying the oven was too hot. There was no way of reversing the belt and they were trapped on its journey through the oven. "
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-60734/Wor...
Horrendous way to go.
"Two bakery workers died in agony after bosses sent them into a giant oven to carry out repairs on the cheap, a court heard yesterday.
The machine should have been allowed to cool for 12 hours, but was only left for two.
David Mayes and Ian Erickson were unaware of the full danger as they crawled into the oven because fans had cooled its outer reaches to 40c. Its core, however, was still at 100c.
The repair was a delicate procedure in which they had to collect broken parts from along the length of a conveyor belt which carries bread trays slowly through the 75ft-long oven.
They had removed enough trays to allow them space within the rails of the belt to crawl along with it at the same speed.
But within five minutes they were relaying terrified messages over their walkie-talkies, saying the oven was too hot. There was no way of reversing the belt and they were trapped on its journey through the oven. "
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-60734/Wor...
Horrendous way to go.
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