Worst workplace incident/accident?
Discussion
Jonesy23 said:
I once managed to put a 5.5mm hole through myself. In an office environment. Somehow managed to miss anything solid, tissue only.
Didn't react much at first as it just hurt a little (like a cut) & I didn't look too closely at what I'd done. I may have shouted a bit once I took a peek at the leak.
During abseiling training I watched the instructor manage to completely cock up and break both their legs.
How did you do the 5.5mm hole?Didn't react much at first as it just hurt a little (like a cut) & I didn't look too closely at what I'd done. I may have shouted a bit once I took a peek at the leak.
During abseiling training I watched the instructor manage to completely cock up and break both their legs.
Edited by Jonesy23 on Tuesday 18th September 00:07
Saw a fella manage to completely sink a Chieftain bridge layer, carrying a no.9 scissors bridge, on SFA training area in Germany. Effectively hadn't put the parking brake on and it trundled slowly into the bridging gap, which as it was January was full of water.
Got a picture of it knocking about somewhere with just the bridge poking out.
Got a picture of it knocking about somewhere with just the bridge poking out.
captain_cynic said:
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
https://meggardiner.wordpress.com/2007/02/28/cigar...
https://mythresults.com/special7
Mythbusters say:
"It is possible to ignite a pool of gasoline using only a cigarette.
PARTLY PLAUSIBLE
A cigarette has the potential to light a pool of gasoline but just doesn’t have enough sustained heat. Gas ignites between 500 °F and 540 °F, the cigarette at its hottest was between 450 °F and 500 °F but only when it was actually being smoked. An ignition is very improbable."
https://www.scienceabc.com/eyeopeners/can-cigarett...
You also mentioned phone related issues, this was also busted by them
http://mythbusters.wikia.com/wiki/Cell_Phone_Destr...
mrtwisty said:
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 used to work at an engine test facility, a few years before I started there'd been incident where an incorrect part had been fitted to a fuel system, resulting in blanking plug getting blown off some pipework and smashing a light fitting 30 or 40 feet up...closely followed by a half inch diameter stream of kerosene. The guys in the control room realised pretty quickly and shut it down but by then there was a pretty big fire.
The same building housed a steam rig that was driven by a set of old ships boilers, and so manned by a bunch of ex-navy stokers, who were understandably well trained in dealing with pool fires. By the time the fire brigade arrived they'd put the fire out with surprisingly little damage. They found the remains of the headset one of the guys in the rig had been wearing, he was apparently very lucky to get out.
We had an onsite fire department and apparently the county fire brigade made it there before them!
The same building housed a steam rig that was driven by a set of old ships boilers, and so manned by a bunch of ex-navy stokers, who were understandably well trained in dealing with pool fires. By the time the fire brigade arrived they'd put the fire out with surprisingly little damage. They found the remains of the headset one of the guys in the rig had been wearing, he was apparently very lucky to get out.
We had an onsite fire department and apparently the county fire brigade made it there before them!
bulldong said:
Nothing to do with me but I once watched an episode of 999 life savers when I was a kid and a guy with a fish and chip shop slipped and fell backwards into a deep fat fryer with his clothes on. Still remember that.
I think 999 scarred me for life. The one that sticks for me was a tractor/truck carrying straw bales - one fell off and crushed a car travelling the opposite way. I flinch every time I pass one, twenty years later.Agriculture again.
- Was a friend of a lad who was drowned when a slurry bag burst that he was standing beside.
- Work to a farmer who was mixing slurry one day and felt a bit dizzy. He thankfully instantly ran for the door and dropped just over the threshold. Said he had the mother of all headaches for the next few days.
- Hooking the PTO shaft from a slurry pump to tractor. I hooked it up, stepped back then went in again to check if it had locked on. Had my fingers on the U-joint when the other man starts the PTO... I was pretty somber for the rest of the day!
- Once tried to take a short cut across a bit of what I thought was rough grass. I jumped the fence only to go up to the knees in a grown over slurry tank and every time I moved I sunk deeper. I had to lie back and yell for help till someone heard and pulled me out.
- Was a friend of a lad who was drowned when a slurry bag burst that he was standing beside.
- Work to a farmer who was mixing slurry one day and felt a bit dizzy. He thankfully instantly ran for the door and dropped just over the threshold. Said he had the mother of all headaches for the next few days.
- Hooking the PTO shaft from a slurry pump to tractor. I hooked it up, stepped back then went in again to check if it had locked on. Had my fingers on the U-joint when the other man starts the PTO... I was pretty somber for the rest of the day!
- Once tried to take a short cut across a bit of what I thought was rough grass. I jumped the fence only to go up to the knees in a grown over slurry tank and every time I moved I sunk deeper. I had to lie back and yell for help till someone heard and pulled me out.
cv01jw said:
bulldong said:
Nothing to do with me but I once watched an episode of 999 life savers when I was a kid and a guy with a fish and chip shop slipped and fell backwards into a deep fat fryer with his clothes on. Still remember that.
I think 999 scarred me for life. The one that sticks for me was a tractor/truck carrying straw bales - one fell off and crushed a car travelling the opposite way. I flinch every time I pass one, twenty years later.However, the one that still haunts me is about the guy who was working in or around a sewer/drain on a road. He was working alone* and managed to slip right down to the right-angled bend at the bottom of it. His legs slid round the bend and one wedged underneath the other. He was stuck solid with all manner of sewage occasionally raining down on him from the local properties.
I recall that his cries for help went unanswered for some time until a passer-by heard and raised the alarm. Rescue attempts from above failed so they had to dig down into the horizontal bit of the sewer and send someone along it to free him. It was a real struggle but they eventually managed, though not before the possibility of them having to amputate at least one leg to get him out quickly was considered.
- That's my recollection, I'm sure it took a while for him to be found, which must mean he was working alone. It was 25 years ago but the basics are correct.
I have a mate who was at this office Christmas party (not the people named in the story). To this day he won't talk about it.
http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/auspac/0...
http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/auspac/0...
Lazermilk said:
bulldong said:
Nothing to do with me but I once watched an episode of 999 life savers when I was a kid and a guy with a fish and chip shop slipped and fell backwards into a deep fat fryer with his clothes on. Still remember that.
That must be a huge fryer! 
I was contracting at the JLR site in Speke when this happened
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-3...
Horrible way to go between two 20 tonne presses
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-3...
Horrible way to go between two 20 tonne presses
cv01jw said:
bulldong said:
Nothing to do with me but I once watched an episode of 999 life savers when I was a kid and a guy with a fish and chip shop slipped and fell backwards into a deep fat fryer with his clothes on. Still remember that.
I think 999 scarred me for life. The one that sticks for me was a tractor/truck carrying straw bales - one fell off and crushed a car travelling the opposite way. I flinch every time I pass one, twenty years later.Edited by anonymous-user on Tuesday 18th September 13:01
bulldong said:
Lazermilk said:
bulldong said:
Nothing to do with me but I once watched an episode of 999 life savers when I was a kid and a guy with a fish and chip shop slipped and fell backwards into a deep fat fryer with his clothes on. Still remember that.
That must be a huge fryer! 
k off fryer I work on some old planes at the weekend at Manchester Airport and soem of the other guys are very experiences engineers who worked on them as flight test and all sorts, the main one is the Avro RJX, a development of the Bae 146.
One of the guys was recounting a tale from Bae Hatfield where he worked at the time and a guy got sucked into the engines on a 146, he was there when it happened and said it was horrific as you can expect but the effect on morale he said was palpable for ages after, the engineers had to remove the engine which was apparently buried, that cant have been pleasant.
Aeroplanes just love to kill and maim, the hydraulic pressures, the tyre pressures, crush injuries from moving parts, falling from height, ingestion by spinny things and just plain old banging your head, not to mention "Skydrol", wash your hands before going for a piss and dont ffs scratch your eyes.
One of the guys was recounting a tale from Bae Hatfield where he worked at the time and a guy got sucked into the engines on a 146, he was there when it happened and said it was horrific as you can expect but the effect on morale he said was palpable for ages after, the engineers had to remove the engine which was apparently buried, that cant have been pleasant.
Aeroplanes just love to kill and maim, the hydraulic pressures, the tyre pressures, crush injuries from moving parts, falling from height, ingestion by spinny things and just plain old banging your head, not to mention "Skydrol", wash your hands before going for a piss and dont ffs scratch your eyes.
captain_cynic said:
bulldong said:
Lazermilk said:
bulldong said:
Nothing to do with me but I once watched an episode of 999 life savers when I was a kid and a guy with a fish and chip shop slipped and fell backwards into a deep fat fryer with his clothes on. Still remember that.
That must be a huge fryer! k off fryer SCEtoAUX said:
However, the one that still haunts me is about the guy who was working in or around a sewer/drain on a road. He was working alone* and managed to slip right down to the right-angled bend at the bottom of it. His legs slid round the bend and one wedged underneath the other. He was stuck solid with all manner of sewage occasionally raining down on him from the local properties.
I recall that his cries for help went unanswered for some time until a passer-by heard and raised the alarm. Rescue attempts from above failed so they had to dig down into the horizontal bit of the sewer and send someone along it to free him. It was a real struggle but they eventually managed, though not before the possibility of them having to amputate at least one leg to get him out quickly was considered.
This one was similar, when you know the street it's a bit more troubling than when you read about something somewhere you don't know.I recall that his cries for help went unanswered for some time until a passer-by heard and raised the alarm. Rescue attempts from above failed so they had to dig down into the horizontal bit of the sewer and send someone along it to free him. It was a real struggle but they eventually managed, though not before the possibility of them having to amputate at least one leg to get him out quickly was considered.
- That's my recollection, I'm sure it took a while for him to be found, which must mean he was working alone. It was 25 years ago but the basics are correct.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/content/articles/20...
I've seen a bricklayer fall from a 18m high roof and land 6ft away from me. He landed on a timber pallet which saved his life. I remember hearing him shout, I looked up and he was actually shaping himself for what he knew was an inevitable fall. The lock on the building hoist failed as he leant on it. He was very lucky.
On the same job I watched as a dumper driver ran over a nurse in a 9t dumper. Both her legs were badly broken.
Sadly, I was also in the Westfield site at Stratford just before Christmas in 2009 when a young guy was killed in a scissor lift. Surprisingly they did not shut the site down that day although I took my gangs off the job. I still cannot believe that they didn't shut the job down.
On the same job I watched as a dumper driver ran over a nurse in a 9t dumper. Both her legs were badly broken.
Sadly, I was also in the Westfield site at Stratford just before Christmas in 2009 when a young guy was killed in a scissor lift. Surprisingly they did not shut the site down that day although I took my gangs off the job. I still cannot believe that they didn't shut the job down.
bulldong said:
captain_cynic said:
bulldong said:
Lazermilk said:
bulldong said:
Nothing to do with me but I once watched an episode of 999 life savers when I was a kid and a guy with a fish and chip shop slipped and fell backwards into a deep fat fryer with his clothes on. Still remember that.
That must be a huge fryer! k off fryer Read how you wrote it again... he fell backwards into a deep fat fryer with his clothes on... (As opposed to doing it naked or with swimming shorts?
)It was meant as a lighthearted joke, although agree it was a horrific accident the poor guy had and I wasn't trying to make light of that!
The way you told it seemed like he was falling into some kind of swimming pool sized fryer that's all...
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