A couple of hours ago I was typing an email when I got a new email alert, an email with an alarming title, so I switched over to the new email. It was a picture of a guy I know, a maintenance tech at a wire rope (steel cable) factory where I used to service machines. He was staring at me through the screen with lifeless eyes, his face visible but not much else, being covered by many turns of cable. He had been pulled into the machine and spooled up onto a large reel, and the machine did not stop when others rushed to the e-stop button.

I couldn't tell you exactly what the email said because it turns out that it was just a dream, but the idea that was conveyed somehow, was that they were blaming me for the accident. I reported to them last time I serviced that machine (in real life, 2 years ago), that the e-stop was not safe. It was wired into a PLC remote I/O input, which communicates to the CPU over ethernet, which then sends start/stop (not run/stop) signals over another ethernet cable to the VFD for the reel motor, so a loss of comms results in a runaway situation. I told them that it needed a minor redesign to have the e-stop hard wired to the drive. They brought the recommendation to the overseas OEM who of course said it was safe as designed, claimed that my proposal amounted to reverting to antiquated control methods, and discouraged them allowing 3rd party opportunists (me) making "undocumented" changes to their systems. So it was never addressed and I refused to do any more work on that machine. I think that is why I they don't call me anymore.

In the dream, the customer and/or the OEM had somehow misconstrued my recommendation to be the complete opposite, and made me look responsible for the badly thought-out e-stop. I was being sued. I started to come unraveled looking at the picture and then I woke up.

This is a real concern I have in my line of work so it is surprising that this is the first time I've had a dream like this. But what I don't understand is why now? It's been 2 years as I said since I was there, and nearly that long since I've even thought about it. I definitely wasn't thinking about it or anything even remotely related when I went to bed.

My dad has always claimed that he has dreamed of some of the very bad things that happened in his life immediately before they happened, like the unforeseen sudden deaths of both his parents, one of his brothers, and a couple of life altering accidents that happened to him. I'm a non-believer in such supernatural things, but on the same level he is a non-believer in the spinning fanciful yarns. So it's always been a point of doubt for me when I have a very intense, detailed, bad dream; the kind that seem so real that you have to force conscious self-reassurance that it was just a dream. I always know they aren't premonitions, but there's still a little lingering mental itch that just won't go away until I either go unplug that thing caught my house on fire or call that person who died and make sure they're ok.

So I guess the person I'll be calling in the morning (well, Wednesday morning since tomorrow is a holiday) is my insurance agent. Make sure (again) that I'm adequately covered for something like this.

Sorry for the book I just wrote here but I can't sleep, as the title claims, and I felt like pouring it out here might empty the head enough to go back to sleep. Good night, sweet dreams.

 

Sounds very unsettling. Did you put your warning in writing at the time? Is it discoverable should there be a lawsuit. Obviously, that’s a critical bit in a real life scenario.

I hope the upset doesn’t linger for long. Calling about insurance coverage is a good idea—even if just for the psychological effects.

 

They brought the recommendation to the overseas OEM who of course said it was safe as designed, claimed that my proposal amounted to reverting to antiquated control methods,

#1) idiots, Idiots, IDIOTS ... "An emergency stop MUST ALWAYS BE HARDWIRED" ... please re-read that in a loop starting from the opening quote until you get dizzy and sick ... it is simple, common UNIVERSAL PRACTICE ... also, an emergency stop must be done so as to OPEN A CIRCUIT for it to work. Thinking that modern technology somehow makes that practice obsolete is stupid and delusional.​

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#2) I do believe in the supernatural. But I am EXTREMELY skeptical on any claim that involves such "explanation". So much that in fact I've only heard of a smaller than a handful of cases in my life that have made me doubt the natural laws. And even then I withhold my judgement about said cases being supernatural or not, by simply saying "I have no explanation ... yet" ... Having said that, I do believe that the subconscious is quite capable of connecting extremely complex data and events that might lead it into warning us about possible unusual or catastrophic events. It's happened to me more than once. I wonder if poor Stockton Rush ever had such an experience.​

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#3) Man, if we were neighbors you could've knocked on my door and we could've had a few beers .. I couldn't sleep much last night either!​

 

Rest assured that dreams do not predict the future. Yes, every now and then, someone has a premonition and it comes true. That is a fact. That is just the function a brain that can see and consider possible futures. Confirmation bias does the rest.

Remember the shuttle flight carrying the first civilian, a teacher? I remember thinking how ironic it would be if this was the one that blew up, because it was bound to happen eventually. Sure enough it did happen. I think most people would have been convinced they “predicted” it. I had no such delusion, I simply had thought if a possibility, and, coincidentally, it occurred. And for each that does happen, there are many that do not, and we simply forget about them.

 

omg... hope this does not last. get well soon...

this just brought back long suppressed memories of much the same thing i experienced. someone new to me, called me to help load application into replacement HMI after old one failed. they did not have needed cable or software so i agreed. then i noticed that old machine lacked proper safety - cover for the large blade of extrusion cuter (think razor sharp manchette attached to a shaft of a large servo motor) was only monitored by an input of the standard PLC. of course i reported the issue, the guy thanked me and said he was going to do that as part of an upgrade, this was a machine building shop not production floor.

then one day someone else called with the same request. this was actual production facility and extrusion cutters were filling the entire shop. i noticed that these machines were similar but had the proper safety installed so i told to guy that was guiding me to a back room where the faulty unit is about what i saw before and that it is good that these are all up to the current standard.
then he told me it was not always like that. in the past someone did get injured and machine sliced of little finger and part of palm cleanly off. after that incident all machines were upgraded.

after that i was having trouble sleeping. i was hunted by the image of machine slicing through the hand...

over the years i saw and fixed other cases of poor designs that would have cost someone life or limb. once i refused to work on line that was a death trap unless changes are made. client asked to state the issues in an email so i sent it to everyone involved. few days later, they brought the PEng that approved this and he was completely ignorant, just shrugging it off. what made me quite upset is that very person responsible for certifying equipment as safe was completely uninterested in numerous deficiencies. Client asked me to redesign safety and finish the job which i did. Then they brought that same guy to evaluate safety...

Some people are beyond help...

 

Client asked me to redesign safety and finish the job which i did.

At least your client was wise enough to take you seriously ... and he probably brought the same guy so that he could learn something from the experience ...

 

i hope so too.

over the years i found out that most people doing PHSR are mechanical engineers by trade. this is not surprising since traditionally machines are mostly mechanical contraptions. so many of the ME have trouble when it comes to safety circuits. some team up with EE or just ask you to explain how does this meet the standards. knowing this, i was always trying to make the case clear and explain it in detail and provide examples of things done wrong way. for example one thing is to look at schematics, it is another to see if it is really implemented that way. before safety PLCs became the norm, safety monitoring relays were used some of the products had monitoring input jumpered from the factory and a lot of users did not bother (or dare) to remove it since the product came with it. that little thing drops the entire circuit rating 2-3 categories down. that is a lot when the top category is level 4. the whole time circuit could appear to behave correctly which is obviously not the case.

anyway, sorry to distract from issue and poor Strantor. hang in there buddy... the way you feel shows that you feel and care about wellbeing of others.

 

We had a process where we basically drizzled molten resin in a sheet onto a stainless-steel belt which rode over a chilled water bed cooling and solidifying the resin. At the end of the belt was a rotating chopper to break the now solidified sheet of resin into flakes. The process generated an enormous amount of dust which required a huge dust collector which was prone (even with the most stringent safety requirement features) to internal static discharges resulting in internal explosions within the collector damaging it. To mitigate this, a pastillating device was found that dropped small "Hershey's Kiss" like pastilles onto the belt which were scraped off eliminating over 90% of the dust. I was assigned the project to design the mechanical and electrical installation and all required controls and safety interlocks. This was a large rotating piece of machinery that sat on the head of the belt with speed, flow, and temperature controls interfaced to my DCS and I had many electrical and mechanical interlocks installed to protect the operators. When the batch run was complete the operators had to clean the pastillator with steam. One night, the operator in charge had come up with "an easier method" to clean the pastillator which required powering it up and running it by bypassing several of the safety interlocks while he steamed it out. It grabbed his arm, pulled him into the pastillator, and covered over 50% of his body in molten resin. Yes, he did survive, after months in the burn center and so badly disfigured and disabled (he kept his mangled arm and shoulder) as to never be able to work again. I spent quite a few sleepless nights thinking about what I could have done better to prevent the occurrence. The corporate engineering safety review placed the blame entirely on the operator and found that the safety measures in place were more than adequate. And yet, it almost killed the man...

 

You can’t make anything foolproof, because they’ll just make a better fool.

 

Sounds very unsettling. Did you put your warning in writing at the time? Is it discoverable should there be a lawsuit. Obviously, that’s a critical bit in a real life scenario.

Yes, I typed a detailed report on it, attached in PDF format to an email with a few of the most important and eye-catching bits copied/pasted to the email body.

 

Rest assured that dreams do not predict the future. Yes, every now and then, someone has a premonition and it comes true. That is a fact. That is just the function a brain that can see and consider possible futures. Confirmation bias does the rest.

Remember the shuttle flight carrying the first civilian, a teacher? I remember thinking how ironic it would be if this was the one that blew up, because it was bound to happen eventually. Sure enough it did happen. I think most people would have been convinced they “predicted” it. I had no such delusion, I simply had thought if a possibility, and, coincidentally, it occurred. And for each that does happen, there are many that do not, and we simply forget about them.

Your example was ironic, because it triggered remembrance of some statistics I heard recently. There was some study about the number of people who missed flights that ended up crashing. There was something like 15% higher number of people who missed flights that crashed, and they said they felt unusually nervous or had gastrointestinal issues or various excuses for missing the flight.

I went searching for this study and found the source: The Stand, by Stephen King. You just can't believe anything you read in science fiction these days.