fair call.. but id still find a way..

oh my... what happened with safety first?

 

oh my... what happened with safety first?

safetys overrated
dont get me wrong, i dont go around licking plug sockets for that little buzz to get me through the day, but health and safety nightmare everywhere!

and anyway, i always think of the darwin awards.. celebrating peoples stupidity.. and natural selection.. if im stupid enough that what im doing is gonna kill me fair doos. It's only fair that natural selection be brought back =D

 

safetys overrated
dont get me wrong, i dont go around licking plug sockets for that little buzz to get me through the day, but health and safety nightmare everywhere!

and anyway, i always think of the darwin awards.. celebrating peoples stupidity.. and natural selection.. if im stupid enough that what im doing is gonna kill me fair doos. It's only fair that natural selection be brought back =D

I agree somewhat but mostly I disagree. I think the advancements in safety policies are a good thing. Sure they are a pain in the neck and seems like you can't get any work done for all the red tape, but take a trip back to "the good ol' days" and see much you like working in that environment.

My dad lost his arm in 1981. He was expected to repair a conveyor while it was running. Sure, I work on energized gear sometimes, but it's only because I have to observe the failure mode in order to troubleshoot, and I don't have to stick my arm into a giant arm severing beast to do it. He had to work on the conveyor because they didn't want to shut it down for 10 minutes because it was making them money. The attitude back then was that if you wouldn't do it, they would let you go and find someone who would. Now you have the right to refuse work and to stop work for anybody else if you think the situation is dangerous, and have it evaluated.

Even if you personally are willing to take the risk, your employer is not. In 2012 you can sue your company over a broken fingernail, and if they know that they are going to be paying millions for a lost arm, they are going to make sure you don't lose an arm. My dad was not compensated at all for losing his arm. I don't agree with this society's propensity for suing the crap out of people at the drop of a dime, but in the workplace it's a good incentive for companies to keep their people safe.

On the whole I'm glad to work in a place & time where I don't have to put my life on the line to bring home a paycheck (unless I really want to). I think the guys with super dangerous jobs, like the crab fishers (and something tells me millwright apprentices) probably sign release forms that say just how dangerous the work is and that you accept all responsibility & yadda yadda.

 

Wow dude I feel bad for you! But that's not a "cut on your finger" that's a serious wound and your scalp and hair are full of nasties, fungii, bacteria etc.

Like others have said you need some proper medical care, ie cleaning stitching and dressing on that!

 

I agree somewhat but mostly I disagree. I think the advancements in safety policies are a good thing. Sure they are a pain in the neck and seems like you can't get any work done for all the red tape, but take a trip back to "the good ol' days" and see much you like working in that environment.

My dad lost his arm in 1981. He was expected to repair a conveyor while it was running. Sure, I work on energized gear sometimes, but it's only because I have to observe the failure mode in order to troubleshoot, and I don't have to stick my arm into a giant arm severing beast to do it. He had to work on the conveyor because they didn't want to shut it down for 10 minutes because it was making them money. The attitude back then was that if you wouldn't do it, they would let you go and find someone who would. Now you have the right to refuse work and to stop work for anybody else if you think the situation is dangerous, and have it evaluated.

Even if you personally are willing to take the risk, your employer is not. In 2012 you can sue your company over a broken fingernail, and if they know that they are going to be paying millions for a lost arm, they are going to make sure you don't lose an arm. My dad was not compensated at all for losing his arm. I don't agree with this society's propensity for suing the crap out of people at the drop of a dime, but in the workplace it's a good incentive for companies to keep their people safe.

On the whole I'm glad to work in a place & time where I don't have to put my life on the line to bring home a paycheck (unless I really want to). I think the guys with super dangerous jobs, like the crab fishers (and something tells me millwright apprentices) probably sign release forms that say just how dangerous the work is and that you accept all responsibility & yadda yadda.

yeh i guess your right.. well i dont guess..i know you are, it is just frustrating when balancing on a swivel chair would get the work done that your boss says no.. so i guess im only thinking of minor incidents, when like you point out, major ones are the things these systems are implemented to prevent!

 

yeh i guess your right.. well i dont guess..i know you are, it is just frustrating when balancing on a swivel chair would get the work done that your boss says no.. so i guess im only thinking of minor incidents, when like you point out, major ones are the things these systems are implemented to prevent!

Trust me, I am frustrated to no end with safety policies. This is an excerpt from my rant about sleestak gloves:

they are to be used any time "pinch points" are present. An idea I find almost completely laughable. I encounter 50+ pinch points before I walk in the front door of work; should I wear the gloves home? I could smash my finger in my desk drawer; should I wear the gloves at my desk? Even if I were only typing on my computer; I have rolled my chair against my desk before and smashed my fingers between the armrest and the desk, so the "pinch point" exists even there. Don't forget to put the gloves on before you go closing doors; that's a potential pinch point as well. I may sound like I'm on a rant (because I am) but the "situations" as described by management in which these gloves are to be worn literally present no greater risk of smashing ones finger than smashing it in a desk drawer. And I have seen people lose a fingernail smashing in a door or desk drawer. That's what the gloves are in response to; 2 people (one too many) smashed their fingers and lost fingernails in the same quarter, so according to company policy some measure had to be taken. If that second guy could have just waited till next quarter to smash his finger...grrr..

While they frustrate me, they do serve a purpose, and I'm grateful for them. That doesn't mean I'm not going to complain though.

 

dudeee they do look like something from halloween!!! skeleton gloves!!

 

Luckily I was in mid fall, angled down, so it caught me in the top of the head and not in the eyesocket.

Sounds like a very close call. It may hit you a little later how close it was. I had a close call a couple days ago, though I wasn't injured.

Anyway, when I was about 17, I on was a tall ladder getting some tires from the top tire rack for a customer. The tires had been jammed in tight, and wouldn't budge with a pulled on them. Then they suddenly came out, and I lost my balance. There was nothing to grab, except the remaining tires, and when I did, they just came out of the rack. I fell backwards off the ladder, and fracutred my heel. Bad part was, I was in the middle of my senior year of Track and Field. I had to watch from the sidelines.

 

i know you are, it is just frustrating when balancing on a swivel chair would get the work done that your boss says no..

Take it from a guy who's cheated the Devil more than a few times, there's a very good reason your boss won't allow such a reckless act. There's a right way and wrong way to do things, and for very good reasons. You could become another Darwin winner.

 

my earlier story is of course a small snapshot of my some 30 years working in industry. Having gone into heavy industry straight out of high school, they were impressionable years.

But even with the best training, mistakes and their consequences are often necessary to fully comprehend the implications. I found at the time that working with a relatively large trade work force, that mistakes and the results where plenty. I held a central position (plant hydraulics tech) which allowed inspection of many screw ups. Don't get me wrong, I've had my share of crashing equipment.

Over the years I've had the opportunity to work on the managerial side of safety. Although you serve the companys' need to comply with jurisdiction, it's the serving of the workforce that most appealed to me.

But this often led to conflict. I have an overall dim view of managerial ability in North America. Thier desire to hide behind the jest of serving the investor, conficts with my view that the workforce invests thier time and livelyhoods, a commodity much more precious than an investor who will sell thier stocks with a mouse click.

During a recent investigation (my working surpervisor recieved a 3 day suspension), an apprentice stated that as tradesmen we work with elevated risk. I interceded and stated that as tradesmen, we utilize our skills to manage our risk exposure.

In the end, safety is a personal investment.

 

Safety is no accident.

 

If there were a runner-up catagory to the Darwin awares... those who nearly kill theirselves, I'd have a pretty good entry. A couple days ago, I was practicing my tennis serve on my deck ( about 20 feet off the ground ) when I lost my balance and nearly fell through the deck rails. I was mere inches from going over the edge. I've always been goofy like that.

 

One Saturday I was back at work doing a few things on the production test floor and sat at the supervisor's desk to get some files from his draw. As my hand came back from pulling the file draw open it brushed against the side if the chair. The arm of the chair had previously fallen off, and the day time and night time supervisors agreed best to leave the broken chair in place as it would take some time to get a replacement.

I felt a slight pinch and looked to discover a 2 inch gash down my right index finger, which then promptly split open and filled with blood. I was a little lucky as I had not completely severed the tendon and only required 2 months in a very restrictive cast to let the tendon mend. Just long enough to miss Thanksgiving thru New years.

Sometimes it's not the obvious things that can come back and bite you.

 

All healed up. I pulled a gnarly scab off last night. Looked like something that goes in a witch's brew, all full of hair. Maybe I could have sold it on ebay, along with some of my toe jam: "Ingredients for your longevity potion: scalp scab of a wounded technician"

 

All healed up. I pulled a gnarly scab off last night. Looked like something that goes in a witch's brew, all full of hair. Maybe I could have sold it on ebay, along with some of my toe jam: "Ingredients for your longevity potion: scalp scab of a wounded technician"

Got a link to the auction?

 

I used to work at a huge air conditioning factory, that has since closed and moved to Mexico. We were 15 miles out of town and the average response time for an ambulance was 24 minutes,as they were located on the other side of town. We convinced the company to send half a dozen of us to EMT school.
Now if you want to see Darwin candidates, that's the profession to be in.
I have several stories, including one where a man was playing with his impact gun. He had a large hex nut in the socket and decided to pull the trigger and stick his finger down into the socket. Threaded the nut right onto his finger.
Another was demonstrating to a co-worker how he could defeat the light curtain (safety device to prevent hands from entering machine) by reaching way around it. He managed to snip the tip of his finger off.

He tried to blame the company saying" if you stand on the tips of your toes, and reach around with one hand, stretch real far with the other hand ,you can cycle the machine". Needless to say he didn't collect anything.

There are many more stories, those are the first two to come to mind.

 

I used to work a lot with 3 section ladders which went up to about 9 metres. Had a few close shaves and did some risky stuff. The ladders weren't quite long enough for a few jobs and the top rung of the ladder would be about 1.5 metres below the roof. Getting onto the roof wasn't too bad but lowering yourself off the edge and feeling for the rung was interesting.
Once the bottom section was damaged and flexing, but my boss refused to replace it, so we took it out on a job, rested it on a low wall and jumped on it until it gave up.
I never got injured, but a workmate of mine fell through the roof of a store and managed to grab a metal beam on his way down. We got the ladder up in the store to where he was hanging about 5 metres up. He needed a couple of operations on his hands and didn't come back.

 

Your ladders story makes me feel sick. I'm not really "scared of heights" per se, but I am scared of falling from heights. Being on a 5' shaky ladder makes me more uneasy than being on a sturdy 5th floor balcony. I tried skydiving a few years ago. I thought that if I pushed myself through the fear, it would be better. It scared the crap out of me each time I jumped. I think I jumped 5 times, and then made an error in my jump - ran into my instructor mid-air and got tangled up with him. I was falling and I didn't know if my chute was going to work or if I had messed it up beyond operability. It was the worst feeling of my life. Now, whenever I think about falling, I get that same feeling, and when I see a skydiving video it's even worse.

 

Getting the job done:

 

What a fool...

Standing around with no hard hat...