As a follow up to Geoff's post regarding his uncle I hope he doesn't
mind me starting a thread encouraging contributors to recount near
misses they have experienced that could have had serious consequences, a
sort of tribute and reminder.

Here's mine:

As a teenage lad I was helping my dad re-roof a stone walled barn when
he put his weight on a tile batten and promptly went straight through
it, falling through the sarking felt and rafters to the floor below.

The family rushed to his rescue to find him sitting on the floor of the
barn unharmed apart from a concussion and a gash on his forehead. On
looking up we noticed that he had bounced off a dividing wall used to
store a row of scythes hung on rusty iron spikes driven into the wall.

I have no idea how he avoided the bagatelle on the way down.

Over to you . . .

The story of my own (multiple) adolescent electrocutions can wait until
later.
--
fred
FIVE TV's superbright logo - not the DOG's, it's ********

"fred" wrote in message ...
As a follow up to Geoff's post regarding his uncle I hope he doesn't mind
me starting a thread encouraging contributors to recount near misses they
have experienced that could have had serious consequences, a sort of
tribute and reminder.

Here's mine:

As a teenage lad I was helping my dad re-roof a stone walled barn when he
put his weight on a tile batten and promptly went straight through it,
falling through the sarking felt and rafters to the floor below.

The family rushed to his rescue to find him sitting on the floor of the
barn unharmed apart from a concussion and a gash on his forehead. On
looking up we noticed that he had bounced off a dividing wall used to
store a row of scythes hung on rusty iron spikes driven into the wall.

I have no idea how he avoided the bagatelle on the way down.

Over to you . . .

The story of my own (multiple) adolescent electrocutions can wait until
later.

I was working late, (only two of us in the factory) testing a boiler control
panel. The system was waiting to detect a flame (normally from an oil
injector). We used to hold the flame detector (metal casing) near to a
candle, which I did. I was bending down, started to overbalance and grabbed
the first thing that came to hand, a 440v test switch, I couldn't loose it.
Things started to go black and I must have fallen backwards dragging the
switch out of my hand. I came round with the other guy prodding me with his
coat covering his hands

On Wed, 11 Aug 2010 01:35:48 +0100 Fred wrote :
As a follow up to Geoff's post regarding his uncle I hope he
doesn't mind me starting a thread encouraging contributors to
recount near misses they have experienced that could have had
serious consequences, a sort of tribute and reminder.

The worst thing that happened to me - which could have been very
nasty - was working up a short ladder, one of those folding ones
unfolded so about 2.5m. A friend and I were building an extension,
corner house, flank wall at the back of the pavement, and the ladder
was resting against some ply sheathing on timber frame. I must have
overreached: the ladder and I went sideways and I hit the pavement
hard. After a moment or two my first thought was whether I could move
my feet or not, fortunately yes.

My friend called the ambulance and after a quick check they said
they'd better take me to hospital to be checked over, was I OK to
walk to the ambulance, by then yes. When we got to the hospital they
insisted on stretchering me in as the boss might be watching.

The funny side: what probably saved me from serious injury was that
it was a bitterly cold February day and I had multiple layers of
clothing on. When the nurse asked me to remove my outer clothes it
was like pass-the-parcel: jacket jumper, body warmer, another jumper
shirt, tee shirt, ....

Since then I have always treated ladders with a bit more respect - I
only fell a short distance, but if it had been summer and I'd just
been wearing a tee-shirt or my head had hit the ground first I might
be typing this from a wheelchair ... or not at all.

--
Tony Bryer, Greentram: 'Software to build on' Melbourne, Australia
www.superbeam.co.uk www.eurobeam.co.uk www.greentram.com

Tony Bryer wrote:
On Wed, 11 Aug 2010 01:35:48 +0100 Fred wrote :
As a follow up to Geoff's post regarding his uncle I hope he
doesn't mind me starting a thread encouraging contributors to
recount near misses they have experienced that could have had
serious consequences, a sort of tribute and reminder.

The worst thing that happened to me - which could have been very
nasty - was working up a short ladder, one of those folding ones
unfolded so about 2.5m. A friend and I were building an extension,
corner house, flank wall at the back of the pavement, and the ladder
was resting against some ply sheathing on timber frame. I must have
overreached: the ladder and I went sideways and I hit the pavement
hard. After a moment or two my first thought was whether I could move
my feet or not, fortunately yes.

My friend called the ambulance and after a quick check they said
they'd better take me to hospital to be checked over, was I OK to
walk to the ambulance, by then yes. When we got to the hospital they
insisted on stretchering me in as the boss might be watching.

The funny side: what probably saved me from serious injury was that
it was a bitterly cold February day and I had multiple layers of
clothing on. When the nurse asked me to remove my outer clothes it
was like pass-the-parcel: jacket jumper, body warmer, another jumper
shirt, tee shirt, ....

Since then I have always treated ladders with a bit more respect - I
only fell a short distance, but if it had been summer and I'd just
been wearing a tee-shirt or my head had hit the ground first I might
be typing this from a wheelchair ... or not at all.

My ladder scare was not from a fall but nearly been hit by a falling ladder.
The guy fitting the alarm on a three storey house asked me to foot the 3
stage ladders whilst he was up there.
After he had come down from the ladders we started to lower them. However he
had not locked the top section and it came straight down towards my face. I
let go of the ladder and rolled . The section missed my head by about 12
inches.
--
Adam

fred wrote:
As a follow up to Geoff's post regarding his uncle I hope he doesn't
mind me starting a thread encouraging contributors to recount near
misses they have experienced that could have had serious consequences, a
sort of tribute and reminder.

Never had one myself ;-)
David

Lobster wrote:
fred wrote:
As a follow up to Geoff's post regarding his uncle I hope he doesn't
mind me starting a thread encouraging contributors to recount near
misses they have experienced that could have had serious consequences,
a sort of tribute and reminder.

Never had one myself ;-)

I lied, as reminded by the angle grinder story posted by someone else.

Years ago, I was working with mine (can't remember what) when it
suddenly stopped working. Rats. Fiddled about with it a bit, put it
down on the ground and scratched my head. Spotted the plug lokked like
it might not be fully home in its socket and gave it a push.

Yes, you've guessed it: angle grinder behind me burst into life as I'd
left the trigger lock on, and took off across the floor like a banshee,
the blade missing my leg by a few centimetres. Duh.

David

Our first house, and the sofa had been delivered. I was hacking the
thick plastic off with a stanley knife. At the bottom it was really
thick as folded over several times.

For some insane reason that escapes me now I ended up lying on the
floor pulling the knife towards me with some gusto. As you can imagine
to plastic gave and I ended up with a knife about 5mm from my eyeball.

I remember lying there in a sweat wondering how I could have been so
bloody stupid.

I wore building gloves to protect my hands from the stone I was
hefting about, and cutting with a 9 inch angle grinder. When the
grinder skipped out of the stone, the disc caught the glove and
dragged my hand in. I found myself kneeling on the ground, firmly
attached to the grinder, with the disc in the back of my hand, and the
contents of my hand congealing over the garden. This counts as a near
miss because another inch would have cut half the hand off, rather
than merely severing tendons.

I'm all right now ;-)

Cheers
Richard

"geraldthehamster" wrote in message
...
I wore building gloves to protect my hands from the stone I was
hefting about, and cutting with a 9 inch angle grinder. When the
grinder skipped out of the stone, the disc caught the glove and
dragged my hand in. I found myself kneeling on the ground, firmly
attached to the grinder, with the disc in the back of my hand, and the
contents of my hand congealing over the garden. This counts as a near
miss because another inch would have cut half the hand off, rather
than merely severing tendons.

I'm all right now ;-)

Cheers
Richard

A mate rewired a new 2 pin rubber connector to his extension and to his
hedge clippers.
You know the connectors where u stand on the cable lift the trimmer and
disconnect. Needless to say he fixed the plug and socket on the wrong way
round. Stepped on the cable lifted the trimmer and disconnected. Picked up
the extension the shock clamped his hand around and the electricity did not
cut off. Poss 5 seconds later he had the wherewithall to pull the plug free.
It fried a tendon in his shoulder and alyways gives me the shivers thinking
about it.
Peter

In article ,
geraldthehamster writes:
I wore building gloves to protect my hands from the stone I was
hefting about, and cutting with a 9 inch angle grinder. When the
grinder skipped out of the stone, the disc caught the glove and
dragged my hand in. I found myself kneeling on the ground, firmly
attached to the grinder, with the disc in the back of my hand, and the
contents of my hand congealing over the garden. This counts as a near
miss because another inch would have cut half the hand off, rather
than merely severing tendons.

I'm all right now ;-)

That reminded me of an X ray image I've seen, so I went looking
for it again, and found it...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/roentgenator/1435208683/

Actually, this isn't where I saw it originally, because there
was no explanation of how it happened and I was wondering,
whereas there is here.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On Aug 11, 2:21*pm, (Andrew Gabriel)
wrote:
In article ,
* * * * geraldthehamster writes:

I wore building gloves to protect my hands from the stone I was
hefting about, and cutting with a 9 inch angle grinder. When the
grinder skipped out of the stone, the disc caught the glove and
dragged my hand in. I found myself kneeling on the ground, firmly
attached to the grinder, with the disc in the back of my hand, and the
contents of my hand congealing over the garden. This counts as a near
miss because another inch would have cut half the hand off, rather
than merely severing tendons.

I'm all right now ;-)

That reminded me of an X ray image I've seen, so I went looking
for it again, and found it...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/roentgenator/1435208683/

Actually, this isn't where I saw it originally, because there
was no explanation of how it happened and I was wondering,
whereas there is here.

Reminds me of the famous x-ray of someone's head with several nails in
it.


NT

Tabby wrote:
On Aug 11, 2:21 pm, (Andrew Gabriel)
wrote:
In article
,
geraldthehamster writes:

I wore building gloves to protect my hands from the stone I was
hefting about, and cutting with a 9 inch angle grinder. When the
grinder skipped out of the stone, the disc caught the glove and
dragged my hand in. I found myself kneeling on the ground, firmly
attached to the grinder, with the disc in the back of my hand, and
the contents of my hand congealing over the garden. This counts as
a near miss because another inch would have cut half the hand off,
rather than merely severing tendons.

I'm all right now ;-)

That reminded me of an X ray image I've seen, so I went looking
for it again, and found it...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/roentgenator/1435208683/

Actually, this isn't where I saw it originally, because there
was no explanation of how it happened and I was wondering,
whereas there is here.

Reminds me of the famous x-ray of someone's head with several nails in
it.


NT

And this one

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3078188.stm

http://www.anomalies-unlimited.com/O.../Drillbit.html

--
Adam

geraldthehamster wrote:
I wore building gloves to protect my hands from the stone I was
hefting about, and cutting with a 9 inch angle grinder. When the
grinder skipped out of the stone, the disc caught the glove and
dragged my hand in. I found myself kneeling on the ground, firmly
attached to the grinder, with the disc in the back of my hand, and the
contents of my hand congealing over the garden. This counts as a near
miss because another inch would have cut half the hand off, rather
than merely severing tendons.

I'm all right now ;-)


Ah. Mine was a biy like this. Router, switched it off, and moved to put
it down, thing wound my jeans round the bit within an inch
of...well..before it stopped.

Ruined the jeans. NEVER put a power tool down till its STOPPED.

Cheers
Richard

Ruined the jeans. NEVER put a power tool down till its STOPPED.

Learnt very early when I put down a drill as it spun down onto a dust
sheet - which it promptly snatched up.

Safety guards or not - I wait until handheld power tools have stopped
moving before putting them down.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember The Natural Philosopher
saying something like:

Ah. Mine was a biy like this. Router, switched it off, and moved to put
it down, thing wound my jeans round the bit within an inch
of...well..before it stopped.

Back in the days of steel-framed fish tanks I was metal brushing one
with a rotary steel wire brush in an old B&D. It slipped under pressure
and grabbed onto my jeans, ripping the right leg apart as it slowed.
Luckily there was no skin contact.

Ruined the jeans. NEVER put a power tool down till its STOPPED.

Good idea.

On 11 Aug, 19:06, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

Ruined the jeans. NEVER put a power tool down till its STOPPED.

After my mishap she told me I should never pick one UP till it's
stopped ... ;-)

Cheers
Richard

Working with a Stanley type knife, it slipped off the work and made
sickeningly solid contact with my left thumb.
When I plucked up the courage to look, there was a neat cut straight across
the base of my thumb nail - very little bleeding.
A while later, the cut grew out and the end of the nail fell off leaving a
perfect straight edge.
Not quite life-threatening, but remarkable none the less.

Phil

On Wed, 11 Aug 2010 16:17:39 +0100, TheScullster wrote:

Working with a Stanley type knife, it slipped off the work and made
sickeningly solid contact with my left thumb. When I plucked up the
courage to look, there was a neat cut straight across the base of my
thumb nail - very little bleeding. A while later, the cut grew out and
the end of the nail fell off leaving a perfect straight edge.
Not quite life-threatening, but remarkable none the less.

Done that before with an angle grinder, with similar results - it went
right through the nail, but amazingly didn't cut the flesh beneath.

I remember cutting a fuel line on a car once, thinking it was
depressurised - it wasn't, and I got a not-so-healthy blast of petrol in
my face. Luckily it split when I was far enough back that I closed my
eyes in time, although I was still tasting petrol for the next few hours.

I've had quite a few "crap, that could have been so much worse!" moments,
but so far have been lucky and not caused myself any long-term damage.

cheers

Jules

On Wed, 11 Aug 2010 16:17:39 +0100, TheScullster wrote:

Working with a Stanley type knife, it slipped off the work and made
sickeningly solid contact with my left thumb.

Cutting a hole in plasterboard for a new double socket. Knife in
right hand, cutting horizontally from top left, left hand steadying
the plaster board. Knife slipped. Cut across top of index and third
fingers. Index finger entry point at base of nail, exit half
thickness of finger the otherside, cut just below the pad and down to
the bone. Third finger not so bad, entry at half thickness of finger,
exit just as the finger rounds to the side at the first joint.

9 stitches in the index finger, 4 in the third. I do like our cottage
hospital, was home stitched and bandaged less than 2hrs after the
incident. This was just before The Lad was due to appear on the
scene, he is now nearly 11 and I still don't have proper feeling in
the top of my index finger. Curiously it's only touch/pain that is
missing, hot/cold still works. The "numb" patch on the side of the
3rd finger has almost gone now.

--
Cheers
Dave.

In article o.uk,
Dave Liquorice wrote:

... I still don't have proper feeling in
the top of my index finger. Curiously it's only touch/pain that is
missing, hot/cold still works. The "numb" patch on the side of the
3rd finger has almost gone now.

Similar feeling on the end of my nose now... loft ladder not fixed properly,
opened hatch, loft ladder slipped down and sliced end of my nose off.

Amazing amount of blood :-) SWMBO finally got the new carpet she wanted
(and new floorboards!).

http://twitpic.com/hf8jw

That was me after the nurses in casualty had stopped the end bit flapping
about with superglue (well, once they had stopp laughing and calling in
their mates to have a look at the bloke with a convertable nose). The hole
end bit flapped about :-)


Turning up at casualty with a comedy injury at 7 am on a sunday makes you
a source of entertainment I discovered - staff at the end of a long and
difficult shift :-) I can still remember the laughing as they started to
glue it back together "this might sting a little, try not to breath in the
fumes as I stuff it up your nose"

Sting a little???? Jeeeeeez.....

While I'm at it, beware of rose thorns:

http://bogit.com/tmp/richfinger.jpg

Brother in law got pricked by a rose thorn. Few days later that's his finger
while in hospital trying to stop the flesh eating bugs... The specialist
at the hospital instantly said "have you been working anywhere near roses?"

Something to do with a particular bacteria that lives on roses in the gunge
from aphids. Took months and several ops to recover from that. He still has
a very odd shaped finger

Oh, and he hasn't got any roses any more :-)

Darren - no powertool related stories though I'm afraid

On 12 Aug, 07:27, dmc@puffin. (D.M.Chapman) wrote:

Something to do with a particular bacteria that lives on roses in the gunge
from aphids. Took months and several ops to recover from that. He still has
a very odd shaped finger

Bugger! I didn't know that.
My mother used to tell of a cousin who pricked her finger on a rose
thorn and got an infection. Unfortunately, this was pre-antibiotics,
so she died. We seem to be entering a post-antibiotic world.

Job for week-end; spray roses. With petrol. Then light.

In article ,
Onetap wrote:
On 12 Aug, 07:27, dmc@puffin. (D.M.Chapman) wrote:

Something to do with a particular bacteria that lives on roses in the gunge
from aphids. Took months and several ops to recover from that. He still has
a very odd shaped finger

Bugger! I didn't know that.
My mother used to tell of a cousin who pricked her finger on a rose
thorn and got an infection. Unfortunately, this was pre-antibiotics,
so she died. We seem to be entering a post-antibiotic world.


I think (I can't remember for sure) that the original problem is actually
fungal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sporotrichosis seems to suggest same.

That photo is after the first of several ops to cut out the infected/dead
stuff. Seemed to be a case of cutting back to good and then trying to fill
in the gaps.

Reminds me, need to sort out wooden window frame with some rot in (ob diy)


Job for week-end; spray roses. With petrol. Then light.

Heh, that probably cures the aphid problem as well

Darren

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Onetap saying
something like:

Something to do with a particular bacteria that lives on roses in the gunge
from aphids. Took months and several ops to recover from that. He still has
a very odd shaped finger

Bugger! I didn't know that.
My mother used to tell of a cousin who pricked her finger on a rose
thorn and got an infection. Unfortunately, this was pre-antibiotics,
so she died. We seem to be entering a post-antibiotic world.

Sooner than you think - a couple of years ago a woman locally got a
scratch from a rose thorn and subsequently died from a very resistant
strain of somthing nasty. In previous decades that would have cleared up
nicely with some off the shelf ABs, I'm sure.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember "Dave Liquorice"
saying something like:

Cutting a hole in plasterboard for a new double socket. Knife in
right hand, cutting horizontally from top left, left hand steadying
the plaster board. Knife slipped. Cut across top of index and third
fingers. Index finger entry point at base of nail, exit half
thickness of finger the otherside, cut just below the pad and down to
the bone. Third finger not so bad, entry at half thickness of finger,
exit just as the finger rounds to the side at the first joint.

9 stitches in the index finger, 4 in the third. I do like our cottage
hospital, was home stitched and bandaged less than 2hrs after the
incident. This was just before The Lad was due to appear on the
scene, he is now nearly 11 and I still don't have proper feeling in
the top of my index finger. Curiously it's only touch/pain that is
missing, hot/cold still works. The "numb" patch on the side of the
3rd finger has almost gone now.

That's why you'll find 'breadknives' in most if not all electrical trade
outlets. Just a serrated blade with black handle, but saves all that
blood stuff.

On Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:23:06 +0100, Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:

That's why you'll find 'breadknives' in most if not all electrical trade
outlets. Just a serrated blade with black handle, but saves all that
blood stuff.

Yes, that's what I have and actually use now...

--
Cheers
Dave.

On Aug 11, 11:02 pm, "Dave Liquorice"
wrote:

Cutting a hole in plasterboard for a new double socket. Knife in
right hand, cutting horizontally from top left, left hand steadying
the plaster board.

ditto except using a jigsaw with a coarse blade (insulated
pboard)....luckily nothing permanent tho lots of blood, pain and self-
loathing...;)

Jim K

fred wrote:
As a follow up to Geoff's post regarding his uncle I hope he doesn't
mind me starting a thread encouraging contributors to recount near
misses they have experienced that could have had serious
consequences, a sort of tribute and reminder.

Here's mine:

As a teenage lad I was helping my dad re-roof a stone walled barn when
he put his weight on a tile batten and promptly went straight through
it, falling through the sarking felt and rafters to the floor below.

The family rushed to his rescue to find him sitting on the floor of
the barn unharmed apart from a concussion and a gash on his forehead.
On looking up we noticed that he had bounced off a dividing wall used
to store a row of scythes hung on rusty iron spikes driven into the
wall.
I have no idea how he avoided the bagatelle on the way down.

Over to you . . .

The story of my own (multiple) adolescent electrocutions can wait
until later.

Not really a near miss nor DIY. An electrician I knew was killed in some
council offices when working with a heating unit behind a false ceiling.
There were exposed live wires behind the false ceiling. The management were
aware of the live wires and the local council were fined £400,000.
--
Adam

fred wrote:
As a follow up to Geoff's post regarding his uncle I hope he doesn't
mind me starting a thread encouraging contributors to recount near
misses they have experienced that could have had serious
consequences, a sort of tribute and reminder.

Sometime things are not dangerous but can be embarrassing.

The first one was my Dad some years ago. He went to inspect a village police
station that was closed due to mining subsidence and to decide if it was to
be knocked down and rebuilt or repaired. As he went into one of the cells to
check how much the cracks had widened his workmate slammed the cell door
shut and shouted "gotcha". About 30 seconds later they found out that the
cell door was a self locking one and my Dad was locked in.

Of course it took six hours to get a key to open the door and only one hour
for everyone that worked in his office to get to the police station and take
the ****.

The second one is an un-named electrician from the Barnsley area. He wanted
to run some cables under a suspended floor in an old terraced house. It was
a 6 or 7 foot drop and so he thought it would not be a problem to drop down,
lay the cables and then pull himself back up through the floorboards he had
removed.

When he dropped down into the under floor space he found out there was an
additional two feed of mud and he was stuck and unable to reach the
floorboards and pull himself out.

He had to call a friend on his mobile to come and drop some ladders down the
hole to rescue him, but his friend also brought along other friends so they
could take the **** out of him.

--
Adam

On 11 Aug, 01:35, fred wrote:
As a follow up to Geoff's post regarding his uncle I hope he doesn't
mind me starting a thread encouraging contributors to recount near
misses they have experienced that could have had serious consequences, a
sort of tribute and reminder.

Here's mine:

As a teenage lad I was helping my dad re-roof a stone walled barn when
he put his weight on a tile batten and promptly went straight through
it, falling through the sarking felt and rafters to the floor below.

The family rushed to his rescue to find him sitting on the floor of the
barn unharmed apart from a concussion and a gash on his forehead. On
looking up we noticed that he had bounced off a dividing wall used to
store a row of scythes hung on rusty iron spikes driven into the wall.

I have no idea how he avoided the bagatelle on the way down.

Over to you . . .

The story of my own (multiple) adolescent electrocutions can wait until
later.
--
fred
FIVE TV's superbright logo - not the DOG's, it's ********

Not diy, but years ago - a near-miss that made me feel sick to see my
friend having such a close call.

A new electron microscope in it's huge and heavy delivery crate
(around a 1.5m cube) being unloaded from the truck, via the tail-lift.

3 blokes - one operating a hand-cranked forklift - the other 2 helping
manouvre the crate out of the back of the truck and onto the tail-
lift.

As the front wheels of the forklift rolled onto the tail-lift, and the
tail-lift started taking the weight of the crate - the tail-lift sunk
a couple of inches under the load.

The forklift started to run away as the rear wheels were still in the
truck body, whilst the front wheels were now a couple of inches lower
on the tail-lift.

The operator instinctively dropped the forks to the ground to stop it
running away - instantly transferring the forward momentum of the
crate into it tipping over and off the tail-lift - with my mate stood
on the edge of the tail-lift and the crate tipping onto to him.

It looked like the crate had tipped over too far and too quickly and
would tip off the tail-lift with my mate between it and the ground
about 1.5m lower. I doubt such a heavy object falling that far and
onto a person would be survivable.

It didn't. It seemed to stop at the very point of going over, and
crash back. But in my mind's eye I saw my mate being killed.

One my old boss told me about, when he was a youngster:

He needed 1200V DC in a physics experiment to energise a detector. He
managed to get hold of a dozen 100V wet cells, and was in the process
of wiring them up in series...

....fortunately he had only wired 3 of them together when he touched
both terminals simultaneously.

When he felt better, he started again, this time including a high-
value resistor between each cell.

fred wrote:
As a follow up to Geoff's post regarding his uncle I hope he doesn't
mind me starting a thread encouraging contributors to recount near
misses they have experienced that could have had serious
consequences, a sort of tribute and reminder.

Here's mine:


Snip...

Too numerous too mention them all given that I've worked nearly all my life
in the construction industry, in various roles.

Fell off double ladders into a rose bush, got back up and carried on
working, despite bleeding profusely and having a very sore arm.

Fell through the remains of a wooden carport roof, followed by a Hilti TE72
with 14in masonary bit, missed my head by an inch or two.

Got a 'Y' shaped scar in the back of my head where it met the corner of a
skip as I fell backwards off a flat roof.

Two inch gash in arm following an incident with a 'Stanley' hook blade
whilst trying to cut the bottom out of a plastic bucket.

Cast iron manhole cover fell on fingernails at the tender age of 15 (at
work)

Set fire to trousers whilst cutting steel girders with angle grinder.

Fell through opening to staircase in fully boarded out upstairs in partially
built house, again followed by Hilti.

Put legs through various ceilings all over the NW of England, luckily the
joists and my scrotum prevented further fallage.

Hand crushed by steel flue grating whilst operating vibrating roller.

Along with multiple instances of whizzing bits of skin, fingernails etc with
angle grinders, drill related problems, especially when they're 25mm bits
and they tangle in your trouser leg whilst still rotating - chinese burns
unlimited. I've been burnt, electrocuted, hammered in various body parts,
screwdriver through the finger etc, nails through both feet (at different
times thankfully) partially buried (up to neck) when cutting for extension
caved-in.

I've spent about 20 years working off ladders in one job or another and have
fell off too many times to remember, you sort of build up a 'knowledge' of
either how to land or how to fall or something because some of those falls
should have seen me off but none of them did and remarkably, I've never had
a broken bone nor a dislocated anything, but I've got scars everywhere.

--
Phil L
RSRL Tipster Of The Year 2008

In article TUC8o.82740$pj7.9676@hurricane,
says...

fred wrote:
As a follow up to Geoff's post regarding his uncle I hope he doesn't
mind me starting a thread encouraging contributors to recount near
misses they have experienced that could have had serious
consequences, a sort of tribute and reminder.

Here's mine:


Snip...

Too numerous too mention them all given that I've worked nearly all my life
in the construction industry, in various roles.

Fell off double ladders into a rose bush, got back up and carried on
working, despite bleeding profusely and having a very sore arm.

Fell through the remains of a wooden carport roof, followed by a Hilti TE72
with 14in masonary bit, missed my head by an inch or two.

Got a 'Y' shaped scar in the back of my head where it met the corner of a
skip as I fell backwards off a flat roof.

Two inch gash in arm following an incident with a 'Stanley' hook blade
whilst trying to cut the bottom out of a plastic bucket.

Cast iron manhole cover fell on fingernails at the tender age of 15 (at
work)

Set fire to trousers whilst cutting steel girders with angle grinder.

Fell through opening to staircase in fully boarded out upstairs in partially
built house, again followed by Hilti.

Put legs through various ceilings all over the NW of England, luckily the
joists and my scrotum prevented further fallage.

Hand crushed by steel flue grating whilst operating vibrating roller.

Along with multiple instances of whizzing bits of skin, fingernails etc with
angle grinders, drill related problems, especially when they're 25mm bits
and they tangle in your trouser leg whilst still rotating - chinese burns
unlimited. I've been burnt, electrocuted, hammered in various body parts,
screwdriver through the finger etc, nails through both feet (at different
times thankfully) partially buried (up to neck) when cutting for extension
caved-in.

I've spent about 20 years working off ladders in one job or another and have
fell off too many times to remember, you sort of build up a 'knowledge' of
either how to land or how to fall or something because some of those falls
should have seen me off but none of them did and remarkably, I've never had
a broken bone nor a dislocated anything, but I've got scars everywhere.

Bloody hell! I'm not going to stand too close to you in a thunderstorm!

--
--
Halmyre

Halmyre wrote:

Bloody hell! I'm not going to stand too close to you in a
thunderstorm!

It's as if god's saving me for something even more painful than what he's
already thrown at me, knowing my luck I'll probably fall into an industrial
blender at some point in the future, only to be recovered in the nick of
time, be put into the back of an ambulance that bursts into flames on the
way to hospital, and then crashes into an acid tanker.


Still, it'll be summat to tell me grandkids.

--
Phil L
RSRL Tipster Of The Year 2008

Phil L wrote:

Just after leaving school, the CB radio craze was just starting off.
I had to have one and I got one for my 16th birthday, a binatone, which ran
off a 12V powerpack, which I couldn't afford so I had it attatched to a car
battery in the corner of my bedroom, which I used to charge up periodically.
One day i read that car batteries gave off hydrogen gas whilst being
charged....'hydrogen' I thought, 'burns with a squeaky pop' as I remembered
my chemistry lessons.
Except the chemistry lessons only used a test-tube full of hydrogen.
I landed on the other side of the room, which needed re-decorating, given
that the doors, skirtings and all other glossed surfaces had thousands of
bubbles in them where the acid had burnt into the paint.
My clothes fell off me in shreds, the carpet had a hole in it 2ft across and
there were fragments of plastic battery casing turning up months later.
The curtains seemed fine, until they were washed a few weeks later and they
resembled string vests, all in all, not a very successful experiment, and
I'll never forget going to bed that night thinking, 'squeaky pop? - my
arse'


--
Phil L
RSRL Tipster Of The Year 2008

On 11 Aug, 20:53, "Phil L" wrote:
Phil L wrote:

Just after leaving school, the CB radio craze was just starting off.
I had to have one and I got one for my 16th birthday, a binatone, which ran
off a 12V powerpack, which I couldn't afford so I had it attatched to a car
battery in the corner of my bedroom, which I used to charge up periodically.
One day i read that car batteries gave off hydrogen gas whilst being
charged....'hydrogen' I thought, 'burns with a squeaky pop' as I remembered
my chemistry lessons.
Except the chemistry lessons only used a test-tube full of hydrogen.
I landed on the other side of the room, which needed re-decorating, given
that the doors, skirtings and all other glossed surfaces had thousands of
bubbles in them where the acid had burnt into the paint.
My clothes fell off me in shreds, the carpet had a hole in it 2ft across and
there were fragments of plastic battery casing turning up months later.
The curtains seemed fine, until they were washed a few weeks later and they
resembled string vests, all in all, not a very successful experiment, and
I'll never forget going to bed that night thinking, 'squeaky pop? - *my
arse'

--
Phil L
RSRL Tipster Of The Year 2008

I did something similar, leaving a big spanner on the flat top of a
battery while I turned a car engine over; big mistake.
Huge bang, battery vanished except for the bottom 2 inches holding the
remaining steaming acid and the terminals attached to the cables. The
spanner was some 20 or 30 feet up the street.

A relative was clearing a garage in the 1970s. The usual assorted
tins of dried up paint, boxes of rusty nails, cans of oil, ancient
rusty tools, random bits of wood and metal, old doors etc., went into
a skip. One oil soaked cardboard box was scooped up, the bottom fell
out of it and 3 WW2 hand grenades bounced across the floor. He left
the building rapidly. They were live but apparently not primed. They
still show up occasionally.

On Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:47:40 -0700 (PDT), Onetap wrote:

I did something similar, leaving a big spanner on the flat top of a
battery while I turned a car engine over; big mistake.

Ah this reminds me of an incident a long while back on "Songs of
Praise". Lighting power coming from a large mobile generator,
probably in the 100 to 500kW range. Now the Engineering Manager (bod
in charge of the Outside Broadcast) always used a particular
generator owner/driver, as the "price was right". This generator
owner/driver was more of a showman than broadcast. The main terminals
where open and at the back of the truck, a spanner fell across them,
generator opens its throttle to cope with the "load", eventually the
spanner melts. Now this is a showmans type generator, regulation is a
little lacking. In the abscence of the "load" the volts sky rocket
and most of the lamps in the church blow...

--
Cheers
Dave.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Onetap saying
something like:


A relative was clearing a garage in the 1970s. The usual assorted
tins of dried up paint, boxes of rusty nails, cans of oil, ancient
rusty tools, random bits of wood and metal, old doors etc., went into
a skip. One oil soaked cardboard box was scooped up, the bottom fell
out of it and 3 WW2 hand grenades bounced across the floor. He left
the building rapidly. They were live but apparently not primed. They
still show up occasionally.

Istr someone's Grandad having a souvenier of the war - a deactivated
grenade the kids used to play with.
When the old guy popped his clogs the grenade was handed in, upon which
it was found to contain explosive.

On 12/08/10 15:19, Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:
Istr someone's Grandad having a souvenier of the war - a deactivated
grenade the kids used to play with.
When the old guy popped his clogs the grenade was handed in, upon which
it was found to contain explosive.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10253090

"Live grenade prop used in Dad's Army play
Dad's Army episode Dad's Army was screened from 1968 to 1977

A theatre group staging a production of Dad's Army narrowly avoided the
production going with a bang after using live grenades as props.

The grenades had been found in a garage owned by a cast member's
father-in-law during a clear-out after his death."

In article , Grimly
Curmudgeon scribeth thus
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Onetap saying
something like:


A relative was clearing a garage in the 1970s. The usual assorted
tins of dried up paint, boxes of rusty nails, cans of oil, ancient
rusty tools, random bits of wood and metal, old doors etc., went into
a skip. One oil soaked cardboard box was scooped up, the bottom fell
out of it and 3 WW2 hand grenades bounced across the floor. He left
the building rapidly. They were live but apparently not primed. They
still show up occasionally.

Istr someone's Grandad having a souvenier of the war - a deactivated
grenade the kids used to play with.
When the old guy popped his clogs the grenade was handed in, upon which
it was found to contain explosive.

Was demolishing /clearing out my old dads shed and using a sledgehammer
which almost "walloped" a case of railway detonators which he "borrowed"
when he worked on the railways;!!

A very nice man from Railtrack collected them..
--
Tony Sayer

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember "Phil L"
saying something like:

Just after leaving school, the CB radio craze was just starting off.
I had to have one and I got one for my 16th birthday, a binatone, which ran
off a 12V powerpack, which I couldn't afford so I had it attatched to a car
battery in the corner of my bedroom, which I used to charge up periodically.
One day i read that car batteries gave off hydrogen gas whilst being
charged....'hydrogen' I thought, 'burns with a squeaky pop' as I remembered
my chemistry lessons.
Except the chemistry lessons only used a test-tube full of hydrogen.
I landed on the other side of the room, which needed re-decorating, given
that the doors, skirtings and all other glossed surfaces had thousands of
bubbles in them where the acid had burnt into the paint.

Not to me, but the foreman of a neighbouring engineering works...
They had a dreadful old propane powered lift truck which never started
on a cold morning - the batteries were shagged and the tight buggers
wouldn't spend any money on it, so every morning the foreman jump
started it with a welding set. See where this is going?

One morning I needed to borrow it and it wouldn't start, as usual, so I
nipped back to our workshop to gather up a jump battery and some leads.
While I was gone, the foreman came out and did his usual party piece,
but this time the battery went 'POP' and showered him and bystanders
with acid and bits of battery casing. Amazingly, not a drop of acid or
any debris went in his face. His clothes were ruined, though.

Stupid *******; I told him that would happen.