Work Related Injuries - Share Your Interesting Stories

[etrain16]

We started down this line in another thread, but @bbbass thought a new thread might be in order, and I agree. Feel free to share your interesting, weird, funny and lessons-learned stories of on-the-job or even at home injuries.

Many here know I'm an electrician, though I put the tools down to work in the office some time ago. I had my share of injuries, thankfully none of them any more serious than some stitches or buddy splints couldn't fix. Here are a few:

I've got a lovely scar on my hand where I came into contact with a back-fed/live neutral at 277v, in my natural reflex to get away from that 'tingly sensation' I pulled my hand back and right into a ceiling wire, that went through my hand, then tore out the side leaving a nice wound. Not my best day, but I butterflied it and went back to work. That's just how we do

Another incident involved me running a scissor lift about 30' up into a ceiling in an industrial plant under construction. One of the rules is that you always clear the space above you to avoid pinch points. I thought I had cleared everything and was running the lift up when suddenly I hear a "pop", see a bright flash of white light and feel pain in my neck - I had run myself straight up into a 1/2" threaded rod, the flash of light was my spine getting a quick pinch. I felt that one for days, but kept working in the tradition of a good construction worker.

Last one for now was a large transformer I needed to do some terminations on. I had to remove the cover to get to the connections. This was a large transformer with a large sheet metal cover, about 5'x5', fairly heavy. As I would normally do, while removing all the screws that hold it on, I would keep a punch awl or two to stick in the screw holes to hold it in place while I remove the screws. Well, one of them slipped out on me and dropped that sheet metal on my foot - and I wasn't wearing steel toed boots at the time, broke my toe and created a huge hematoma under the nail. The ED had to drill a hole in the nail to let the building pool of blood out - quite painful. I was unable to wear regular work boots for about 2 weeks after that, though I did return to work the next day.

Let's hear some of your stories.

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[bbbass]

Nah man, that was some other dude!! skrueger

Where'd my post go? Ah, found it:

1970ish, I was sitting on the floor between two switching racks in a Telco central office. Doing mods/pulling wires, running new wires, relays, etc. There is about 2 1/2 feet between rows of equipment racks. So I look up to see something, the looking up makes me and my head lean back, and zzzzzzzzt... there were 200v in some of that equip in those days. Got me right on the crown of my head and burned a nice hole there. And that's why I am this way today.

 

[etrain16]

Nah man, that was some other dude!!

Where'd my post go?

Ah, you're right, I was off by one person - it was @SKrueger who suggested the thread idea.

Your post is still there, in the pistol grip shotgun thread. Maybe copy over here too?

 

[HB of CJ]

Career Firefighter. Drove a Fire Engine for an small ISO Class One Fire Department. The usual biggies. Broken left wrist. A two and a half got away. Ouch! Broken right foot that still hurts. Dropped an electric smoke ejector on it. It was not my fault. I was getting zapped by shorting wiring. OUCH! Then more OUCH! Getting zapped then dropping the thing.

Severely wrenched lower back resulting in three (3) compressed disks. Same incident resulting in compression fractures in my neck. Carrier ending. But ... long ago and far away. Seems the American Fire Service has come a long long way with safety procedures which we did not have back in the day. Great improvements. But... just glad to be here.

 

[11Charlie]

HaHa this thread should be a good one!

So back in the day I was framing houses and the new guy didn't show up for work. So my boss tells me to go put in the blocks for the plumber around the showers in the last house. Well being young and dumb (I still do this it is faster) I pulled the spring out of my framing nailer so it would be faster banging walls together. Well while I was nailing in those blocks the nailer bounced between the studs and drove a 3" framing nail straight into my hand.

My boss's brother happened to be an EMT so he pulled the nail out blood running everywhere. Bandaged it up and went back to work. That night as we are rolling up he looks at me and says " you might wanna go to the hospital and get that looked at"

Ended up I was lucky as heck I missed all the major nerves, blood vessels and bones.

 

[jlhopwo]

Army, Fort Stewart, GA, 1988. Motor pool guy is filling tire on split rim wheel. It blows, one half of the rim bounces off his face, then tumbles end over end up in the air about 30 feet, then came back crashing down. He's hurt bad, blood everywhere. A couple of weeks later he back with seriously the gnarliest scars on his face where they sewed him back up, like about 100 stitches. That guy was pretty dumb to do that, but I respected him for coming back.

 

[11Charlie]

Army, Fort Stewart, GA, 1988. Motor pool guy is filling tire on split rim wheel. It blows, one half of the rim bounces off his face, then tumbles end over end up in the air about 30 feet, then came back crashing down. He's hurt bad, blood everywhere. A couple of weeks later he back with seriously the gnarliest scars on his face where they sewed him back up, like about 100 stitches. That guy was pretty dumb to do that, but I respected him for coming back.

OH crap military injuries could be a whole different thread

 

[HB of CJ]

Split rims are nasty. In high school auto shop we had to watch the horrible on scene films of rescue crews scrapping up the remains. Very sobering indeed.

 

[bbbass]

Well while I was nailing in those blocks the nailer bounced between the studs and drove a 3" framing nail straight into my hand.

My boss's brother happened to be an EMT so he pulled the nail out blood running everywhere. Bandaged it up and went back to work. That night as we are rolling up he looks at me and says " you might wanna go to the hospital and get that looked at"

Ended up I was lucky as heck I missed all the major nerves, blood vessels and bones.

HAHAHAHAHAHAAA... been there done that. One that went sideways in a stud I was stupidly holding near the end to be joined, went thru the end of my thumb. And one the went down the side of the stud on a double bounce. Made real good use of electrical tape and duct tape bandaging, and keep on working!!

 

[Member 5605]

Was the summer of my 20th year on earth.

Working for Charter Communications out of the Springfield office which covered everything from Drain to Brownsville just not Eugene/Springfield.

I was on HWY 228 between Brownsville and Holley. I had my 28' fiberglass ladder extended up against the pole and I did the typical grab and straighten it up in preparation for it to come down and collapse.

As I stepped back the levelers on the ladder caught some grass and hung up as they almost always did. Caused the ladder to start going out like it's going to fall into the road. I yanked it and the ladder went from straight up to sideways in my hands. Rotated my right arm from straight down to 90° to my right and my left from up by my forehead to 90° to my left real quick.

15 years later I had surgery on my left shoulder. My right is worse though. Never filed an accident claim back then but man I sure wish I had. I have two really screwed up shoulders and not a damn thing that can be done.


Years later I'm doing building construction and I'm down at Fort Benning putting up new barracks and a DFAC at Harmony Church. I trip going into the building. Reach forward and try to break my fall. My right hand hits a metal stud and I grab it and slide my hand down along it. I fillet my right thumb nearly cutting the meat from it completely. I have a tender scar that doesn't allow me to operate slim pistols because of how recoil rubs the scar.

 

[clearconscience]

Dang, did you guys not pay attention in saftey training?

I'll add a couple but it was always the other guy.
Once store we had being built, an electrician was wiring in the main line from the street into the electrical room and fried himself. The guy lived but after dozens of surgeries to put his arms back together. As I heard it, the electricution basically blew the flesh from his arms.
I worked at this place years later and only found out about it from another electrician I had doing work in the elec rm.
the plywood walls and ceiling have what looks like fried splatter burnt into it.
He asked If I knew what it was from, then he told me the story and it made me ill.

Another guy we had moving equipment in a store for us got his wedding ring caught in a flywheel and basically removed all the meat from the bone:
I still don't wear a wedding ring because of that.

And then there's the burned of garbage truck, but thats another thread.

 

[etrain16]

Dang, did you guys not pay attention in saftey training?

I'll add a couple but it was always the other guy.
Once store we had being built, an electrician was wiring in the main line from the street into the electrical room and fried himself. The guy lived but after dozens of surgeries to put his arms back together. As I heard it, the electricution basically blew the flesh from his arms.
I worked at this place years later and only found out about it from another electrician I had doing work in the elec rm.
the plywood walls and ceiling have what looks like fried splatter burnt into it.
He asked If I knew what it was from, then he told me the story and it made me ill.

Another guy we had moving equipment in a store for us got his wedding ring caught in a flywheel and basically removed all the meat from the bone:
I still don't wear a wedding ring because of that.

And then there's the burned of garbage truck, but thats another thread.

I've seen photos of terrible electrical burns as well as people that had their fingers stripped bare by their rings. I never wore a ring in the field, too dangerous, not only for that kind of damage, but also for a contact point for electrocution.

I have been in the electrical construction industry since 1993 and have never seen a serious electrocution, and no deaths. I've seen a lot of different accidents in various trades, some stupid, some serious.

One of my first jobs was working on the Rose Garden (as it used to be known). I spent a year on that job and saw a variety of accidents and injuries. One accident that really stands out was as the project was nearing completion. They were disassembling the last of the tower cranes on the site. So they had brought in a big mobile crane to assist in the disassembly. It was just at the end of the lunch hour. I had gone out to our job trailer to deliver something to the superintendent from my foreman. As I walked back into the building, I could see them about to disconnect the main boom from the tower crane. Most of the trailers were clearing out as it was the end of lunch. We walked into the building and shortly after there was a huge crash outside. From what I was told, the operator of the mobile crane saw the crane started to tip from the load, so in order to keep himself from going over, he dropped the load. The boom from the tower crane came down on top of several of the job trailers and even came close to landing on part of I-5. It was a huge mess, lots of damage and a lot of folks really pizzed off. Surprisingly no one was hurt or killed in that accident.

 

[Gaucho Gringo]

I hope you guys don't get bored reading mine

Working in a restaurant when I was 17 running a meat slicer. Sliced part of my little finger off.

Working in another restaurant when I was 20. Went to take the front panel off and ice machine that wasn't working. Cut my right ring finger to the bone on the underside. Haven't had any feeling in the finger above the cut for 46 years now.

1979 working in a door factory had 1,500 lbs of doors fall on me with my right leg taking the brunt of it and almost losing it. Was off 5 months. A couple of the idiots trying to help thought it was okay to walk across the top of the pile of doors with me underneath. I had seen a bunch of other people seriously injured while I worked there. Also shot a staple in my palm with an air stapler that had no safety like they do today.

Working construction drilling a hole in a door for a deadbolt, the pilot bit breaks and the holesaw skips and cuts a half moon shaped ragged cut on the upside of my thumb below the last knuckle.

Somehow managed to hit my left ring finger above the last knuckle with a 32 oz framing hammer breaking it across and lengthwise into 3 pieces.

3 or 4 broken toes over the years, just tape them up and keep working. They stop hurting in about 3 weeks.

Demolition on construction job, 2x6 breaks and spears me in the lower left arm. Go to hospital to have it pulled out and sewn up and return to work.

A lot of other cuts, abrasions. bruises, strains and sprains that come with working construction over the years.

 

[Gaucho Gringo]

Dang, did you guys not pay attention in saftey training?

I'll add a couple but it was always the other guy.
Once store we had being built, an electrician was wiring in the main line from the street into the electrical room and fried himself. The guy lived but after dozens of surgeries to put his arms back together. As I heard it, the electricution basically blew the flesh from his arms.
I worked at this place years later and only found out about it from another electrician I had doing work in the elec rm.
the plywood walls and ceiling have what looks like fried splatter burnt into it.
He asked If I knew what it was from, then he told me the story and it made me ill.

Another guy we had moving equipment in a store for us got his wedding ring caught in a flywheel and basically removed all the meat from the bone:
I still don't wear a wedding ring because of that.

And then there's the burned of garbage truck, but thats another thread.

That's why I wouldn't wear my wedding ring either. My wife used to be upset about it when we first were married.

 

[HB of CJ]

Another funny firefighter story. Only funny to other firefighters. A sedan carrying four young adult males ran through and underneath a stopped road switcher locomotive bumping freight cars at a uncontrolled railroad spur.

Car went underneath a freight car. We were first due. Foggy. Dark. Car and other parts were scattered over about one block. In spite of the hour and weather a crowd of onlookers quickly formed. I was given my orders.

Walk downside from the incident to look for and recover whatever. I found a severed head still attached to the shoulders. Human. Male. That was about all one could tell. Non responsive. I carried it back by some hair.

The Battalion Chief was not looking good at all. A recovery, not a rescue. I walked up past the small crowd and told and showed the Chief ... "Hey Chief, I found the Head"! He gave me that look and said cover it up right now.

So I did. Only years later at some firefighter reunion old coot picnic did he and I get drunk on good beer and both laughed and laughed about it. Funny then. NOT FUNNY at the time. Several citizens barfed up. The end.

Post script to the story. The Batt Chief is long dead. A very nice man. He son is very big in the US House of Representatives. California. Yep.

 

[clearconscience]

You win

 

[HB of CJ]

No winning. No losing. Only long ago far away and a strong stomach.

 

[jlhopwo]

No winning. No losing. Only long ago far away and a strong stomach.

I'll never forget seeing that split rim bounce off that guys face even though it was 29 years ago.

 

[Gaucho Gringo]

I am glad they banned them. They were a holdover from the earlier days of automotive technology. The only advantage they had was anybody with a big hammer and prybar could change a tire. Even by the 60's they were archaic but I had them on my '67 Dodge 3\4 ton PU but only because that is what it came with. All my subsequent pickups had tubeless 16 or 16.5 tires and rims and the last one had radials. Had over 40,000 miles on the radial tires with 1\4 tread left when I sold my last pickup. The most I had got out of a set of truck tires before was 16,000 miles with a low of 7,500 on recapped tires using my old casings,

 

[Provincial]

The decline of American education has been developing for a long time. When I was in High School (50 years ago), a student teacher from Oregon College of Education (now Western Oregon University) was helping build a set for the school play. She was drilling a hole the thin way in a 2x4 she was holding in her other hand. That hand was directly in line with the hole she drilled through the board, but she missed all the important parts as it went through her palm.