Never take things for granted...

This just goes to show how dangerous some jobs are and that we should not take anything for granted. I feel so bad for my hubby. He blames himself, but he has done nothing wrong. The guy that got injured is a full grown adult that should not have done what he did to get hurt.



I guess what happened was that before my hubby left yesterday morning, a machine that he was working on needed to be repaired, so he called the maintance. It wasn't anything HUGE, but eventually it would have broken the machine if it did not get taken care of.

He left when the 1st shift worker that works on that machine got there. I guess soon after, this guy (1st shift guy) felt he needed to use the washroom, so he left the repair guy at the machine and went. Everyone else that was there (about 5 other guys) were by thier machines and working. So this repair guy was by himself.

He turned on the machine, but not the parts that move, and decided to crawl inside to see why some of the parts were not moving right.

The guy lost his balance and ended up getting the part of his leg that is just below the knee, but just above the shin, cut off. He climbed out and finally someone saw him.

They guess that between the time of the injury and the time someone else finally saw him was 15 minutes or so. The guy had to have surgery and I guess they are still cleaning the machine of his body parts. The guy now is missing a part of his leg, just below the knee.

My hubby blames himself, and his co-workers were not helping with that last night I guess. He got a bunch of dirty looks. but i explained to my guy that when the other guy got there, he should have stayed there, or got someone else to stand there. PLUS, the repair guy should never have climbed into a machine that is so dangerous while it was on, regardless of it running or not. Some parts are still running.

I feel bad because I know he is going to be down about it for some time. He feels that if he never called for maintenance, then this would never have happened. But he does realize that because it needed to be worked on at one point, it may have happened at a differant time.

But it was a major wake up call for him to realize just how dangerous his job is.



I am going to be extra nervous now when he goes to work. I knew beforehand how dangerous it is, but this is the 2nd incident that has happened this week. The other one was minor, no one got hurt, but if they did not react quickly, they would have gotten hurt too.

I do appreciate the time that I have with my hubby, when he is home. I treasure each moment, but I think that for some time, we will be treasuring that time even more.

That's horrible

My friends H is a boilermaker, and he works on nuclear power plants. Some time last year, two of the guys he was working with got injured somehow ( I can't remember the story) and died right in front of the rest of the guys.

I'm so glad I have mainly an office job!

BeachyBum wrote:That's horrible

My friends H is a boilermaker, and he works on nuclear power plants. Some time last year, two of the guys he was working with got injured somehow ( I can't remember the story) and died right in front of the rest of the guys.

I'm so glad I have mainly an office job!

OMG- that is horrible! My hubby has been telling me the "camp stories" (as he calls them) of incidents that happened just before he started. Since he has started, there have been about just under 10 incidents. None fatal, but some people's lives have been changed. There was a fatality about a week before he did start though. I will not go into the details with that though. Plus, kinda hard to type the explanation of the machine that was involved.

missy, tell him that God works in mysterious ways. This guy might be an avid motorcyle rider and next week or next year his group might have been going out and been in an awful wreck, him being paralized.

In all honestly, if this repairman is cerified to work on these machines, then he is also trained in the actual mechanisism of the machine and knows what works, what doesnt and when they come down and dont.

Granted the 1st shift worker shouldnt have left, but once he shows up, and your shift is over you walk away and its not your job to watch them anymore.

I am sorry your hubby feels responsible, but he shouldnt. Sometimes you cant fix stupid.

Oh Missy! How horrible! But your husband is not to blame. He did not tell the repairman to climb into a running machine. And while perhaps someone would have stopped him from doing that if they had been there, they should not have had to do it. The repairman should have known better. In all likelyhood, he did know better, but just wasn't thinking. It was a stupid and tragic mistake, and outside of your husband's control. When this man is well enough for visitors, maybe you and your husband can go see him and talk to him. It might help both of them, once they are ready for it.

Oh, my, that's terrible news. Factory and farm accidents can be horrific. So sorry his co-workers are giving your guy the cold shoulder, it wasn't his fault at all. Every time there's an accident things can be picked apart and you can say "Well, if X hadn't done that, or if Y hadn't left right then, or if Z hadn't gone there, the accident wouldn't have happened." That's just bunk.

That is what I have been telling him all morning until he finally went to sleep. The guy is a full grown adult that knows the dangers. They are all trained and told of the dangers when they are hired, regardless of position there. Even the office girls, because if they for any reason have to walk through the warehouse for any reason, they need to know what to look out for. They have to be on thier toes at all times, and accidents happen. That is why they call it an accident. When he first told me about the guy climbing in, without thinking, I just burst out with "What, is he trying to commit suicide?" I don't work there, but I being of sound mind, know better than to crawl inside a machine that is on, heck, even not turned on!!

He has been down because of my arm and then this. I just think that he is overly stressed because they have had him work OT a lot lately and they just changed the hours this week. Tommarrow he gets outta work, I go to the DR (non-arm related, another personal matter I want to take care of) and then we have errands to run together. But I am not allowing him to stress on anything. We are aiming to have a good weekend. I brought it up to have the neighbors watch our son while we went to dinner, and I think after this, he really needs that.

I just hate seeing him cry and be upset about something beyond his control. I am sure you all know how that feels, to see someone you love upset and you do all you can to help them. Luckily, my son was able to help push everything aside. (lol, I wish he could see him now, my son is pretending to be Buzz Lightyear..lol)

Safety is a strong issue; be it in your workplace or your home. I worked for a major pulp and paper firm as a secretary (before computers). One day I was updating an A-Z address book - you know the kind that you slide the marker to M and M pops up. I was using my right hand to slide to the appropriate letter of the alphabet and the indicator gave loose. It slit my index finger opened about 1/2 inch. I cupped my hand as best I could and headed down three flights of stairs to get to first aid. Blood was everywhere. When I arrived in first aid, a worker was being attended to. I walked in on a man who got too close to a lathe, his overalls were caught in the lathe, later his chest. His bloody, skin-ripped off chest was in full view. Although, I too, was bleeding it was not near the injury the worker was suffering. I stepped out of first aid and a maintenance worker came with a first aid kit to attend to my wound. I still carry the scar, in memory thereof.

Most people take safety for granted. You should not. It is better to be safe, than sorry.

As for your husband - does the company have a safety review board, a safety officer? If not, they should and a full inquiry of the accident and that leading up to, should be thoroughly investigated.

I believe that is what is going on, trax. The second he walked in, they had a big meeting with all the workers for the night (I guess they were doing one for each shift). They have meetings every week, but it is mostly about the paperwork, but I am sure that for the next few weeks they will go more into the safety of things. I will ask him about it. I know that tonite is his last night for the week, so he may not hear anything else until next week.

I have broken my ankle at work once. I had sprained it on ice a few days prior, so it was not exactly work related. Only the fact that I had to get a manager for a customer and when I stepped towards her office, my ankle went one way and the heel of my boot went another. I had to be helped out, and one of the managers drove me to the hospital. It was so embarassing because it was a super busy Saturday and in front of tons of customers and co-workers. It was also 2 days before my 25th birthday, which I had major plans for. I am terrified of ice now. I hate walking from the garage to the house with groceries (almost had a repeat last winter), so now, I pull the car up next to the door and the hubby will put it in the garage for me. Or get it out. lol

My father in law lost all his fingers on one hand when he was 19 in a saw mill, they got caught on something. He NEVER blamed a soul for it. NEVER. He knows it was a freak accident. so its possible that this guy wont be blaming anyone either. He willknow it was his own carelessness.

I remember those A-Z things!! I used to LVOE playing with them when I was little. and couldnt wait to get one when I moved out and got on my own. I couldnt find one anywhere. But I did find my grandmothers when she died.

At Scott's grandfather's first job after leaving home, there was a big machine he was supposed to feed stuff into. The first day, the manager showed him how it worked and told him that it would jam sometimes and when it did, he was to turn it off, then use a metal pole to pust the obstruction out of the way. He told him to make sure it was off, no matter how tempting it looked to just poke at it while it was on, because as soon as the obstruction was out of the way, it would start moving again and grab that metal pole and throw it across the factory. Well, of course it jammed up later that day and he thought about turning it off, but nothing was moving so he figured he'd just poke the jam out of the way and be careful not to let go of the bar. And sure enough it snatched that steel bar right out of his hands and it went flying across the room at neck height just like a frisbee and it was just the grace of God that it didn't take someone's head as it went. He was shocked and just knew he was fired and would never get another job in that whole town but the manager came out to stop him from leaving. He said, "Son, I can't let you leave. You're the most valuable worker I've got right now. Because anyone else I hire is gonna come in and do exactly what you just did. But you will NEVER make that mistake again." And he was right. He lived to be an old man and worked on heavy equiptment and farm machinery every single day of his life and he never once tried to fix something that was running ever again. He never took any chances because he knew that it was only God's hand that kept him from killing a half dozen men that day. It's such an easy mistake, even when you know better.

I would say that it was not his fault, and it will probably be looked into by OSHA.
It's a fact of life when you work in any type of industry, be it an oil refinery, or a factory or whatever that safety is a concern at all times. The guy should have never EVER crawled into any type of machine, and I would say doing so put him in jeopardy, so he did it to himself.

Hopefully, if all is in place, the company will take the necessary steps. Safety First. I have seen far too many accidents when I worked at the pulp mill. As with any paper/pulp mill chemicals are used. We went on high evacuation alert (thus meaning - the city goes on alert). The workers (all workers) were trained in evacuation and accordingly you move when told to move. Women office workers were in high heeled shoes, they could not move safely down the steps because the steps had holes in them. One woman fell over and caused a chain reaction and all this is happening on high level alert. First aid attendants moved in and the folks in question became upright and continue to walk to the 'safe' area. We stood there for an hour or so and were then told we may return to our work areas. We moved about ten feet and what happened next, I do not ever want to go through again. Above our heads pipes started to give way - like explosions. There was sludge sliding down my hard hat, I thought at the time - I am short, I am going to drown in this stuff. More alarms, we have to return to where we came from. More alarms. We evacuated the mill completely. Everyone was rushed outside to a series of boxcars near the railway track.

The chemical spill that happened caused no deaths. It was the last chemical spill evacuation I took part in. I quit shortly there after. I wanted to be on the side of living.

To note, I wore high heels to work. However, many years ago - cowboy boots were in style, the wear of western. I had a pair. One day when I was delivering the mail my heel connected with the little strip of metal that lays between carpet and flooring. I flew ass over tea kettle - mail flew everywhere. My supervisor saw the incident and along with another work associate raced to my rescue. I was stunned.

An accident investigate did take place, no recommendation was made to ban high heels or cowboys boots. Only appropriate foot wear should be worn on site.

trax wrote:Safety is a strong issue; be it in your workplace or your home. I worked for a major pulp and paper firm as a secretary (before computers). One day I was updating an A-Z address book - you know the
As for your husband - does the company have a safety review board, a safety officer? If not, they should and a full inquiry of the accident and that leading up to, should be thoroughly investigated.

I worked in a Paper Mill in Alabama and was the safety officer in my dept.
( was actually the only woman on a 22 man crew)
As soon as I begin reading Missy's post I thought "Oh lord, the maintence man didn't lock out the equipment."
Missy I'm sorry your hubby is going thru this, but more than that I'm gald he's ok, you need him & so does your cute little boy.

(trax...I swear the similarites in our lives are FREAKY )

I also questioned the 'tag out' and wondered why this important issue was not attended to. Geez, if the typewriter ball failed (you remember the typewriter ball), tag out was issued. Safety First ~ at home, as well as the work place ~ all work places.

Your hubby shouldn't have to be going through this. Why on earth would his co-workers give him dirty looks and make him feel bad? He left when his shift was over and a replacement was there? He can't be expected to foresee the future. I hope it all gets straightened out soon so he can feel comfortable in his workplace.

I agree with everyone else. I hope whoever is responsible for health and safety at his workplace is a strong rep -- I know I've seen companies try to sweep major incidents under the rug before.

From my experience, male workers act foolishly. They cannot stay focused at the problem at hand. I do not mean to imply they do not act; there actions are not ones the same as a woman would do. A woman can multi-task and give orders immediately and effectively. A woman can calmly say, this is what has to be done, it will be done; in order, proceed. A male will yell, scream and hand wave to no avail, nothing will be or has been accomplished by that procedure.

Scar - do not be afraid. I spin around this earth but one time - and I am fortunate enough to strike a place on this board. I may have met you in someother life I had. Perhaps, you are just a younger sister, at large.

trax wrote:
I may have met you in someother life I had. Perhaps, you are just a younger sister, at large.

Yep!

Oh your poor hubby, everyone else will get over it and stop blaming him- I hope.
I know at my hubby's work EVERYONE shuns the guy that gets hurts when it happens ( It screws up the safety record and EVERYONE losses the bonus. I would hate to be "that" guy) not someone who may or maynot have been near him. It sure isn't his fault, I'm sure that teh maintence guy KNEW better but figured what could go wrong? Hopefully he will be okay and everyone will have learned something.

Please give us an update as to the progress, if any. Thank you.