Safety

I always thought of posting some of the more interesting safety bits that come to me from time to time.

Not the safety bulletins where you think "what a daft prat" but the ones that you think "I could have done that"!

Well I had to make myself a guinea pig

Being an old bugger when I work on my vehicle I wear knee pads. Over a month ago I was painting it and occaisionally spilt thinners on my overalls and I guess soaked into the knee pads.

Last saturday I was working on the Pinz, with my knee pads and my left knee was in a fair amount of pain. I thought maybe bad weather, maybe I shouldn't of hit that tree at 130kmh many years ago etc etc.

After a while I pushed the kneepad down, hoping to relieve the pressure and didn't think much of it. Sunday I was working in shorts and noticed great burn marks on my left leg with blisters forming.

I can only assume chemical residue in the left knee pad, which is amazing after the lapse in time. The photos below are today, 4 days after wearing it. So I post this :

- as a warning of course

- and if it gets any worse, send me choccies and flowers

and no comments on my lilly white legs :nono:

This was the one I thought of posting before my incident. This guy went to adjust the oxy, the valve was leaking, he had oil/grease on his hands with result of big bang.

Jesus, has this guy lost his hand? Looks VERY painful.

Your legs look pretty sore too. Should heal up OK with some steroid cream.

That hand looks well bad! ( and the leg!)

Maybe we could turn this into a health and safety thread so we can learn by the mistakes made.

Christian

That hand looks well bad! ( and the leg!)

Maybe we could turn this into a health and safety thread so we can learn by the mistakes made.

 

Christian

No Graphic photos please as we do have women & children that use the forum...

It not for the photos but I think that lessons can be learnt from mistakes that are talked about. I wonder how many times I have touched oxy bottles with grubby hands and not thought about the consequences

Christian

There is an interesting thread on this topic on the emlra forum.

OETHKB(*) awards have been awarded....

... mine is #2.

Andrea

(*)Old Enough To Have Known Better

A few years ago I droped my oxy gauge and damaged it. So off to get it repaired/replaced. The bloke on the counter at Energas gave me a 5 minute lecture as why you should neaver use PTFE tape. Its oil based, somthing that I never even considerd.

I don't think he lost his hand, but got a good burn.

I get a fair amount of safety stuff but most are dumb ones ie you think you would have to be daft to do that.

The oxy bottle one though is something one could easily do. My leg is bizare.

Anyway one more this morning that could possibly occur if you were not thinking and tying down your load (with chains)

OK? how did this happen , I see the hook and chain going between the now 1/2 load of charcol and the power line . Whats the rest of the story ????

OK? how did this happen , I see the hook and chain going between the now 1/2 load of charcol and the power line . Whats the rest of the story ????

The power line earthed out via the chain and truck. I have a video of a crane doing this somewhere also

I hope the truck driver wasn't holding on to that at the time? Did he throw the chain with the rest on the floor/truck or was he holding one end and throwing the other?

Amazing how the hook itself caught the line! You'd never do that if you tried..... not that I am suggesting anyone should!

I never got told there was any fatality. I work in petrochem inspection so a lot of safety stuff goes around. I just posted that I guess as:

- some of us have high vehicles, antennas etc

- also if you are going to chuck a chain over, look first

On the post earlier about thread tape, unless its something extremely low pressure like a water tap I wouldn't use it. If a threaded insert is leaking normally means the thread is damaged. Threaded things can shoot out at quite high velocities.

I have two one eyed friends, one was stretching a bungey cord over a camping trailer when the other end let go and knocked his eye out, the other was removing a brake return spring with a pair of long nose pliers, the pliers slipped and he stabbed himself in the eye. At the same garage, the apprentice was told to hang on to the end of a disconnected truck propshaft with a rope sling while the truck was pushed outside, the prop picked on the sling and removed one of his fingers.

All simple incidents and so easily repeatable....

Amazing how the hook itself caught the line! You'd never do that if you tried..... not that I am suggesting anyone should!

Perhaps he had a flat battery and was attemting a jump start:shake:

Perhaps he had a flat battery and was attemting a jump start:shake:

I reckon it made him jump!

About 1980 I was transferring radio equipment from the RSO store down to Command Troop hangars, loading UK/PRC351/2s, batteries and ancillaries into the back of the 2 I/C's FFR Land Rover.

One of the batteries slipped from my grip as I lifted it over the tailgate. For those who have never handled one, it was about the shape, size and weight of a housebrick.

With lightning reflexes good enough always to catch a falling knife and not cut myself, I went for it. Unfortunately I got my left index finger between battery and bumper. Cue split finger, much pain emanating from finger and $£$&$&%£ing swearing like the Trooper I'd been for the last four and a half years.

I left the Land Rover in the capable hands of my oppo and walked across the regimental square to the Medical Centre. All the sick people having reported at 0800 (did you know you are only allowed to go sick at 0800 in the army? Any other time and you must report Special Sick) and been sent on their way, the Regimental Medical Officer had left the building. Manning the centre was a Regimental Medical Assistant.

"Ooh that's a nice one. It's okay, I am trained to do stitches. Come through to the Treatment Room." He prepared a suture.

"Where's the local anaesthetic then?" I asked.

"Local anaesthetic? An RAC Crewman and you want local anaesthetic for a stitch in the finger? Are you a wuss or what?"

"Wuss."

"Tough. There is nobody to give you a local anaesthetic: you'd need to go to the Dental Centre or the Medical Reception Station cos RMOs don't get to play with anaesthetic." (I came across this a few years later when my infant daughter split her temple.) "So, put your hand on the treatment table and brace yourself."

They heard the scream down at the vehicle park. "Come back in a week and I'll remove the stitch."

I was on exercise the following week: that's why I was loading kit.

Fast forward one week. Somewhere in a farmyard in the 1 (Br) Corps area of BAOR. Unusually, Command Troop were colocated with HQ Squadron. I sought out the HQ Sqn SSM. "Sir, can you organise a Land Rover to take me to the nearest medical facility so I can get this stitch removed?"

"Let's have a look. I'll remove that for you." I removed the leather condom from my finger and showed him. "I'll get some scissors." I politely told him to go away in short sharp and jerky movements, observing a regimental pause of 2 - 3. I would do it myself. I went off the Zero Charlie, the Int / NBC Sultan and locked myself behind 1.5" of aluminium armour so as not to be disturbed during this delicate surgical procedure. I dug out a modelling knife blade from my wallet.

I slit the stitch, then I dug out a pair of Clansman Repair Toolkit snipe-nosed pliers (well I was Regimental Signals Storeman in camp, so of course I had issued myself a toolkit. Nobody else got one: it said STORE on the door, not ISSUE).

I got the knot of the stitch in the pliers and braced myself, closed my eyes and pulled ever so gently, dreading a return of the pain. I opened one eye to see how far I'd removed the stitch, to find the pliers six inches from the wound and the dead stitch completely removed.

Wuss? Me? I guess so.

(well I was Regimental Signals Storeman in camp, so of course I had issued myself a toolkit. Nobody else got one: it said STORE on the door, not ISSUE).

I wonder how many other items may have been locked and safely stored away by other similar minded Military personal .Perhaps this is why things pop up decades later still in the wrapper .

Not entirely a bad thing as its finds like those that everyone in this hobby loves to discover.

one was stretching a bungey cord over a camping trailer when the other end let go and knocked his eye out,

I think they are banned in Australia as the shopping trolley kids used to use them to hold 20 trolleys together and push. One let go with much damage.

But yes protecting your eyeballs is quite important and I would be the first to admit I am slack in wearing the old safety glasses at times.

Some good stuff coming out here. Other item we can come accross:

- oven cleaner is typically paint stripper. Wives don't get the same level of HSE

- Extension cables on reels should always be unrolled as if not the opposing magnetic fields can cause it to melt and catch fire

- Lead based paint as lead is accumulative

Always what I have found interesting is when you are doing something daft you think to yourself "if I slip this will hurt" is exactly when it happens

I had a close one when I was at Girdwood, North Belfast.

I was carring out a Commanders Functional Test of one of our Saxon Patrol APC's. I was in the Commanders Turret and another Lance Jack was driving. He pulled out of the sheds at the top by the main gate (anyone who has been there will know where I mean) and we turned her to the right so that we had a bit of a run. There was also a girl in the troop compartment, but I can't remember who she was.

So there I am in the Commanders Turret with the comms set over my ears, but NOT wearing a helmet. I ordered the driver to pull away at a rate of knots and to slam the brakes on so that we can test the functionality of the brakes. He slams the brakes on and the next thing I know I'm in the back of the troop compartment with hazy vision and lots of pain and blood and ringing ears.

To see where you are going in a Saxon you have to stand on the Commanders seat and this is what I was doing. Luckily for me I was stood on the seat. As the Saxon screached to a halt, the Commanders hatch came away from the hatch retainer and smacked me square in the back of my head. The force of the hit knocked me off the seat and into the back of the Saxon. I was lying there with my uniform soaked in blood thinking that this might be the end. An armoured hatch hitting you in the back of the head at the speed that it did was not very good for my health.

I was helped out of the Saxon by the girl and the driver. Then with an arm over each person they more or less carried me with my legs dangling down to the med centre (which was a normal semi house). I was thinking at the time that I needed to remain calm so that my heart rate stayed low so the bleeding wouldn't be so bad.

We get to the med centre and the medics see the state of me and the house lights up with activity. I get put into an Land Rover MPV and QRF were scrammbled for the trip down to MPH.

I gets to the hospital and then had my head stitched (with anaesthetic) with 20 odd stitches. I never had an ex ray which has always puzzled me. Since then I've had a lump in my head and no feeling where the scar is.

I was very lucky I never smashed my skull like a grape. If I wasn't on the seat, but standing on the floor and therefor being lower and not having anywhere to go it would have.

Top tip for all you armoured drivers and commanders. Wear a helmet and ALWAYS check the hatch is secure.

Last week I had to deliver some papers for the local government. To an area visited every week for the last 3 years.

The result was the dog didnt like government officals and bit me in leg:argh:

It was only a fox terrier that i had seen a few times before. lucky it was not a child playing in the street.

Elf & safty aint new 50 odd years ago the Guys in woolwich arsenal were subjected to regular exhibitions both mobile and static

Nice photos Alan

Im sure in the 80,s we had stuff like that in the RAF. I can remember film shows, one starred an actor Richard.........??? as a Harrier pilot and another was a field kitchen in a hollow and refuelling going on nearby. and there was other films.

Christian

The BA training place at Cranebank had a Cabinet of horrors, including a pice of work with a drill stuck in it, and about two feet of hair. That dated from early Seventies. My luckest cock up was being to lazy to put proper axle stands under the back axle of a LWB Land Rover. I then yanked hard at a nut with a torque wrench. Fortunatley I put so much force on the bar I tipped my head back, as the wagon slipped off the jack. I was luck enough just to get a side swipe. The most jaw dropping stupidity I've ever seen was a 'visiting mechanic'. He had parked a vehicle , on a slope, with two wheels on the pavement. Then jacked up the road side , with a single trolley jack, and gone under it!!! Not even a wedge under a wheel!

Poinr of Order: Manufacture of cannon started at Woolwich following an acident during casting at White Chapel. At the time bell foundrys were the ones with the expertise. I'm sure Alan can find the details, but a brass cannon was being forged and the sand was damp! The resulting explosion killed several notables including the King's Master of Ordnance at the time.