Work Place Safety.

[Tweak]

Anyone who has ever held a job knows how important it is to be safe. To watch your surroundings and look out for the man or woman next to you.

We have all had to sit and watch the "stupid" videos on forklift safety and fall hazards, and we have all been preached at uncountable times to correct unsafe behaviors before they start.

Last night, when I arrived at work we (EVERYONE in my plant) was directed to assemble in the break room for an emergency meeting.

It seems that a man in our SIPA department, which contains a large stamping device used to mold plastic parts had been injured. The man had been working when the machine started to react oddly to his commands. He slid open a door that had been rigged to open without tripping a safety bypass that was installed and reached into the machine to pull a loose part out. As he did this, a plate underneath him shifted and he lost his balance, grabbing the bottom-most plate to try to right himself. As he began to stand up the machine began it's stamping process and cleanly severed his hand from his arm. Again, he fell and again grabbed another plate with his OTHER hand which in turn was also completely severed.

I am not exaggerating here folks. Both of this individuals hands are completely gone, severed and crushed beyond all repair. He was a close friend of mine and was care flighted to a nearby triage unit in Fort Worth, Texas.


Due to the simple fact that he could not be stirred to take the time to hit a large, red button less than a foot from where he was working this man will never again be able to work. He will likely spend the rest of his life on some kind of government program to assist the debilitated. This accident was in every way possible his own fault.


I guess the moral of my story guys, is that I consider everyone here a friend, I like to look out for friends and this whole scene hit me like a ton of bricks. Be careful out there guys, wherever you might find yourself. There are dangers that can easily kill anyone on ANY job site and I would be devastated to hear that someone got hurt by not following a simple instruction and taking shortcuts. Always watch your surroundings and be aware of dangers in your workplace- if you don't believe it can happen to you, make sure to think back and remember my story. James thought it couldn't happen to him, got complacent and lost both his hands in a matter of seconds.

Your friend, Jeff

 

[hb1111]

OMG...that is totally crazy....i dont know if i should feel sorry for him or call him stupid? very tragic

 

[robmob]

Sorry to hear Jeff.

Sad thing is that it takes something like this to happen in order to wake people up in the workplace. At least for awhile anyway.

 

[jon2]

Real sorry to hear that happened to your friend. Thanks for caring. I will keep your friend in my prayers.

Jon

 

[SMaxxin]

Sorry to hear about your friend Jeff. When something like this happens it makes you realize that being in a hurry is not that important.

I am a risk control member at work and I go over safety with everyone in my department every day about this very thing! We have to turn off and use a lock (you have the only key) on the on/off switch before we can do anything to machinery. You never think it can happen to you until it's too late.

 

[NCNitro]

Wow, that really sucks! and I am quite sorry to hear it. It's when you get too comfortable in what you are doing that accidents can and do happen. As my Father always said, "accidents do not happen, they are caused" and it really is true, as you mentioned he could have easily hit the big red button, and still had both his hands.

 

[Tweak]

I just feel bad in knowing that because of this small misstep he will spend the rest of his life with no hands... I could not even imagine doing such a thing. He will more than likely never work again. He will never be able to hold his children, never pick up a fork or a box without some type of aid.

It really hit home, for me I suppose. I operate heavy machinery, so I try to stay as safe as possible just for sheer knowledge of the fact that when I make a mistake I could very, very easily kill someone near me and probably not know it until it was brought to my attention.

This poor man, he will be in my thoughts and prayers for a long while to come.

 

[NCNitro]

Don't get me wrong, I really do feel for him. I could not even imagine what he will have to go through now, and just doing the simple things that we all take for granted, will now be a major chore for him. It does indeed suck. and he and his family will be in my families prayers.

 

[TalonOne]

Man that will make you think twice about bypassing the safety.

I work on computers attached to some very large machines that can hurt you, and I am always amazed to see folks using a stick or some other unnatural means to hit the buttons while putting themselves at risk.

My heart goes out to this friend of yours and his family.

 

[Karl M]

I work around aircraft, my entire adult life, I have see too many "Accidents" because of not thinking, not taking time to do it right, or just not having the training to know better. I hate to hear about this kind of thing, its sad, and what is worse is that we all do something stupid because we got away with it before. If we are lucky we just have the after thought,"Damn, that was dumb!", or something of the sort. I work with a machine that has that big red button and it has saved my bacon before. A hydraulic line developed a pin hole leak at 3000psi, a large pink cloud and no idea where the stream was pointed. I don't mean to preach here but we all see our friends and co-workers do dumb things, if you just sit back and watch, you may as well have been the cause, you could have stopped it! I am truely sorry for your friend Jeff, I hope he can recover and learn a trade again.

 

[mrvern_04]

i'm sorry to hear about your friend...
i am in the early stages of becoming a machinist, and prior to this job, i have worked alot of places as a temp, where i either operated, or was in very close proximity to large, and small machines, that were equally dangerous. mostly all of these places used the lockout/tagout procedures that someone had already mentioned, but the place i work at now, doesn't seem to use that method, and futhermore, just like mentioned in this story, every machine has the saftey trigger on the doors removed, and i dont like it! especially since the machines are large enough to climb inside of!

 

[redneckracer1979]

Where I work I refuse to operate a machine if the safety devices are not intact. My supervisor tried to write me up once for refusing to do a job because the grinder cord had a cut in it and you could see bare wire. Now granted that bare wire was the green wire and that is the ground wire but that wasn't the point. I told them if they wrote me up for that then my attorny would be calling them. Most people in managment don't like me at work because I am not afraid to stand up to them and tell them no. Our parts supervisor just got his finger just about cut off in the CNC saw for not paying attention. All you have to do with a machine is look away for a half a second and something bad could happen. I do tend to preach safety at work to everyone and all I get is the eyes rolling deal from most people.

 

[digger]

We do a certain job everyday and we get comfortable, a little too comfortable at times.

I work in a tube mill. We have a large cut-off press that cuts the tube as it runs. I don't mess with it while the mill is running.
The forming dies are open (no guards). We're putting out pipe at 150 fpm, but it doesn't bother me to put my hand in the mill and sand on the rolls while it's running. We always stay on the front side of the rolls. Kinda hard to explain, but the back would pull your hand though if ya did slip.

What bothers me about my job is electricity! Next time ya pick up a piece of pipe, if ya look on the inside you can see a seam where it's welded together. 14,000 volts is what our welder runs. Never understood how it worked, but it's called high induction? Had one guy working on it that told us some horror stories. Talked about one guy that was 5 or 6 ft from one and he just glowed a little bit and fell over dead. Don't know how true that is, but there are several guys that claim they have seen fire shoot out of ours. Was far enough that one guy was trying to run and he was at least 20' from it. Guess it was going to ground?
Besides the welder, everyting is 3 phase power. I'm the one that has to get into the crap to fix it on my shift if possible. At least try to do something for it.....
Did something real stupid a couple of weeks ago. Trying to fix something that I didn't know a lot about and just worried about getting running. Lucky to still be here.

Been through the forklift and the crane vids.
I really don't think those are that dangerous. They are but a whole lot of things that will mess ya up a lot quicker.


Sorry to hear about your friend. Keep in touch with him for support.
Be careful guys.

 

[SMaxxin]

What bothers me about my job is electricity

Same here, 95% of our building which is 32 acres under roof with 20+ miles of conveyors run on 480v, guess who the repair man is.....no room for error!

 

[RevoME]

Don't mind the German language... the guy announces that all applicants have passed the license requirements for forklift operators.
I operated a 4 ton Linde forklift for exactly 1205 hours and was a forklift safety teacher at our company...

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYxbQ8Jmh0o"]YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.[/ame]

 

[Karl M]

That was the training vid I had to watch to get certified, it was the only training I got. Ain't the Army grand.

 

[mrvern_04]

Where I work I refuse to operate a machine if the safety devices are not intact. My supervisor tried to write me up once for refusing to do a job because the grinder cord had a cut in it and you could see bare wire. Now granted that bare wire was the green wire and that is the ground wire but that wasn't the point. I told them if they wrote me up for that then my attorny would be calling them. Most people in managment don't like me at work because I am not afraid to stand up to them and tell them no. Our parts supervisor just got his finger just about cut off in the CNC saw for not paying attention. All you have to do with a machine is look away for a half a second and something bad could happen. I do tend to preach safety at work to everyone and all I get is the eyes rolling deal from most people.

i try my best to keep things safe, but i'm afraid that i wouldnt be able to do anything at my job if i refused to do a job because of a safety issue (sander and drill presses with bad wiring/plugs) a small list of the things i deal with daily...stand sanders with bad cord, plug or switch. when de-burring parts, if you touch the switch box of the sander while the piece of metal is in contact with the belt, you get a small shock. there is a breaker that is so loose in the breaker box, that it becomes warm and trips easily, and you can actually wiggle the breaker enough that you can disconnect it from the panel. as i mentioned in my first post, there is not one machine there with the door trigger in tact. there is always something that just isnt quite right with anyone of the machines at any given time...they basically don't fix anything untill it is in-operable, or rediculously unsafe. these things coupled with the fact that the floor usually has some sort of debris on it, everything is greasy and oily, and we have at least 15 cnc machines in a 6,000 sq ft building, plus other non cnc machines, stock racking etc...i look back at the past 7 months, and i'm surprised i made it through the first week! I THINK I NEED A NEW JOB! :horsecrap

 

[Tweak]

You know, after all this stuff began to happen at my place of work I pretty much decided the same thing.

I put in my two-weeks with the place I was at and attended a few meetings with Schlumberger. For those of you who know that is an Oil-Field Fracturing and Drilling service. Looks like they want me to drive an Articulated 540 CAT for them sometime in the near future! NICE.