so today i went to my friends house and he was working on his 73 ford bronco. he had the rear right tire off and was replacing a leaking wheel cylinder. i arrive said hello and sat on a bucket next to his trunk and started talking about what i did last night. we were talking for about 2 minutes we grabbed some wd-40 to help free up the wheel cylinder bolts he got back under his rig and when he yanked on the wrench to break the bolts loose, the rocking motion caused the floor jack that he was using to support the truck to slip and fall on him. the truck was not being supported by a jack stand. luckly it didnt kill him.he was pinned by the rear end right next to the third member. it took me a second to react. i had to raise the vehicle off of him using the jack. he now has a wicked red mark on his chest and said he couldnt breath when he was pinned. he's fine just really shaken up. im so mad at him right now but glad hes fine, and even though i know i shouldnt be, im mad at myself for not realizing he didnt have a jackstand. becareful out there when your building you cars guys, i know at least half of us have not used a jackstand at least once.
that's why jack stands are the first thing ya grab before the job is started and used as designed........i would like to call him a dumbass but it wouldn't be nice to a guy that just crapped his drawers.
You can never be too safe.Always look for possible dangers before you start a new task.We have this safety program at work,they constantly grill us with safety.But it's for our own safety.One stupid move can not only get you hurt or killed,but it will affect your families quality of life also.Think before you act.
Good timing. One of my neighbors ... His reply when I commented on it was something like "there aren't really earthquakes around here like in the Bay Area". I don't see how some people can be so "brave".
We lost a 70 year old car builder 3 weeks ago the same way.pinned himself at the banjo on his 47.Happends more often than not.Be safe guys,it only takes a little time.
Make sure to use quality jack stands too, I remember a guy not too far from me was doing gears in a Camaro years ago, and the cheapo stands with the pins for adjustment collapsed. Put him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Glad you were there for him.
Good job, first for saving the guy. Then getting upset with him for doing something we all know is unsafe.
i know a guy whos kid owned an early bodied mercury cougar, who was working on the car with no jack stands. he did something and the car slipped off of the jack and the third member landed on his head and killed him instantly..... COME ON GUYS, REALLY NEED TO START THINKING THINGS THROUGH!!!
We've all done something dangerous at one time or another, usually because we're in a hurry and think we don't need to take all of those precautions for a job that will only take a couple of minutes. Lest we forget, we are all alive through no fault of our own! Glad your friend was not instantly crushed to death as he could have been, and glad you were there to help him. Good idea for all of us to take a basic first aid course and CPR course so we'll know what to do when somebody is hurt or when somebody is not breathing and doesn't have a pulse. A guy in Kentucky is alive because my oldest daughter, who was 19 at the time, knew how to do CPR.
There are too many of these threads lately, we need to be on the lookout for this, talk about it at work and around those fellow gearheads we congregate with. A terrible, sad, and stupid way to die...
I've been working on cars for over 37 years. Even when I was a kid I would never dream of getting under a car without jackstands. Now that I'm older I'm more aware of the potential danger (parinoid?). I just can't imagine doing something that dangerous. Your friend is very lucky that you were there. Like previously stated I just can't believe....
i'll be posting a link to this on some of the other car site i belong to. I hope your friend learned something, glad you were there he would have died if you weren't. he owes you a beer, no make that a case of beer.
Amigo.... you just earned ur ticket through the gates of heaven...DAmmit! THink...Safety First my friends!!!
Good to hear hes OK.I guess this is what they call natural selection,natures way of weeding out bad genes.I always use stands AND will put tire/rim or big hunk of wood thicker than me under just in case stands tip over.
Safety reminders are a great 'wake up' call. Why not do us all a favor and run them on a ragular basis,we do tend to "forget" Ernie
Your buddy is lucky you were there and reacted so quickly - well done. But how many times do we hear this????..... Stands were some of the first and best things I ever bought and I now give them as birthday presents. Get a few mates together and all pitch in next time its a birthday and NEVER work under a car on a jack without stands. And if you see a buddy doing something unsafe, SPEAK UP!!!
A friend of mine is a retired mail man. In his years of walking mail door to door, he has come across 4 dead guys under cars. You can't be too careful. I always try to have a redundant system just in case. It can happen so damn fast......
There was a guy on another message board that i frequent a couple years ago that was working on his Syclone (GMC) and his wife came home to find him dead underneath it from it falling off his jack. I was working on a buddies firebird once in my garage and had it fully extended with 4 jackstands and had been working on the starter and some wiring. I crawled out from under it and was standing talking to him when it slammed to the ground!!! Wouldve killed me dead as hard as it hit! Turns out a ching chong jackstand broke the lock mechinisim to cause it. Always use good stands, enough stands and shake the crap out of it before you get under it!! Our cars are too low (usually) to get out unhurt!
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