Crazy/Insane Shop Accidents

I worked in an upholstery shop in highschool. We used to use 2 gallon paint pots that were pressurized for spraying our glue. These pots ran directly off our 200 psi compressor so they had release valves and pressure regulators built onto the top. Well, I was gluing in a carpet kit so I was staning outside the car with the glue pot between my legs... apparently someone must have knocked over the pot and bent the release valve earlier in the day. Well that thing kept filling up until it went off like a bomb! It took me about 30 seconds afterwords to get up the courage to look down, All I could feel was wetness from my thighs down... I was pretty sure I had just lost my manlyhood. When I did look down I was covered in glue, but not missing any parts! However As I looked up there were pieces of that pressure pot imbedded in the wall 30 feet in front of me, and it shot one of the locking clamps through the aluminum door in back of me. I've never seen 2 paying customers leave a shop so quick. they had already paid for there cars but left without them! It took one guy 4 days to come back!

 

At the same upholstery shop one of the old timers was always had trouble with his right hand... He never wrote anything, so one day I asked him if he knew how to write? And he said yes but that he was right handed and he couldn't anymore. He apparently was pulling an all nighter to get a job out on time, fell asleep while sewing and sewed all the way from his pinky nail to the thumb side of his wrist before he woke up! Not only was his hand sewn to the panel, but the walking foot on the machine crushed every bone it went past so there was no easy fix for that one. He said he just let it heal, but it still hurts everyday! ya think!

 

Last one, In middle school woodshop, there was this hispanic girl (last name Flores) who was pretty hardcore to begin with, Well she was using the scroll saw one day and wasn't paying enough attention because she cut off both her index and thumb at the same time... Instead of saying anything to the teacher she just scooped them up and walked out the door. The teacher noticed the large amount of blood leading out the door and ran out to see what was happening! When she heard the teacher coming she ducked into the girls bathroom and flushed the to digits down the crapper! ... it turns out her parents didn't have insurance so she didn't want to go to the hospital! WTF!!! I ended up calling her tres flores for the next 4 years all the way through highschool! She probably still hates me to this day!... Yeah get in line! True story! You just can't make shit like this up!

 

Watched an old club mate moving an engine hoist with the arm up, he must hit a bump in the parking lot, the plug that holds the hydrolic shot out as well as the fluid right behind it. The arm came down wacked him in the head, then he took a header into the bed of his truck.

Another buddy was working on a car on jack stands, i stood up to get some tools, i turned back around just in time to watch the car fall, he turned his head just in time for the frame to barely kiss him on the cheek.

 

well one day in welding shop my friend was MIG welding above him standing and managed to catch some embers in his pants and catch the elastic band of his underwear on fire some how. luckily his boys were ok and only lost some hair and has a huge (think oversized rodeo belt buckle size) burn mark .

 

tres flores.
heh.

 

Being an ex Airborne soldier (Medic) until I went SF I got to watch a fair few heavy drops, Unimog Trucks, Landrovers, Artillery (A Bty 8/12 Mdm Regt) And a full Field Hospital!
Two of them were good, most drops are done at 1000ft, even heavy drops. When the loadies kicked out a Unimog it soon became apparent that who ever rigged the Parachute hadn't attached it to the truck pallet harness! The canopy (I think several G12s) trailed behind the Herc still half in the D bag. The truck tumbled once and landed with a delayed WHUMP! right way up. The damn thing was compacted to about 4 foot high! That sat around DNSDC (A graveyard for broken and new shit) for years.

The Hospital drop was interesting, lost 60% of all equipment and all canopy's worked! That cost quite a few million dollars! They suddenly came out with the FST, Forward Surgical Team. All man-packed in place of personal combat equipment.
I have seen countless 'Door Bundles' (heavier equipment kicked out the door before the 'stick' of soldiers, usually containing heavy weapons, ammo and crap) streamer too.
I finally found out first hand what it was like to have a parachute malfunction on you, ended my career.

Now, more on topic. Had a mate that left school to become a boiler maker. Got a job building truck trailers for Tieman. He was in a tanker with a big (Don't know the size) grinder, cleaning out a porous weld to re-do. The tanks are on a powered rotisserie, someone pushed the button to roll the tank while my mate was still in there working. It must have been slick in there anyway with the dye they had used inspecting the weld, he slipped in it and fell onto the grinder as the tank rolled, his right knee was the first to hit the grinder and took his knee cap clean out of his knee! Left a bloody skid mark half way around the inside where it was flung!

Once again, back at DNSDC I was sent out there one day in the ambulance (Emergency code 1 call) to a guy that had his foot run over. I thought how bad could it be?
Well.....
They repair all heavy machinery there in the workshops. Two RAEME (Royal Australian Electrical & Mechanical Engineers) Mechanics were working on a tracked bulldozer (No idea what but the fucker was big and green). One guy was in the cab and the other was standing beside it. The driver managed to run over the other guys foot, where he started yelling real good! The quick (Not!) thinking driver, rather than have his mate endure him backing off his foot decided to turn the tracked vehicle so his foot would 'pop' out the side of the track.
He managed to take the foot off from just in front of his ankle!

After I left the Army I worked at a panel shop for a while (People, cars, hey I fix em' all). One of the panel beaters was wheeling a spare tyre past a smashed car, as he went to push the tyre the back of his hand caught some torn panel steel on the car and cut across his hand severing all the ligaments that help you to open your hand! Bleed like a SOB!

Saw one chick not only shot herself but the round went through her and into the instructors leg! He was running to her to stop her from the in correct method she was using in cocking a Browning 9mm, he didn't make it!

The old RSM of my Regiment was participating in a live fire attack on a hill, using smoke for cover etc. He somehow got ahead of everyone and one guy mistook him for a target silhouette, copped three rounds from a H&K MP3 into the hip/groin area. Didn't stop him from running after the guy to punch him though! One very, VERY tough guy!

Been first response three plane crashes too at work, a Wirraway at a Navy Airshow and a RNZAF A4 skyhawk (Nowra NSW) and an F111 that hit a finger of stone above the jungle at Mach2!
Man, I have had some bad days at work!
Doc.

 

Oh, one other. Kinda O/T again but scared the shit out of me. I was medic on a demolitions range for a bomb disposal course. They rigged up a shit load of IED's and had to neutralise them. One they made was in an old safe, 10KG of Powergel and locked the door.
Scenario was, robbery and they left a nice supprise in the safe. After a conversation between the students they decided to try and punch a hole into it with a point focal cutting charge. Layed the safe on its back and placed the conical charge on top. BLAM! The door was full of concrete, didn't do shit to it but blew all the handles and dials off the front so you couldn't get back into the safe if you had to!
It took them 4 or 5 days of trying to get into that sucker. Leaving the 10kg active bomb laying on the range overnight when we went home!!
Finally they dented it enough to pack some C4 under the door flange, cool this should blow the door open.
They set it up and headed for the bunker.
I was on Radio picket (Safety net) sitting at the edge of the bunker when they blew it. The heavy steel front of the safe flew past me no more than a foot away, it traveled a good 300 yards about 3 foot off the ground before it lost height and struck the ground, all the while shattering little sapling gum trees like hard candy! Scared the shit out of me, I'm not sure there was enough bunker to have protected me!
Safe to say I moved the radio further into the bunker after that!
Doc.

PS, it still left the door locked, just took the front panel off the door. Smashed out the concrete then got into it with a .50 cal interrupter.

 

Worked at shop that did alot of truck/trailer work. Had a boss that that always made fun of me for wearing safety glasses, gloves, etc when doing dangerous shit. We were on top of a couple ladders grinding and welding an aluminum hog trailer. He was horsing the grinder to try to get done faster when it jumped and spun right into his throat. I look over and see my boss clutching his throat with blood spurting 5 feet out in a red jet. I had to jump off the ladder onto the hog trailer and get his ass to the ground where I proceded to hold his artery or whatever pinched shut til the ambulance arrived. Took a bunch of stitches and a ground a decent little chunk of his jawbone.

 

Ooooh, another one. This I only heard about when I was in 8/12 Mdm Regt Artillery as a Medic. Many years ago there was an artillery live fire range in Holsworthy training Range. That was closed in the early 80s(?) after and incident................................
This occurred with the 'big' guns, 155mm (Our largest anyway!)
On any live fire range you have a 'Template', parameters where you can fire into and a secondary area of 'dead fall' for 'over' shots and ricochets that covers the furtherest the particular weapon can punch a round out too.
Well when you fire an artillery piece you need a 'firing method', the co-ordinates to ensure the round lands in the right place, say in the range template.
On this day in the early 80s they were on a live fire exercise, receiving the 'firing method' when a gun fires before being 'layed' onto target. A 155mm HE round, with a 30+ KM range sails into the wild blue yonder, where to land no one knows.
It just so happens that a public road runs around the perimeter of the range (Heathcote Rd). On this day a 'MrWhippy' ice cream van is driving along it. The round was fired with little elevation so it apparently skipped along the ground and meet the MrWhippy ice cream van on Heathcote road punching through the back of the van! No one hurt, round didn't detonate! But thee was some explaining to be done!
Now it sounded like BS to me, untill a gun Sergeant showed me pics of the van!!

Then there was the same sort of incident on an 'Ex' in Shoal Water Bay, this was about 1996 and my first trip 'out bush' with the Arty Regiment.
While the fire mission method was coming down the line a young soldier thought he heard 'Fire'........ BLAM, a HERA (High Explosive Rocket Assist) round with a 48km range shoots off in an unknown direction. Into a training area full of soldiers on exercise!
The safety net went into overdrive ordering ALL units to take cover. Luckily it landed in empty space, but there was a few minutes of nervous looks!

The same 'Ex', and we are doing 'Danger Close' live fire. Dropping rounds as close to our troops in a creeping barrage as they advance. This was the first time I had ever seen one of these guns fire, I was standing between the gun and the gun tractor. On the back of the tractor (A big ass all terrain Mack truck) is the ULAC, I cant remember what it stands for but it had all the spare stores in it.
The first few rounds go downrange when I was startled (Read, scared shitless) by a loud THUNK on the ULAC about two feet above my head. It had taken a piece of shrapnel the size of my fist and almost destroyed it!
Safe to say the mission was canceled, if WE were taking shrapnel how fucking close was it to the troops out front!!
Doc.

 

A buddy of mine used to be the production manager at a potato chip plant and was checking the roof on one of the buildings when he slipped. He attempted to stop himself from falling off the roof when he caught his ring finger on the rain gutter. The finger popped off with the ring attached! They got him in a car to take him to the hospital and my buddy didn't want to make a mess of the other guys car so he burried his hand into his crotch to catch the blood. They were not able to reattach the finger so they sewed him up and sent him home only able to count to nine with his shoes on and his zipper up. The guy that drove him home from the hospital went in to tell his wife that there had been an accident at work and that her husband was ok but he had been injured. My buddy being a bit of a smart ass walked in with his hand behind his back and a huge blood stain in the crotch of his white work pants, needless to say his wife was not amused.

 

Always make sure the safety locks on the lift fully engage. Especially if you are leaving the car on the lift overnight... luckily only minor damage resulted.

 

I'll second that.Whew!

 

While not in the shop, this may qualify.
The 57 dropped in gear and took off across the backyard.
It stopped after it ran over a Model T engine on a pallet which left the back wheel in the air

 

I was doing a road call for a dead battery just around the corner from the shop. Hook up the cables and let it charge for about 5 mins. Tell the customer to try it BOOM the battery blows in my face. Ripped the cables off the truck, slam hood and was back at the shop in maybe 25 seconds hosing out my eyes. Couldn't see well for a few hours but luckily no permanent damage.
Another time I was working under the hood of a Fairmont. As I stood up my back hit the hood and knocked the hood prop out. The hood slams & locks square across the back of my left hand. No one else in the shop and there I stand-trapped. It really didn't even hurt, the hood just bent around me. Finally some time later the boss comes back and I just asked him to pop the hood.
Wish I had a pic of his face when he saw it!
At a different shop, I go in after a day off and there sits the bosses fathers pickup all smashed. It turns out there wasn't enough room for the shop door and truck in the same space near the ceiling and the door won. Moral-watch the door as it goes up!

 

A guy on who'd just joined the Hotrodders.com site was killed under the project car he'd just gotten when it slipped and fell on him. Shop accidents are no joke. I posted about this a week or so ago.

 

Few days before my wedding, I'm putting the finishing touches on our getaway car -- a little vintage convertible. For some reason that escapes me now, I thought it was important to wire-wheel the loose rust out of the insides of the bumper overriders.

So, running the wheel in a drill locked "on". The wheel kicks off the mounting bracket, catches hold of my glove, and pulls itself up into my glove with angry growl, digging away at my hand.

I manage to get the cord in my other hand and pull it out. With some gingerness, I get the drill out of my glove and the glove off my hand. That meaty area below the thumb is all chewn up, but strangely bloodless.

After looking at it for a second, I think, well, I'm almost done. Might as well finish the job up before I wash off. So, I turn the drill off, plug it back in, put my glove back on and do the last bit of rust removal.

Okay, so now I'm done and about to head into the house to wash the wound and what have you. There's a good amount of blood now. My glove is all wet inside from it and seems kinda slippery on my hand.

But, as I reach the door I realize that it is trash day, and I really need to take the cans out, because I always forget & anyways, like with the grinding, I might as well do it before washing my hands, right?

So, fine, I take the cans out to the curb. They're the big municipal kind with handles at the tops and wheels. They're full, so I'm using both hands, but the wound doesn't really hurt, it's still kinda numb. Whatever.

Finally, going back to the house once more to wash up. My hand feels funny, now. Tingly? I wonder if it's the bloody glove rubbing, so I pull it off. Now, it's almost dark at this point, but my hand looks odd somehow.

I go in the mudroom and flick on a light & there's the problem: Ants. Just loads and loads of ants on my hand, running around and mired in the bloody mess. I guess they were on the trash can & I just didn't feel them.

Totally f**king disgusting. But, it all cleaned up good for the wedding.

Five years on, still married and no apparent scar.

Jesse.

 

Had a tanker trailer that had a 800 gallon false( no fill dome) compartment in the back. There was a 12" plate with a 1/4 inch pipe plug in the center held on by a bunch of bolts. Fuel was always dripping from the plug. I had pulled the plug several times and gotten a cup or so of fuel out of it. A screw driver in the hole didn't hit anything so the problem went unresolved for quit a while. One day the boss sent his son down to "help", so I told him to take the plate off and see if he could find where the fuel was coming from. I heard a yell and turned just in time to see him come floating out from under the trailer in a river of diesel fuel. He accused me of planning it. I told him I didn't know that was going to happen but sure would have if I had known and filmed it. The plate had a 1/4 inch thick rubber gasket that had swelled to the size of a basketball and the cup of fuel was just what weeped through it.

 

Not shop related.Found a soft spot with the bobcat.Good thing I'm skinny, had to climb out the fucking back window?16''x16''! To the right is a 10' deep pool!!To this day , these photos make me sick.What I get fpr being in a hurry.

 

not auto related but still a stupid mistake. a cable tv customer was installing a fence in his backyard and proceded to hit a under ground line myself and a co-worker had to repair. the cable was exposed in one of his post holes and not damaged but there was damage in the next hole . we repaired the damaged cable and my co-worker was heating the shrink tube on the splice using a propane torch while i marked the other exposed end with locate paint. quick side bar here .....when some under ground cable is installed it is done with a boring rig that leaves about an inch space around the cable.......back to the story , i was knelt down face above the hole spraying locate paint on the exposed cable while my co-worker was torching the shrink boot....well the paint fumes migrated down the space to the torch and ignited and blew up right in my face . no injuries , just a singed beard , eyebrows and hair. very stinky

 

Is that what they call Rhino Liner?

 

Got another one for ya. Same shop same boss. I was replacing a fan shroud on a backhoe while the bucket was lifted up in the air. The boss was working on the other side of the backhoe on some hydrolic lines and used a prybar to move them. I hear this god awful buzzing noise and the bucket starts to drop like a brick I jump up and slip on all the hydrolic oil and fall back which is the only thing that saved my ass from getting crushed. He had pried the line outta it's coupling and it shot hydrolic oil across the entire shop while he just sits there looking like an idiot. I decided that was enough and quit shortly after.

 

the theory is right, as a recycler is just a motor which sucks. so the fumes would be passing straight thru a dc motor, the result would be that same as if you tried to syphon petrol with a vacuum cleaner lol

 

I have worked on most things that burn fuel for 40 plus years ,, I have seen and done the most stupid %%^%(^% things you can think of .
One that comes to mind is ,,, in the early 80's I worked at a 2 stall Texaco gas station it was about 6 am I was working on a Chevette and the boss was in the back office with the tv on doing book work . I finished the work on the car and thuoght that i would give the customer a little extra service on the house .
The car had at on time had the hood pop up going down the road so the hood was buckled down between the hinges , so it would bind when you opened or closed it .
I walked around to the right side of the car ,,, now remember this car used a prop rod to hold the hood up . I put both hands between the hood and the cowl and pulled up on the hood trying to get the buckle out of it. When i pulled up on the hood the prop rod dropped and the hood went shut and latched on the secondary latch .
I could not open the hood , both hands were stuck between the hood and cowl . I started yelling for George my boss but he was in the back office with the tv on and did not here me .
Well after about 10 minutes I am screaming at the top of my lungs , I did not know how many fingers I had left ,,, I was freaked out !!
George finally heard me came out and he could not get the secondary to release.
I told him just push down on it then trip the latch .
Well he got it open and all my fingers were still in place but it took days for me to get the feeling back in them.
No good deed goes un punished
Brian

 

I remember very well when I was working on my truck, we were in the process of stripping it down to the frame and we just got down to removing the bed. The tailgate never latched right and my cousin didn't know so he shut without thinking about it. I thought it was latched so away we went with lifting it off. Stupid me goes for the passenger side back corner. As we lift it off the frame and sit it on the ground the tailgate comes open and all 80 pounds of it comes square down on my big toe. The first thing that comes out of my mouth was the typical f-bomb followed by three or four more. I pull my sock off and almost threw up. All that weight coming down at once pushed the meat out the side of my toenail. My Dad see this and has to walk outside while my Aunt doctors my toe. I wasn't wearing boots. I needed shoes so my dad cut the toe off of a pair of my old converse so th bandage would have room to stick out.

 

not crazie or insane but totaly pissed me off. my 16 yr old daughter and i had a fight before we left for school and work, i got to the shop with lots on my mind, raised the doors, jumped in the buick, fired her up, reverse, door open, 12'' I beam. broke my car. this was monday. i need a door

 

Well, I'm definitely persuaded to buy some safety goggles and stop relying on my prescription glasses to protect my eyes.

-Dave

 

winner winner, chicken dinner !!!

 

While I was goign to school to be a mechanic I worked at Sears inthe garage at night. I had pulled in one of their service vans to replace the pinion seal and it was a real old drive on lift. Just me and a buddy from school working. I set the emergency brake but did not realize it did not work. PUlled the drive shaft and noticed the van was rolling. It went over the chocks and dropped on its wheels. When the front hit it blew out one tire then started creeping into the parkign lot. Luckily the bay door was open. I was hanging on the fron bumper yelling for my buddy to help stop it since it was heading for a whole row of cars inthe parking lot. He was doubled over laughing so hard he could not help. Soon felt a thud as it hit. I looked up just knowing i was fired and it hit another sears van. The only other sears van inthe whole row of cars. NO damage jsut a blwe tire. Manager came otu said push it in and seal the tire and forget it.

Later in the school I was doing a front end alignment (same buddy). I toldhim to take the chocks otu of the front and chock the rear wheels. When I went to turn the front wheels to do a caster sweep the car rolled of of the rack into the pit. Hit the machine and broke otu a bunch of mirrors! When the instructor came out yelling I thought i told you guys to chock the wheels. My brilliant buddy had taken a piece of CHALK and drew aline on the tire and the ground. Said he thought it was to show if the car was moving.

 

A friend of mine named Doug Mattox owns Southern Style Hotrod in Lucama, NC. He told me about a 40 Ford that was brought to him with major sheet metal damage. The car had been taken to another shop for installation of a new steering column. The mechanic pulled the car into his shop, lowered the overhead door half way, and opened the driver's side door to begin working on the column. In the process of pulling the column he managed to inadvertently start the car with the transmission in reverse. The mechanic rolled out of the car as it shot backwards in order to avoid being crushed against the door frame, while the car kept going backwards and tore the overhead door down as it exited the building. The drivers door was pushed back until it touched the front fender. The 40 rolled out of the garage and across the parking lot until it hit a Camaro parked directly in its path. The front clip had been taken off of the Camaro, so the 40 impaled itself on the Camaro's frame horns. Doug said the only part of the 40 that wasn't damaged was the passenger door and front fender. The tab for sheet metal repair was $18,000, paint was even more.