Crazy/Insane Shop Accidents

A story from my teaching days:
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In addition to teaching high school auto shop, I coordinated about 2 dozen Industrial Cooperative Education (work-study) students. I thought I was making a routine check-up at a local Shell station where two of them worked, when I saw the tow truck dragging a car out of a bay, the car was on its side.
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I tell you that was one agonizing walk from where I parked my car around to the front of the station. Small steps, one terrifying journey for Mr. Teacher. As luck would have it, it wasn’t one of my student’s fault, but one of the mechanic’s. He used the old trick of putting a bolt into the hoist valve to jam it in the drop position, and walked away into the bathroom. Yah, a door had been left open on the car……
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A story from my wrenching days:
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Among other car lines, the dealership carried Sterling, a short-lived ‘80s joint effort between Austin Rover and Honda (they had Accura drive trains, Rover’s part of the car was a pos). My stall was on the end, next to the door. So I was the guy this porter (a doped-up kid) came to first. Very casually he asks “What do you know about Sterling batteries?”
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So I reply, “Well, what do you want to know?”
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He says: “What makes them smoke?”
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Me: “Whaddyamean?”
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He says: “I was jumping one, I hooked up the cables, and the battery just started smoking”
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Now it occurs to me to look out the window. What do I see? A car out in the lot with the hood up and smoke is rising, and just as I see this, I also see small flames!
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The doper had left the cables on backwards the whole time he was talking to me! I pulled an extinguisher off the wall and then I handed it to him. No way was I going to let the boss see me near that car, I figured just to be seen near it was to imply complicity.

 

In high school metal shop class a guy had the same thing happen with the lathe chuck. Smashed his hand. They later mounted a big guard around the lever. My friend's uncle used to be a butcher. One day he backed into a meat grinder and got a little behind in his work...

 

1) Wood shop 9th Grade. A kid was using the table saw and ran the piece of wood through incorrectly and a 2x4 size piece of wood 3 feet long shot into his abdomen like a rocket. We all laughed not knowing how bad it messed him up.


2) Got careless with the grinder while not wearing gloves. The .045 blade grabbed the work while I was holding onto the other end with my left hand. Not too CRAZY or INSANE, but freaked me out nonetheless. I didn't use a grinder for 2 weeks after this. I could have lost my whole thumb.

Also, the scar below it was when I broke a beer bottle over a guys head and sliced my self a nice 1/2" wide gap through the meat into my hand. BLOOD WAS EVERWHERE and the beer bottle didn't even leave a scratch on him.

 

I was using a 3" cutoff wheel in a diegrinder recently. Worked fine.
Picked it up a minute later and when I turned it on, the wheel exploded.

Hurt for a while but the visual....purple bruise on my stomach and chest bigger than a dinner plate.
Glad it wasnt in my eyes

 

You broke beer bottle over a guy's head?

 

After high school I worked at Crown Coach building school buses. They had a rail spur to deliver metal. One day I jumped on a little tractor pulling a trailer HEAVY with 1/2 inch plate steel. One of the trailer wheels dropped down into a groove near to some rail tracks sunk into the road between our buildings. It was diagonal to the path I was going and the wheel didn't want to rise out of the groove, but I kept driving and eventually the wheel holder bent and snapped the wheel off. The trailer dumped tons of thick sheet steel in the middle of the road. A few minutes later, the lunch break whistle sounded so the entire factory came out to see me staring at my mess. The boss just yelled at me, but I didn't get fired.

 

My bosses little brother that was about 15 was using a buffer with the cord looped around his neck. He caught the cord in the pad and,he had nice red marks for the rest of the day.

 

way back when i was in high school auto shop class, we working at the welding stations when the teach called attention to everyone that class was 10 minutes left. the guy next to me was using the cutting tourch and he just stuck the lighted tourch in his shop apron pocket. the rest of us were laughin so hard we did not realize he had burned clear thru to his gonads. you should have seen the ambulance workers (female) trying to keep a straight face and try to get him to remove his hands trying to cover up.

 

few years ago I had a rock crawler in the shop for some upgrades including a bigger alternator and a generator for an on board welder. As part of my checks to make sure everything is working right I use a machine that I can clamp an inductive probe around the alternator lead and twist a knob on it and it loads the alternator so I can see what the max output is. To do this you have to rev up the motor so I got in front of the truck, and with one hand reved it at the carburator and twisted the knob with the other hand. Well the craler had a lame ass shifter or something but it fell into gear. This was a manual mind but it didnt have a parking brake in it but I chocked the tire and though nothing of it. Well being that this rig had insanely low gears and the big tires when it dropped into gear it crawled its self right over the wheel chock and knocked me over and ran over my leg. One of the guys in the shop saw this happen and ran over to turn the truck off litterally seconds before it slowly crawled over the top of me straight into the wall of the shop. I luckily only got some scrapes and a pair of torn pants but that was the closest thing to dying or being severly injured in the shop.

 

Yikes!

 

I had a helper rolling a taper in a electric slip roll..with gloves.The metal caught his glove and pulled his hand in. By the time I got there he had hit the off button . It had rolled up to his rist.I opened the roll..slid the glove off..all there was was mashed potatoes with catsup. Ended up losing his hand. No gloves on slip rolls. And wear your saftey glasses.

 

Stopped by a buddys shop last week, 7 or 8 guys standing around shooting the bull 1 guy putting front disc pads on his wifes car. He gets done goes to wash his hands, another guy jumps in the car to move it did not pump the brakes before moving. He got it stopped by throwing it in park, real close to running over several guys that were looking the other way.

 

My brother's diff and trans shop routinely buys wrecked 4x4's and strips out the drivetrain for rebuilding and cores. Whenever he gets 2 or 3 stripped hulks he calls a salvage guy with a crane truck. On one of his visits he was lifting a mid 70's bronco when the stabilizer broke through the lot and sank. The change of angle and the wieght of the Bronco on the crane flipped the truck on it's side. The Bronco ended up going through a fence and into the rail line next to the shop. Luckily it wasn't on the tracks. The crane operator was standing on top of the deck working the remote when it wnet over. He jumped clear but broke his ankle when he landed.

 

I knew a guy who wasn't to mechanicly inclined that was using a drill with about a quarter inch bit to clean a battery cable.This guy had no thumb on his left hand from a previous accident,anyway he was holding the cable end in his left hand and running the drill through it to clean it up when he got his index finger in the hole and drilled through it,then he had to reverse the drill to get it out.It messed it up pretty bad,had to have surgery on it.

 

One day my brother in law was welding near the good old waste basket full of oily and dried 110 octane junk rags. The fire ran right up the wall within about 2 seconds. He used the fire extinguisher very quickly to put it out. I did not witness this just saw the aftermath. Black marks about 10 feet up the wall and charred drywall about 6 ft of that. Metal waste basket lost most its Harley Davidson mural. The extinguisher saved the shop I believe.

He also told me about one time at the dirt track a car leaked fuel all the way around the 3/8 mile track a few times before going off the track for the mechanical black flag. Well the track crew threw the checkered flag immediately and cleared the track. What to do about all that spilt fuel before the next race? They threw a match to it and it flared up all the way around the track and halfway down into the pit area for about a minute. People sitting at the bottom of the grandstands ran up about five rows higher. Solved the problem. No one was injured. I asked why did they not just wet the track he said that this was quicker and kept the track in prime race condition still. If they had wet the track they would have had to cut down the race length due to time constraints.

This got me thinking so I decided to see for myself what 110 octane soaked rags in the driveway would flame up to? Flames were about 4 feet high, were very warm and took awhile to put out with just water. Becareful around any kind of fuel especially in a shop or garage and have an extinguisher handy.-Weeks

 

When I was about 13, I was working on a 53 Chevy that wouldn't start. I had it on the charger while I was screwing around with the points. My arm pushed the charger cable as I leaned over it causing a spark and explosion.. I was able to shield the car from damage with my face.. The owner of the shop I was at picked me up off the ground and shoved me into the tire water tub.. It was then off to Sherman Oaks hospital for a little rest and relaxation ( felt like they were scrubbing flesh off with a wire brush ). The scars are still with me and shaving is easier as there are several areas on my face where hair will not grow.. Friends refer to it as the day my face caught fire and they put it out with an ax..

 

I worked in a tire shop years ago. Two of us were having a race to change a set of rear tractor tires....the 7 foot diameter types. We had the tire hammers out and pry bars and were zooming. He was ahead of me and was trying to get the bead to seat. He had lubed it with this thick, nasty soap stuff but the bead had alot of rust. He kept pushing more air in and was banging on the sidewall with the big hammer but that section of bead would not pop. He shoved a bunch of the stuff in the rim and kept banging away. He was squatting down and peered into the slot to see what was hanging the bead up when the pressure popped the bead into place. I was watching and saw a spray of the lube stuff slap him right in the face. It knocked him on his butt. He rinsed his eyes for about 30 minutes. He had tears in his eyes for at least 24 hours and it looked like he had gone a few rounds with Mike Tyson.

 

Not an auto shop, but......I worked in a distribution center in Ventura, CA about 5 years ago. We had miles of powered conveyor running through that place. Anyway, sometimes if you were trying to get from point A to point B, it was tough because there might be a 100 yard stretch of conveyor in the way.

We had lift gates here and there, but people used to just crawl under the conveyors - even though we warned them not to. Some lady was crawling under one right at one of the drive motors - got her hair caught in it. It ripped her scalp off her head and she bled to death right there.

I was a shift supervisor, luckily it didn't happen on my shift.

I saw another lady get her sweater caught in a drive motor at a different plany, ripped it right off her and she was standing there in her bra. Scary.

 

The drill and finger story had me thinking someone had seen me exercising my 'dumb' genes a few years ago! I was holding a battery cable in my left hand and decided not to take the time to put it in the vise to open the hole in the flattened end, just drill it out while holding it. I now save 10% on the time it takes to cut my fingernails.

My kid brother has a recycling yard and shop (which is where the other part of my left index finger still resides) and inadvertently ended up with a 'drive-thru' shop one day when a guy working for him rolled a truck down the hill in front of the shop onto the lift and out the back wall - no brakes!

And this one is an all time favorite - I was a shift manager at a truck stop and this happened before I went to work there but the story lived on. A circus convoy was passing through town and a big flat bed trailer carrying a caged rhino had a suspension problem. they pulled in to the truck stop and were directed out back behind the shop to drive over the pit so a mechanic could check things out. While the mechanic was inspecting things from his vantage point, the rhino relieved itself with about 10 gallons of ... well, you know. The mechanic got the rest of the day off.

 

That's nasty as Rhino Piss!

 

Old Gas Station Lifts!
Story #1;
Now these are the type with a center post and four feet. They are run by air but I think also hyd. assist. My buddy is weld on a muffler with a oxy/acc torch ( this was before wire feed was around, I'm old huh ) carpet catches on fire. Well if you have ever used one of these lifts you know what's coming. These lifts stay up from the compressed air which takes about 30 min. to bled off when a car's on fire! Interior is toast, first time the fire dept. was there early but couldn't do anything.
Story #2
Same style lift, we rent an old gas station that was closed for many years, it has said lift and air compressor, bonus. We put car on for testing, the lift hits the car frame alittle hard but we have contact. Little seems good, alot should be better. Throttle up, seems that's all shes got, then the afterburners kick in. We then go from ground zero to outer space in .005, lift goes to 6 feet car goes to 7 or 8 and back to 6 then all goes back to ground zero in another .005 Didn't use the lift anymore, we only like stupid once. We had these lifts back when we got wood burning and chemistry sets for Christmas!

 

Ha Ha Ha

 

Not as wild as alot on here but I'll throw these in:
I was installing a radio into a car that needed the dash kit trim ring trimmed up for a better fit. So like so many times before I take it on over to the bench grinder. Is I'm running the top edge along the stone wheel I turn it to get the corner, not paying attention to my finger on the underside of the trim. The stop grabs my left hand middle finger and pulls it in between the stone and guard. Of course I get the knee jerk reaction and pull my hand right back out. The was a nice groove taken out of my finger about 3/8" deep. I got to my toolbox and get my hand to stop shaking long enough to get the pits of melted skin and plastic out of the cut. I got it cleaned and bandaged up and went on to lunch. Now I have a decent 1'' by 3/8" scare left.

Once I was building a subwoofer enclosure and to tac it together I lined the sides up with my left hand and was lucky enough to shoot a finishing nail through the edge of the box into the thumb keeping the sides flush. Through the face of my finger tip and out the side. Sucked pulling that one back out.

One of the other installers was using the bench top router with a 45 round over. He grabbed a piece of scrap would to check the hieght of the bit. The bit was dull and shot the wood across it followed by the face of his thumb. He was sure to use larger pieces of scrap from then on.

Second hand story:
A new Best Buy had was having it's grand opening and the brand spanking new car audio installation shop had that nice non skid rubber flooring. Well the guys there thought the floor looked so cool and shinny when you cleaned it with armor all. First car gets pulled in to the bay, installer puts on the brakes and the car just keeps sliding until it smashes into the bench.

 

Actual. We had just finished a Honda Accord rebuilder for our "Big Boss". He pulled it into our shop next to the body shop (yes, one mechanical and one autobody. side by side) and put it up on a tewo post lift. When asked if he needed any help, "Nope, got it!", which he usually did- he ws/is a very competent guy. He changed the oil/filter and went to drop the car. There was a little 'bump" when the lift started down. The freshley painted/bodyworked Accord S-L-O-W-L-Y slid forward off the lift and landed on it's nose. Oops. At least he didn't try to catch it. To this day he doesn't seem to see the humor.

Number Two actual. I was teaching Autobody Repair and Refinishing at a university in Eastern Africa. I was also the instructor for welding. One of our large tanks that fed the Oxy/Acetylene manifold ran out during an evening class. No problem, I'll change it! The open end wrench I kept for the job was missing, so I found and used a 15" Russian socket set (open end adjustable). When I went to tighten the fitting the last little amount, it slipped. Yep, knocked me cold, 8 stitches and a black eye for two weeks. I still here from the witnesses to that little show!

 

I once witnessed a young, bored mechanic at the shop where I was working playing with a impact wrench and a lugnut from a medium duty truck. he for some reason hit the trigger on the gun and threaded the nut down the entire length of his left index finger. the shop foreman also witnessed this and calmly said "well, son, your gonna have to get it off" and the kid reluctantly put the gun in reverse and spun the nut back off before he passed out. a few days later he showed us the x-rays of his finger and you could clearly see threads cut into the bone at his knuckle.

 

Did the same with a cup brush on a 41/2" grinder and a "just do it" NIKE sweat shirt.....if the slogan meant being dumb....well...I "Just did it"
I've learned since ....

 

Not a car story but could be, my buddy finished mowing grass w/ his riding mower, he looks down at the exposed belt and thinks it's too loose, (he had removed the shield).He reached down and touched the belt, well it took his hand around the pulley and cut-off two of his fingers.When his wife got him to the ER they asked," where are your fingers"? His wife had her Dad go back to the house to get them to be reattached, he finds them in the yard by the mower, he goes in the house to get ice and paper towel to save the digits, when he comes out the back door he sees a crow fly off with one of my buds fingers! He did get one repaired at least..I promise you it's a true story... Also a guy in my H.S. shop class had long hair he was always flipping back by jerking his neck to the side. Well he's running the drill-press one day with the belt shield flipped up and his top-knot tangles into the pulley and ripped out a 4" circle of scalp to the bone, not a pretty site with blood running down his face and that scalp rotating around the pulley! KEEP THOSE GAURDS ON BOYS!

 

In high school I worked in a farm equipment repair shop. One fo the things they did was work on split rims for pickups. One of the guys finished a repair on a tire on one of those split rims and set it along the wall. All I heard was a metallic "ping" and turned around just as the ring popped off and flew by my head. It was far enough away to not take off my head, but close enough to shave the hair off about an inch above my ear. The ring flew by me and through a window just behind me. Altogether it went about 40 feet. It didn't scare me, but boy was I pissed. The boss had already chewed out the other guy for not cleaning the rims before he put them back together. Before that I didn't want to do split rims. After that I made the boss show me how to do them right. That came in handy, as about 10 years later, I had a part time job at a Service Station and when that boss found out I knew how to do split rims and was stupid enough.... err, knowledgeable enough to do them, he put me to work doing just those two weekends a month. It turned out that no one else in town was set up to do split rims, so even the competitors sent their wheels to us to do them. I got paid a minumum of $10 a wheel to do them (more if the wheel required major cleaning or was over 17 inches) and on a good weekend could make up to $800.That ain't bad when your military pay is about $600 a month. I probably did a thousand wheels in the few years I worked there, and never had one come apart. I've now grown and matured and there is no F***ing anyone would ever get me near one of those damn things again.....

 

Used to be a guy in our club (20+ years ago) who had an absolutely beautiful full fendered 34 roadster, He had 0 mechanical skills but a great paying job so the car was pro built & perfect in every way. A friend of his had a shop w/ a pit w/ 2 ramps you pull over. He took the car to him near closing for some maintenance work & they pulled it inside the building- several feet from the pit.
The next day- they came in & found the roadster standing on it's end- nose first in the bottom of the pit.

 

LET ME PREFACE THIS WITH, I AM A LITTLE OCD ABOUT POLISHING MY CARS.

A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO MY NEIGHBOR CAME RUNNING INTO MY GARAGE AT 6am, THINKING THE OLD FART FINALLY KICKED THE BUCKET! ACTUALLY, I COULDN'T SLEEP, SO I GOT UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT AND STARTED POLISHING THE UNDERCARRIAGE OF ONE OF MY RODS. IT SEEMS I HAD GONE TO SLEEP HALF WAY UNDER MY CAR ON THE GARAGE FLOOR WITH A POLISHING CLOTH STILL IN MY HAND. HOW EMBARRASSING!!