OT: Ever get pinned under a car??

had a pro mod roll back and smash my arm for a few minutes once-the winch had slipped into neutral while I was strapping down the rear end-winch let go and it got me all the way up to the shoulder-weird thing was-it didn't hurt me-miror bruising,a few little pinch marks.
8 p.s.i in a giant slick make for alot of deflection.I was however STUCK there was no budging it in any direction. good thing the boss only had to pee, or I would have been under it alot longer!

 

I ussta have a guy working for me that would nap under cars after a hard night. You'd wake him and he'd say '' No f'n way man! I was awake!!!''

So we all waited for him to ''Nap-time'' on the job again. We carefully put a jack under the car. Pulled the stands and trapped him under the car.
When he finally awoke and realised he was trapped the screamin' started
Everyone except him was laughing so hard it was several mins before we got him out.....HE STILL SAID HE WASN'T SLEEPING JUST GOING ALONG WITH THE GAG!

I think he's a local elected offical now

 

I was stripping a 1973 AMc Javelin and i was under the rear of the car when the jack slipped off the rear pumpkin.my ankle was in between the pumkin and the end of the axle with the tires off mind you.I was soo damn luky that the car came down right there instdead of the rear exle crushing my foot or ankle.Needless to say i use jackstands,proper jack ect.

 

Yes I did years ago. My boss then was putting headers on his car, and screwed up with the collectors. He had the front wheels up on those ramps. When he would push in the clutch it would hit on the collectors. I climbed under the car, and he pushed on the clutch, and the car rolled off the ramps, and pinned me under it. Lucky I was laying in sand and cl*** 5, because the header was about 1/2" away from my face.. He had to jack up the side of the car to get me out.. I had a lump on my forehead, and had a headache for awhile.. I asked him .. Why didn't you have the parking brake on??? he toldme.. Oh.. It doesn't work.. I never helped him again..

 

No Comment. I won't admit to being young and dumb once. Gumpa

 

I think we all were once.. Just most of us won't admit it..

 

If you have stamped steel three leg stands...throw them as far away as you can...I had my wifes expedition in the air on a pair of these as I was removing the rear coil springs to replace them with lowered springs. I did the normal stuff...jacked it up and put it on the stands,blocked the front wheels...shook the vehicle and no movement. As I got the second spring out I noticed some movement and started to roll out...got sideways when that ***** dropped on me...I fely my ribcage flex and was able to flatten onto my back...I'm still not sure what stopped the vehicle from dropping lower...maybe the pumpkin was against the floor....anyway after I caught my breath I slid out...the damn tripod stamped steel stand had one leg folded under!
I just had some bruised ribs fortunately!

 

I have a friend that his father was under the rearend of a 49 Dodge pickup and it was on those worthless ****ing 3 legged jackstands, one had collapsed it came down on his chest and broke 7 ribs and bruised his lungs also when it fell the rear wheels were off and his hand was under the path of the brake drum and when it landed it sheared 3 fingers completely off.

 

Johnny V***ch, old timer and local Model A wizard, lost his life here in Racine last year after a '29 A fell on him, he had it on a jack..... his wife was the only one there, she couldn't do anything.... the hydraulic jack gave out and it wasn't fast nor painless......

I always shake the car hard after it is up on the stands and make sure SOMETHING is there to keep the car up, at least a bit, if a stand does fail.... usually a wheel or my ex or something........

RIP Johnny

 

When I was younger my aunt cut out a newsclipping of a man who died undedr his car when it fell and crushed him. Problem was - he DID use jack stands and they DID NOT fail - the concrete aparently had a huge void underneath - it gave way and dropped the car onto him. Makes you think when you can't even trust the cement!!!!

 

I forgot all about those damn 3 legged jackstands too....I had some of those POS as well. I remember getting out from under a car on more than one oc***ion to see that they'd shifted and were tilting onto one or two legs. I hope they don't even make those damn things anymore.

Yeah using a bumper jack as a high lift jack for offroading or whatever is the only good reason to own one as far as I can tell.

 

I've never had anything fall on me, but I nearly crushed my leg one day in another automotive mishap. I sat down in a customers car to start it with my leg hanging out of the door and it was in drive. The car lurched forward and the door caught the lift, luckily I was quick enough to get on the brakes before it did any damage. Needless to say, I never start a car anymore unless my foot is on the brake too.

 

When I was in high school I had a 57 Ford convertible that probably had a bad torque convertor because it was going through front seals about every two months. I got to the point where I could jack it up and pull the ******, swap out the seal, and be back on the road in a couple of hours. My efficiency took its toll one day when, in a rush, I did not use the jack stands...the bumper jack tilted and the car came down. The frame hit me right across the chest and knocked the wind out of me. I was able to push the car up enough to slip out from underneath it...good thing the tires were still on the car! No permanent injury but it sure scared me enough to use proper safety for the rest of my life.

 

I was under my '54 Buick in a parking lot, fixing the clogged electric fuel pump. I had a cheap portable floor jack under the axle (one of those you buy in a plastic case and keep in your trunk), lifting it enough to get my chest under the frame of the car so I could work on the pump.
Thank God that almost 10 years before, a highschool friend's dad told me to always put a tire and rim under a car if you're working on it. He meant if you had the wheels off, but I took the time to dig the spare out and slide it on the ground next to me.
The jack bled down 6 inches in over 10 minutes--you do not notice that slow movement. All of the sudden I heard air escaping from the tire, and my brain told me the car was sitting on it and breaking the bead. I scooted out--and it was a helluva lot tighter going out--and looked at the tire. The frame rail was sitting on it, and the sidewall had collapsed enough that air was escaping form the bead.
That was a Friday night after work,on the way home, in an empty parking lot behind a row of Leland Cypres trees. They wouldn't have found my body until Monday morning, when the workers drove into the parking lot.

You want a wake-up call? Imagine a frantic wife and son wondering where you are for three nights and two days, and then someone finding your body.

I'm way past paranoid now whenever I get under a car with nobody else around.

-Brad

 

Many years ago I was working on my 39 ford in an old aircraft hanger, it was up on jackstands, but somehow I got my right hand pinned in the transmission mount. As hard as I tried I could not get free, I was all alone at nite ,and after a while the large rats we knew were there ,but never saw came out.
I yelled and made noise to scare them away. After I was pinned for about 4 hours my friend showed up and freed me. It was after midnite and he detoured past the shop on his way home "ust to check".

 

I was under my Plymouth a few years ago, It was one of the few times I used the creeper. I got hooked on the exhaust with my neck. At first I could not figure out why I could not move. I got real worried when I realized the prediment I was in. Then after staring at the jack and deciding it was not going down after all I slid off the creeper. (and about blacked out). After I got out I jacked the car a little farther up and put some stands under it. I never forgot that lesson.

 

I haven't been caught under a car (thank goodness), but I got stuck in the roof of our house a couple of months back. I was reaching for something through the rafters and ended up wedged tight.

It's not a nice feeling when you realise you are stuck !

After a couple of tries managed to wrench myself back and sideways and get out. Ended up with a wicked z-shaped bruise/abrasion on my stomach from a piece of wood that was sticking up.

 

How many of you past and current longhairs have rolled up your do in the wheels of a creeper?
I had it tied up so bad that I had to flip over under the car with the creeper ripping the hair out of my head at every movement. Then crawl out with it hanging from my head. Not your light wood creeper. The fat boy Matco cadillac type that weighs alot more!!

I was changing out the trans in my Chevy 1 ton crew cab truck in my driveway. Sloped driveway. Apparently I forgot to block the wheels or set the brake. It is high enough to do this without jacks or stands.
So, undo driveshaft, truck starts rolling. I scoot out lightning speed, look behind truck, see neighbors Lexus in the path of certain destruction. Think fast...
Grab 4x4 block, stick foot under front tire. Pull foot out and insert block of wood. No way. Truck stopped with my foot pinned under it, crushing the **** out of it. I was stuck there for about 45 minutes, laying on my back with the fire ants biting the **** out of me.
My neighbor saw what was up and set the ebrake and put some blocks behind it and pushed it off my foot with his truck.

Stupid Stupid.

 

Thanks, that made my day.

 

Actually, I know exactly what you're talking about. It's been a long time, but I had my metal years, then the punk years.

Doing any kind of work on a car with a 15" mohawk will make you feel stupid pretty fast.

 

My cardboard creepers don't have wheels. Good thing too, or I'd catch my hair and beard.

 

When I was a young'un about 12 I was under my fathers car polishing the half belly pan. My old man was in the car doing something, the motor was running and the car rolled back pinning me under the bell housing. I couldn't yell, couldn't take a breath so I reached up and popped off the plug leads I could reach. My old man shut down the car and heard me. Took two seconds to push it off.
On a sort of related thread (Falling cars) I was in one that drove out of an airplane at 14 thousand feet. It was an old Toyota we cut the roof off, five of us got in it and one on the hood with a camera, three others pushed it out and followed with cameras too. Got some good film and an unusual entry in the jump log book!

 

Hey I think I saw that on Real TV or one of those shows! I wanted to see the crushed car but I think they didn't show it or something, I remember being disappointed. Very cool though! If that was you in the video I saw that 's pretty neat.

I just remembered, I *have* been pinned under a car, and I'm damn lucky I didn't get messed up! I was riding my bike to work on a rainy day(I was 15) and a car pulled out of a driveway and pinned me underneath. One second I was riding and saw the car pulling forward and the next I was underneath it with my crumpled bike (I wasn't wearing a helmet either, naturally-it was 1985) and looking up at the bumper on this import. I felt him going forward, like he'd taken his foot off the brake in an automatic or something, and I figured I was dead and just kinda grabbed at the bumper to try and pull myslef out. He realized I was under there and backed up instead of entering the freeway access road, thank god.

My ten speed was totalled, the cranks were snapped off, rims bent, totally wasted. I had a few scratches but was otherwise no worse for the wear. Probably didn't hurt that I weighed maybe 115 pounds and fit easier under the car! I was totally skinny in high school, dammit. I caught a break on that day. The bike wasn't so lucky

 

Johnny I think the one you are referring to was Skydive Express in Arizona. They are some hard core skydivers!! We came a distant second to those guys, old news so no one was interested. Was a hell of a lot of fun though.
Doc.

 

Sort of......

As a teenager I was once pulling a cast iron 'glide from the bottom of a '53 rag and laying on my back under it to ease it down. Plenty of room for my brother to lower it to me from inside the car when I pulled the last bell housing screw...... except he wasn't holding it. Dropped about 14" flat onto my chest. Didn't break anything but for some reason I couldn't inhale, or talk. And I really wanted to say something to him. Finally got his attention by smacking the floor pan and got him to lift the thing about the time the black spots I was watching were starting to join up.

Figured I'd been lucky in that I'd drained it prior. Didn't realize just how lucky I'd actually been 'til I noticed I'd forgotten to put the drain plug back in place...........

If you're going to be stupid, be lucky. It helps............

 

I wonder, who was the morbid ******* that kept track of the time until he died?

 

my buddy was checking a leaking air ling under the bed on his bagged chevy crewcab dually that lays frame, he just took my 2.5 ton floor jack and raised one side as he just needed to push the line in a little farther well he was also on a incline outside of my shop i look up and noticed what he was doing and i run out to tell he to get stands and the truck start to roll back and he is under the frame at his mid section i grab his feet and yell get the f out his head clears as the jack is turned into a pretzel and the fram slams on the ground .. Holy f$@$&*% **** it would have crushed him. the saddle that lifts the vehicle on the jack was bent over to the out side wheel on the jack ???

i've had a few that scared the **** out of me, try jacking up a motor home with a bottle jack on the side of the freeway with rigs going by at 80 mph and the road had just been paved -- fresh blacktop and upper 90's + friggin wind from semi's the ***** was rocking and sinking faster than i could jack and you had to be under it to lift it. gott to love a flat on the inside dually tire.

 

About a year or so ago the mail man walks up and hands me the mail (I was outside washing my truck)....He looked like he seen a ghost and wasnt his useual self. So I asked him if he wanted a soda and if everything was "ok". He then told me he was on his route and walked up to a house with a man underneath his VW Bug.....dead.

Everytime I raise my cars I think about that day.

 

Been stuck twice actually.

First time when mrs ****** and I were first together in high school.

I was going to swap out the rear in the '55 Vic. I was under the vic at my mom's place. Had the u bolts broke loose and the two bumper jacks it was up on collapsed. Yes i did say 2 bumper jacks. It came down slow enough for me to roll into a low spot and it had me pinned under there for about an hour until my mom came home. She rounded up a friend and another jack and got it off me. bruised me pretty good.

second time I had a 3/4 ton Suburban up on jack stands sandy soil in S Texas and cheapo stands. I was pulling the fron springs and one of the jackstands folded up. The rotor s****ed my ribs and pretty much spit me out the my arm ended up folded at the elbo and wedged between the rotor and the spring holding the car up off the ground. I hollered until someone heard me and came to jack it back up. My forarm swelled up loke a toad I looked like Popeye for about a week.

been pretty luckey most of the time though.

 

here's a good one, Last week a good friend of mine also a cousin was taking a driveshaft out, the car was on ramps but he forgot to set e-brake or block the wheels.As the driveshaft came out of the car, it rolled down and KILLED him.Remember guys,ALWAYS set brakes and block wheels so something like this doesn't happen to you!!Left wife and 3 kids.