Close Call Experineces

After seeing the demonstration with the idiot that almost cut his fingers off trying to demonstrate kickback on the table saw I started thinking about some of my near misses. Two of the worse situations I can think of were on the coal truck. We'll need this picture for reference:
On the oldest truck we had when I first started we were lifting it up in the air and it was going all the way up. Once it's up in the air like that you have to jump onto the top of the wheelwell to reach the ladder. When it got about half way up where the ram meets the lift body depicted in the second picture the brackets snapped and the whole thing came down faster than you can blink your eye. If it had been about 30 seconds later I might have been in the middle of going to get on the ladder. When the box hit the back end of the truck bounced at least a foot off the ground. Frame was bent, and the ram went right through drive shaft and put a giant dent in the street.

The other time I almost got it I was working by myself in the middle of no where and no one was home. I was wearing a hoody and it had a draw string for the hood. I coming down off the lift and the draw string knot got caught in the ladder as I was jumping to the ground. It was enough to jerk me around before it broke free but if it had stuck I probably would have hung myself. To this day the only piece of clothing I own with a draw string is my rain gear and that is only on there out of necessity. Any time I get anything with a draw string the knife comes out and the draw string goes bye bye.

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The closest I came to seeing someone else die was with my Cousin. A bunch of us were swimming at a place called Pott's falls. There is these sections where the water goes over a small waterfall and it has created holes that have whirlpools. It's actually pretty cool because it's like being in a whirlpool tub. He slid over the cliff into the tub on purpose but his foot got wedged between on rock under the water and he went right under, you couldn't even tell he was there. the force of the water so great it was keeping his foot in place. I was right by him and saw it happen, I was able to get right over to him to get his head up above water. A few of our other buddies came over and after a lot effort got his foot unwedged, these were big guys too that had a hell of time. If I didn't see it happen or someone else didn't see it happen he might of drowned, you couldn't see he was there once he went under.

MAN!! I can totally picture that, having seen a couple hydraulic failures on recycling trucks! Nowhere near as spectacular, as the body only comes down as quick as the fluid gets blown out all over the ground. That was my biggest fear though - being under that body when it came crashing down!

My biggest close call was when I was 17. Had my first motorcycle on the road for about 4 months by this time. My buddy had a brand spankin new 1990 Kawasaki Ninja 750R - and compared to my '84 KZ700 that thing was a missle! While trying to catch him on Rt.146 in Sutton, I hit about 115 MPH when the bike suddenly went into a VIOLENT lock-to-lock full-blown tank-slapper!! Talk about fear ... HO LEEE SHITT!! The bike was completely out of control like a raging bull. I was all over the highway. I had enough sense to NOT slam the brakes on .... I just eased off the throttle ... and was watching the side of the road wizz by thinking, "well this is gonna hurt - tuck n roll". Next thing I know I had slowed to 90 mph and everything was fine. I was still alive! After surviving that I got cocky and it happened again a couple times, although nowhere near as bad. My buddy was behind me one time - he was white as a ghost, telling me how I was all over the road & thought I was dead .. and how cars were pulling over (on 495), etc .... I was like, "that was nothin'! You should've seen the time I tried to catch you on 146!" I'll never forget that.

Another time back in my flat, industrial roofing days, I watched this kid almost walk backwards into a hole I had just cut in the decking. He'd have fallen probably 50' into the factory. He'd have been dead for sure! Was walking backward while hunched over, cutting some material in a long line ..... I yell WOAH!! He balanced on one foot leaning into the hole - I thought that was the end ... then he did this ninja twist and landed on the side. Lucky him!!

I guess it was more than 20 years ago, I was driving with an associate to visit a client in Glens Falls. Being from Long Island, we got an early start as we intended to make this a one day effort. We were in the morning rush hour somewhere just north of Albany traveling at the speed limit and I recall the northbound roadway was 4 lanes wide. We were in the lane to the right of the leftmost lane. Weather was clear and dry. It happened so fast I had to ask the other guy with me to look out the back and verify that a car just passed us going in the opposite direction in the left lane. That scared the hell out of me. Since then it has happened to me one other time and I've witnessed it another time(I was on the other side of the roadway) both times on the Sunken Meadow Parkway on Long Island. The parkway dead ends at a state park and while there is a clearly marked turnaround to get to the southbound lanes, some people must become confused and just turn around and head south in the northbound lanes.

When me and my wife first moved into our current house she was frying potatos for breakfast she walked out of the kitchen and when she came back in the cooking oil had caught fire I stopped her from throwing water on it and put a plate over the pan and turned the stove off. That could have been bad.

When I was 15 I decided to clean up the property. My parents had some of thier drunken buddies stack some stone the prior year and left some pallets laying up against the bank. Needless to say they were rotten and would not catch fire. Well much wise man me decided hell ill toss some gas on these rotten things. I poured prolly about 3/4 gallon to a gallon on the pile . Was somewhat aware of what was gonna happen so I was gonna light a stick and toss 'er. Fumes followed me back about 10 yards and whooom. About 2 months later I woke up in allentown in the recovery room. Not the best year of my life but damn near died on that one. I remember the guys in the helicopter giving me morphine and somewhat recall telling them to land the damn thing in grandpa's field cause he would enjoy the ride too . Heavy narcotics not for this guy. Hats off to all the folks in Lehigh Valley, I know the drugs they gave me, made me a dick sometimes or a little crybaby at other times. But the folks in allentown saved my life.

Wow...Anthony...way too close. Glad you survived it.

The close call I remember is on an off road motorcycle. I was in a new area, got within 2 feet of a cliff and managed to stall the engine. I balanced, teetered the wrong way, had one full second to realize what was about to happen and take what little control I had. I jumped....over the cliff. I had seen 10 feet down was a ledge. I scraped chest going down, landed feet first, spun around, lost footing, stopped on the ledge & sat with feet dangling. Just as I stopped, WHAM! the bike hit next to me, but it bounced & went the final 50 feet. I was not hurt. The bike suffered a bent swing arm, but we pounded it out enough to ride it home.

kozel wrote:I guess it was more than 20 years ago,........ That scared the hell out of me.

Ironically time wise, I was on my way to work @ 2:30 - 3:00 am traveling south on rt. 1 in peabody ma. across the road from the "Golden Bananna", fortunately I was in the left lane, aproaching the top of a hill when......whooosh! some bonehead probably drunk, going like he killed someone, the wrong way on my right side. Had to check my shorts when I got to work.

SMITTY wrote:After surviving that I got cocky and it happened again a couple times

Hmmmm. Slow learner....

Closest I came was playing golf in my teens. Chipped the ball onto the green and turned back toward my golf bag. A guy on the next tee hit one at a funny angle, and REALLY hard. It went by right in front of my eyes, about three inches away, making an interesting noise.

When I was 16, I was helping put up a house. It had an A-Frame design, with free standing 6"x9" beams from the walls up to the peak,, the peak was around 35-40' up, and the beams were 8' apart. We had 10' 2x4's temporarily spiked into the beams to hold them properly spaced apart.

I had been up at the peak of one set of beams on a LOOOONNG extension ladder, I was tightening the bolts on the joining plate at the peak. I needed to move over to the next set of beams, which had a tower of scafolding under the peak..
I didn't want to climb all the way down, and all the way back up. and the gap beween the ladder and the scafolding was only 4' or so.. and I had the 2x4 that was nailed to the beams to hang or swing from..

I didn't remember that we'd pulled the nail on one end of the 2x4, in order to adjust the spacing that morning, and I was supposed to have driven the nail back in hours ago... but forgot..

So, I stepped of the rung of the ladder to half jump, half swing from the 2x4 to get over to the scaffolding.. and the 2x4 slipped,, I dropped about 3-4' as I swung or jumped across the gap.. I face planted myself against the scafflolding tower, and grabbed ahold of what ever I could.. I think I dropped another 2, maybe 4' before I got a good grip on the scaffolding...

I think my heart rate was north of 250bpm, and I had numberous bruises, minor cuts, torn clothes.. but I sure learned to not trust anything with my full weight untill I tested it for security..

The worst thing would have been landing on the pile of scrap, tools and construction materials on the floor below the scaffolding.. I'd have been badly perforated.

I've had a few other close ones,, mostly in cars..

Greg L

LsFarm wrote:When I was 16, I was helping put up a house. It had an A-Frame design, with free standing 6"x9" beams from the walls up to the peak,, the peak was around 35-40' up, and the beams were 8' apart. We had 10' 2x4's temporarily spiked into the beams to hold them properly spaced apart.

I had been up at the peak of one set of beams on a LOOOONNG extension ladder, I was tightening the bolts on the joining plate at the peak. I needed to move over to the next set of beams, which had a tower of scafolding under the peak..
I didn't want to climb all the way down, and all the way back up. and the gap beween the ladder and the scafolding was only 4' or so.. and I had the 2x4 that was nailed to the beams to hang or swing from..

I didn't remember that we'd pulled the nail on one end of the 2x4, in order to adjust the spacing that morning, and I was supposed to have driven the nail back in hours ago... but forgot..

So, I stepped of the rung of the ladder to half jump, half swing from the 2x4 to get over to the scaffolding.. and the 2x4 slipped,, I dropped about 3-4' as I swung or jumped across the gap.. I face planted myself against the scafflolding tower, and grabbed ahold of what ever I could.. I think I dropped another 2, maybe 4' before I got a good grip on the scaffolding...

I think my heart rate was north of 250bpm, and I had numberous bruises, minor cuts, torn clothes.. but I sure learned to not trust anything with my full weight untill I tested it for security..

The worst thing would have been landing on the pile of scrap, tools and construction materials on the floor below the scaffolding.. I'd have been badly perforated.

I've had a few other close ones,, mostly in cars..

Greg L

That would've ended quite badly for you. It seems that when we are young there is a portion of grace that we are given. If you tried any of the stunts now that we did as children or teenagers we wouldn't last very long.

wsherrick wrote:If you tried any of the stunts now that we did as children or teenagers we wouldn't last very long.

Almost everybody has a story or two like this. It's a wonder any of us survived. A few times my grown children have been talking, and one will say, "Remember when ....", and out comes a story that would curl a parent's hair.

Yesterday. I just fired up a Toro "personal pace" mower. Just wanted to see if it would run before going all through it to get the mouse nests out of it. It had been in that shed I moved for 10 years. I put a little gas in it and it fired up. In my brilliance or cockyness, I started it in front of the garage, on GRAVEL. I know better. Well, the shutoff is a mechanism that grounds the coil and presses a spring loaded brake against the flywheel. You let go of the bail and the mower shuts off. Well, the mechanism was frozen in place open, by mouse detritus and mouse piss corrosion The vibration of the mower made it settle into the gravel and I had a sudden 360 degree machine gun. 3/4" caliber I tried to move the running mower across the gravel driveway to grass, and it hit deeper gravel and stalled. I took one in the leg sarge, but I can keep fighting.

Years ago I was working on an add a level in Chester, NJ. It was February and we had just tar papered the roof. The guy's brother was very hard working, and very religious. His wife would put bible verses in his lunch and he would read them. He said she prayed for the safety of the men every day.
Well, I watched the guy put yellow crayon marks over the skylight opening we had just both tar papered over! This was a cape and the opening was over the stairs. This was twilight, the very last task of the day was me going down the ladder and coming back up with another roll of tar paper. I spaced out, came back up the ladder and walked right over the opening. The guy was sitting on the peak and saw the whole thing. The very last inch of the heel of my boot hit a 2x4 strongback that had not yet been cut out of the skylight well, 4 feet below the roof! I was chest deep in the hole and my life was spared. The guy swore he would never paper over a hole like that again.

Last year when I was working on the manse house, an Irish guy and his kid came by looking for work. We talked a little and he said, "Don't you believe in the good Lord above?" in his thick Irish brogue.
I replied, "Of course I do, my life has been spared many times."

Friday, driving up Rt 94 to Chester in very heavy rain in my 2000 Ford F350 dually driving about 35MPH and sure it was more than a little windy when ... bam I am on the other side of the road and in the ditch.

http://njwo.wordpress.com/2011/08/01/tornado-conf ... county-ny/

WTF... never heard or saw anything. Creepy.

I blame Bush..... HAHAHHAHAHAHAHA.

Dann757 wrote: The vibration of the mower made it settle into the gravel and I had a sudden 360 degree machine gun. 3/4" caliber I tried to move the running mower across the gravel driveway to grass, and it hit deeper gravel and stalled. I took one in the leg sarge, but I can keep fighting.

That reminds of the time my cousin who had a drag car was showing off and did a burn out on his driveway. At the end of his driveway is gravel, he backs up to do it again except now he has hundreds of rocks stuck to the gooey tires...... guess I don't have to explain what happened during the second burn out. That was some funny ass *censored* and the expression of his face was priceless because he had no clue what the hell all the noise was.

I got a million of 'em folks. Must have a guardian angel. I got a survival job at a machine shop in Morristown, NJ many years ago. Back in the days when you found a job from the classifieds in the paper. Masterson Metal Products. They dealt with mostly tubing products. I actually had a task of cutting the sharp angle ends of hypoderrmic needle blanks. Sit there all day cutting tiny ss tubes with a chop saw.
Another day I was running a batch of 10,000 brass tube bends. They were about 3/8" tubes around 6" long. Destined to be the nozzle where the coffee comes out of coffee machines! The machine was a die bender setup, about waist high, with a red-knobbed control arm in front. Up for forward, down for reverse. This was in the middle of the well-lit shop floor, pretty clean shop. Everybody else was busy at other machines. You clamp a straight tube in the half-round concave dies, and bend the tube around the jig.
After several thousand of these, I clamped in a tube and hit forward. My right pinky finger got trapped in between the tube and the die, and it was feeding into it!
I let out a roar that made everybody in the shop jump hahahahha Somehow, I reached under my trapped right arm with my left hand and hit the reverse lever. What a commotion. That hydraulic machine would have mushed my finger.
The manager let me walk by myself to the hospital several blocks away. They x-rayed the end of my pinky and it was fractured but intact. I was just a kid, trying to survive.
The next day the manager called me into his office and had me sign a stack of forms! Farkin bastiges, I could have had a sweet lawsuit. I quit a few days later after finding another joe job at a milk carton factory. Still makes me ball my fists up to protect my digits when I remember it.