# Narrow escapes and death defying close calls.



## wnerfr (Jul 26, 2015)

I'd be interested in hearing about your almost injuries. The ones that should have ended in a broken neck etc; but somehow you come out unscathed. 

I was walking the walls and lost my balance. I knew that was going down. I spied a 2/6 half wall about 3 foot away and instantly decided to try and land on it. Amazingly enough I landed on it squarely and was uninjured. I've always had good balance, but I thought that had to be a miracle. If I had missed I would have at least broken a leg..I was very grateful!


----------



## Youngin' (Sep 16, 2012)

Once a skidsteer bucket came within about 6 inches of landing on me. The operator was dropping washed rock into the excavation and I was pulling it around with a rake. The lock wasn't engaged on the bucket and it came crashing down the next load he dropped. Scared me and him pretty good.


----------



## wnerfr (Jul 26, 2015)

Youngin' said:


> Once a skidsteer bucket came within about 6 inches of landing on me. The operator was dropping washed rock into the excavation and I was pulling it around with a rake. The lock wasn't engaged on the bucket and it came crashing down the next load he dropped. Scared me and him pretty good.


 Did you have words with the operator?


----------



## Youngin' (Sep 16, 2012)

He should have checked the lock and I shouldn't have been standing so close but yes I had some choice words.


----------



## J L (Nov 16, 2009)

I was the middle guy setting trusses on a roof. I stabilized the truss while the guys at the ends toe nailed and set the bracing. Trusses were being set with a crane. One truss the hook hung up on the truss after it had been dropped. The operator kept letting out slack to try and free it and then one of the guys on the end smacked the truss with a hammer which freed up the hook. The hook and steel ball dropped and landed right next to me just grazing my shoulder. 6" over and it would have been lights out. That steel ball with the hook was bigger than my head.


----------



## RangoWA (Jun 25, 2014)

I had a wake up call just recently. I was an electrician in the military and know better but I was painting the trim on my own house and put my new Little Giant ladder through the paces seeing what all it could do. I opened it up all the way and then realized it got pretty close to the power lines. It wouldn't have touched, not quite long enough but it could have been. 

I've got fiberglass ladders but no, had to play with the new toy.


----------



## kiteman (Apr 18, 2012)

I once tipped over my Lull. Hung on for dear life and rode it down.


----------



## heavy_d (Dec 4, 2012)

My boss was booming up the second floor wall package while I guided him. We hadn't put rails around the stair opening yet. As he was pushing it further onto the floor, I was walking backwards. I slipped, my one foot went down, but somehow I managed to not fall backwards down the hole. Scraped my shin pretty good, but I have no idea how I didn't go down. 

Another time I was walking the joists over a garage (same subdivision) carrying a couple joists on my shoulder. Slipped, boom, landed on my chest on a joist. Had a diagonal bruise across my chest for a good couple weeks. Lucky I didn't crush my sternum.


----------



## 1985gt (Dec 10, 2010)

From least serious to the most.

1. Unloading pallets of asphalt off the semi, using a skidloader rated for 1600lbs. The pallets are 2k plus. Sandbags on the back of the skidloader, and the tires were filled with ballast, it was a tippy operation but I had done it many times. The semi didn't park in the most levelest of spots, picked up the pallet and started backing away, next thing I know I'm face down and kegs of asphalt are all over the ground and the shinny new trailer rims. I pushed my self back up right and started picking up the kegs, the trucker laughed. I was unable to with the couple of bruised ribs.

2. Digging out for egress windows in my own house. Going to town with a mini ex head phones in lights on and trying to get all 3 dug out in a few hours so I could cut the block and install the next day. Well 1/2 through the first hole I started to tip, caught my self with the bucket, dumped some dirt out and pushed my self back up. Next time make sure the tracks are out dummy.

3. Egress windows at the neighbors up the street. Marked the locations in the block, cut the outside as deep as I could with the demo saw, now on to the inside. 7" grinder diamond wheel and the neighbors wife spraying down the blade with a water bottle. She went to go refill, just then the blade caught kicked back at me and grabbed a hold of my shirt. She walks back in the room, looks at me and my shirt, I turn back around and start cutting again. 

4. Loading a roof on a production plant. 60+' up. It was windy and we were lifting some plywood, load starting swinging and spinning. Signaled to boom down the load, the operator kept swinging over to where it was over our head. Moved closer to the edge signaling and yelling, after a few minutes of confusion and our super who was rigging yelled at the operator to follow my signals he finally set it down. Found out a few minutes later from another guy my right foot was 1/2 off the edge of the roof. Someone was on the look out for me that day.


----------



## wnerfr (Jul 26, 2015)

J L said:


> I was the middle guy setting trusses on a roof. I stabilized the truss while the guys at the ends toe nailed and set the bracing. Trusses were being set with a crane. One truss the hook hung up on the truss after it had been dropped. The operator kept letting out slack to try and free it and then one of the guys on the end smacked the truss with a hammer which freed up the hook. The hook and steel ball dropped and landed right next to me just grazing my shoulder. 6" over and it would have been lights out. That steel ball with the hook was bigger than my head.


 That operator should have been fired. I once had a bundle of trusses come unhooked because of the way my boss strapped them. They were so high that they went through the floor busting a couple of TJI.


----------



## Stunt Carpenter (Dec 31, 2011)

I was helping rebuild an asphalt plant a few years back. We were using the 500 loader to swing in catwalks and the bucket pinched my ring against the railing. One for a second but I was sure I was losing a finger


----------



## RangoWA (Jun 25, 2014)

In the military on a ship, I was putting a cover on a 440v panel for the air supply blowers in the engine room. I didn't touch the wires but there was enough juice to bridge the gap and it felt like it drove my heels through the steel deck plates. Had to sit down for a bit because my heart rhythm was all out of whack.


----------



## kiteman (Apr 18, 2012)

I was helping a buddy with his pole barn. I went up the extension ladder with the worm drive to cut the excess off the scabs on the posts next to the trusses. Pinned the guard back, made the cut and brought the saw back, cutting through the pocket and pack of cigs in my flannel shirt. Not a nick in my t-shirt. 

I said "don't you dare tell my wife!"


----------



## Kowboy (May 7, 2009)

Many years ago I was standing in line on the very steep stairs of an amusement park ride. This put a very cute female teenage butt in blue jeans right at face level. Suddenly the line lunged forward, then backward just as quickly and cute butt lost her balance. Instinctively I raised my hand and pushed her upright by her right cheek. She never turned around, said thank you, nor did she report me to the authorities.

C'mon, it's kinda related.


----------



## Michaeljp86 (Apr 10, 2007)

Ive got a few stories, one that still surprises me was when I was trying to load the trencher on a trailer. We bought the thing at an auction not running so I never drove the thing up the trailer before this. It had really low ground clearance and would hang up on the edge of the trailer, just a fuz more and it would clear it. I had the bright idea to use the backhoe on it to give it a little push. so Im trying to drive the piece of junk and push with the backhoe at the same time. The machine is really loud and my dad walks up next to the trailer to tell me something. Not a good place to stand when someone is loading a machine. Anyways the slopped out hydraulic controls must have hit the swing function or something because next thing I know the machine flipped off the trailer and was sitting right where my dad was standing. Some how it didnt flip over but my dad had to be crushed under the machine. Then in the panic of OH %#[email protected]&%$%#* I noticed my dad standing on side of the trencher. He must have did some fancy leg work to avoid that. 

Another one was I was helping a buddy load up free logs for firewood that the power company was taking down. He had his backhoe out in the dunes where the logs were. I would hook a strap on and he would pull the logs out of the words with the loader. Anyways he swung the backhoe around and I moved my head when I seen it coming, missed my head by an inch. He says they must have taught you how to dodge bullets in boot camp. Time to find a new helper.

Another one was when me and my dad were fixing his basement that Everdry screwed up. We were digging out around the house in very heavy clay soil. I was down in the hole talking and looked at the dirt and noticed a hairline crack wiggle its way across. Something in my mind said RUN!!! so I jumped out from where I was standing and about 4000lbs of dirt collapsed where I was, just barely got my foot. after that we got a backhoe and made it nice and wide.

One time we were putting in a 400 amp service on a house. We were pulling out the original 200 amp and we didnt cut the service entrance cable yet. I guess my dad brain farted not thinking the power was still on. He was talking about something says something like we will pull these off and when he said these he put his fingers on the lugs where the service entrance cable connects to the meter socket. I guess he had some well insulated boots on. 

When I was a kid I would go hunting with my dad. We were squirrel hunting and we had our spots to sit.I heard him shoot and a split second later I heard the .22 wiz by my ear.

The last one was back in 2008 when I was working for a farmer friend of mine and he wanted me to saw a limb off a tree. I was about 15ft up and the limb dropped and hit the ladder knocking me to the ground head first. I got busted up over it but I should have died.


----------



## CarpenterSFO (Dec 12, 2012)

I surfed a scrap of Tyvek a few feet down a roof once. It was night, and I was all alone, wrestling rolls of membrane around, getting a roof dried in before a storm hit. I was wearing fall protection and my harness pulled me down onto my butt. I was too exhausted to be scared, so I just got back up and finished the job. No question the harness saved my life.


----------



## wnerfr (Jul 26, 2015)

CarpenterSFO said:


> I surfed a scrap of Tyvek a few feet down a roof once. It was night, and I was all alone, wrestling rolls of membrane around, getting a roof dried in before a storm hit. I was wearing fall protection and my harness pulled me down onto my butt. I was too exhausted to be scared, so I just got back up and finished the job. No question the harness saved my life.



No close call there. You were never in danger if you had a harness on.
I never wear a harness...to restrictive.


----------



## 91782 (Sep 6, 2012)

wnerfr said:


> *No close call there.* You were never in danger if you had a harness on.
> I never wear a harness...to restrictive.


That's not what his pucker thought.


----------



## CarpenterSFO (Dec 12, 2012)

wnerfr said:


> ... You were never in danger if you had a harness on.
> ...


That's correct, I'm alive today, because I was wearing a harness.


----------



## wnerfr (Jul 26, 2015)

CarpenterSFO said:


> That's correct, I'm alive today, because I was wearing a harness.



What does wearing a harness have to do with a close call? I'm looking for close calls, and death defying narrow escapes.


How high was the roof? I've fallen 13 feet and landed on my feet with no injuries. Once I fell 9 foot and landed on a brick? Got up and my boss pointed out that the brick was broken in half? No injuries unless you can qualify that an injury includes 15 minutes of intense pain.


----------



## CO762 (Feb 22, 2010)

wnerfr said:


> A house cat has nothing on me, and my record proves that.


The spinal/brain injury wards of full of people exactly like you. When you fall, sometimes it happens so fast you don' t have time to do anything but fall and figure out what happened later. Or lay there and gradually feel the sensation of having legs and arms go away. Or wake up later to find out you're going to be left slowly contorting up, having bed sores and trying to use your lips to move a chair around or communicate. But there you will still have a choice on whether to have all your bowels empty into a bag hanging off of you or try to train yourself to have some sort of control over your bowels.

If you're with a spouse or girlfriend, they'll probably leave as they "didn't sign up for this".

I know a contractor that did this his whole life, then got hurt and it knocked him out of the trades. Lost touch with him, but he might have found work at a convenience store that fit under his work restrictions.


----------



## CO762 (Feb 22, 2010)

FrankSmith said:


> I never even saw until my foot was on it. I lost all my balance and my feet went in the air. I was almost completely past the gutter. I wasn't even thinking of how to stay on the roof but where to land.


Wasn't that a trip? I used to cliff climb, repelput up towers, run lines (poles), work above where there was 100% tie off, walking out to set the winches to pull up material for those below on the five stories of scaffolding, yet when I fell there wasn't anything I could do and didn't know what had happened until it was over.

Guess some people learn and some people just keep sliding by. Some make it, some don't. I just know I'd never have someone like that as an employee as if that person wants to die or turn into a pretzel...or not, I don't want in to damage me and what I do for a living.


----------



## CO762 (Feb 22, 2010)

kiteman said:


> Everyone starts somewhere. That's what my post referenced. My first job and first time on the walls.
> It was $5/hr.


 One of my first ones was working a jack hammer, demoing a huge furnace at PPG. I don't remember how much I made, but I was demoing the wall I was standing on and the only safety item there was a rope around the jackhammer, so I know I was worth less than that jack hammer.


----------



## C2projects (Jan 9, 2013)

I once fell off the walk out of a bungalow, probably about 12', landed on a stack of 4x4. 

I was about 2 years into framing.and did something absolutely stupid while sheathing the floor. I had a sheet hanging too far over the edge and while trying to hit it into place I transferred my weight wrong and down I went along with the sheet and the sledgehammer. I was close to being able to twist and grab the rim board but the sheet was a bit higher than I was preventing me from grabbing it.

Oh yah, I landed between two pieces of rebar sticking up about a foot from each side of me.


----------



## wnerfr (Jul 26, 2015)

wnerfr


----------



## Walraven (Jan 24, 2014)

wnerfr said:


> My you sure do worry allot.
> No need to worry about me, I retired 2 years ago with no aches or pains.


...


----------



## CO762 (Feb 22, 2010)

> Originally Posted by wnerfr View Post
> 
> My you sure do worry allot.
> No need to worry about me, I retired 2 years ago with no aches or pains.


Sometimes something isn't just about me, or you, as an individual. 
Sometimes there is something right in front of us that is bigger than I or you are. Young folks sometimes look up to us older ones for examples of 'how to do things', or even older ones that don't know what they are doing. This is why I often don't care if the account I'm talking to is real or not, a troll or not as sometimes there still is something that needs to be said.

but....I....almost....made.....it...


----------



## Kowboy (May 7, 2009)

I knew a guy who was paralyzed from the waist down from a fall off a roof in his twenties. He made the best of it, but the bedsores finally killed him thirty years later. The fall off the roof killed him, it just took a while.


----------



## kingcarpenter (Jan 30, 2015)

*narrow escapes and death defying close calls*

62 and pain free. Oh and did I say my 1st gig was a chinese fighter pilot. Hell im older than you and I feel like calling one of the boys in the morning to come snatch me out of bed with the lift. While your at it send me some of what your on


----------



## pritch (Nov 2, 2008)

I was doing some pick-up framing once when I was laid off from my regular job one winter. We had just completed nailing off the sheathing on an exterior wall and I grabbed a saw and cut out the window. The piece didn't fall through, so I walked out on it and gave it a stomp. As I was falling to the basement floor, I remembered that it was the window at the stairwell and no, the stairs hadn't been built yet. I landed flat on my back, breaking several bones. That was my only ambulance ride so far, and when I got to the hospital, that's when I learned that the POS I was working for had ZERO insurance. No Worker's comp, no liability, no nuthin'. Hospital gave me a scrip for some pain killers and said,"Gee, wish we could care" and sent me home. It was about 3 months before I could go back to work. I had a friend that worked at the unemployment office and she hooked me up, otherwise I would have lost everything. Last time I ever just went to work for someone without checking them out. Looking back, I should have sued, but I didn't know then how things worked. All the POS had was a junky truck, and I already had one of those. I am still in daily pain over that one.


----------



## 1985gt (Dec 10, 2010)

> Originally Posted by wnerfr View Post
> 
> My you sure do worry allot.
> No need to worry about me, I retired 2 years ago with no aches or pains.


HAHAHAHA 

Show me a "contractor" who doesn't have aches or pains, and I'll show you a contractor who hasn't worked a day in their life.

I don't know of a single person in the trades who doesn't have some form of aches or pains.


----------



## SamM (Dec 13, 2009)

1985gt said:


> HAHAHAHA
> 
> Show me a "contractor" who doesn't have aches or pains, and I'll show you a contractor who hasn't worked a day in their life.
> 
> I don't know of a single person in the trades who doesn't have some form of aches or pains.


Hell I'm thirty years old and my knees are already half shot.


----------



## aaron_a (Dec 18, 2013)

SamM said:


> Hell I'm thirty years old and my knees are already half shot.



28 and my right knee is in pretty rough shape. It comes and goes, but it's been coming an awful lot more lately. I should probably get it checked out at some point.


----------



## 1985gt (Dec 10, 2010)

SamM said:


> Hell I'm thirty years old and my knees are already half shot.


Knees, back, hands, shoulders... So far my ears and toes are doing pretty good! :laughing:


----------



## RangoWA (Jun 25, 2014)

It's getting pretty bad when you consider Ibuprofen a supplement.


----------



## Framer87 (Dec 27, 2014)

1985gt said:


> HAHAHAHA
> 
> Show me a "contractor" who doesn't have aches or pains, and I'll show you a contractor who hasn't worked a day in their life.
> 
> I don't know of a single person in the trades who doesn't have some form of aches or pains.


27 here and 3 years ago already got the news that 2 discs are dessicated and arthritis in my back. Still at it...


----------



## kingcarpenter (Jan 30, 2015)

*narrow escapes and death defying close calls*

Sam, Aaron and all other young guns out there. For what its worth I started wearing knee pads when I was your age and truly beleive it has helped my knees a great deal. Yea I dont like em pinching in back or starting to smell like fidos arse or how it looks but who gives a chit. Ive always bought good ones as all of my tools and these are as important to me as my best saw or gun. We need for you guys to take over when us old riffs cant put up our dukes any more. So seriously think about it you will be glad later on.


----------



## SamM (Dec 13, 2009)

kingcarpenter said:


> Sam, Aaron and all other young guns out there. For what its worth I started wearing knee pads when I was your age and truly beleive it has helped my knees a great deal. Yea I dont like em pinching in back or starting to smell like fidos arse or how it looks but who gives a chit. Ive always bought good ones as all of my tools and these are as important to me as my best saw or gun. We need for you guys to take over when us old riffs cant put up our dukes any more. So seriously think about it you will be glad later on.


Preaching to the choir here. It took a couple years to sink in but now I wear kneepads and ear protection and safety glasses. My knee issues aren't from kneeling though.

Aaron - I asked my doc about my knees, and he said "well, you work a lot, so thats to be expected"

I'm in the market for a new doctor.


----------



## CO762 (Feb 22, 2010)

Kowboy said:


> the bedsores finally killed him thirty years later. The fall off the roof killed him, it just took a while.


That's common. That's what Chris Reeves died of, but it was the initial fall that killed him. We shift our weight when we sit, but they can't feel anything, so they just stay in one spot, pressures on one spot(s), get bed sores from it, gets infected, goes septic, die. 

Bedsore stages:
1. Red spot on skin
2. red spot that turns white when push on it, returns to red.
3. Exposed muscle, tissue fat (what you shouldn't see, but skin around it is dead). (dead tissue stink)
4. Bone exposed. (dead tissue stink)

The individual 'sore' can often 'tunnel', so you have to excavate all those tunnels wherever they go, to their full length. To attempt heal, all the dead tissue must be cut away, so digging into the body is the treatment. It's gotta heal from the inside out. Once all of the dead tissue is removed, skin flaps are sewn on to the areas where there used to be tissue and now it's the antibiotics war to fight--with the help of the victim/patient of course. Some don't want to as they've been through enough, long enough.

Sounds like fun.


----------



## CO762 (Feb 22, 2010)

SamM said:


> I wear kneepads and ear protection and safety glasses.


Big hearing loss here. Funny as the younger guys get frustrated with it at times, but I remind them "I was like you once". I used to have a pair of safety glasses that had a big divot in the right lens from a piece of metal. Few people listen. If young people listened, the we old folks wouldn't have any stories to tell....


----------



## CO762 (Feb 22, 2010)

pritch said:


> the POS I was working for had ZERO insurance. No Worker's comp, no liability, no nuthin'.


What's funny is all those 1099 'jobs' out there. The pay is lower than most would get as an employee doing the same thing. But I guess having the "independent contractor" title or "businessman" is worth it to some folks.

Maybe you could have sued the homeowner that hired a contractor that didn't have insurance that hired you that didn't have insurance? I'm starting to believe there needs to be a lot more lawsuits in construction/remodeling/handyman work. Homeowners and building inspectors need to be held more accountable as they are the first line of defense. On the contractor end, licensing for EVERYTHING and bonding/insurance requirements would help a lot.


----------



## aaron_a (Dec 18, 2013)

kingcarpenter said:


> Sam, Aaron and all other young guns out there. For what its worth I started wearing knee pads when I was your age and truly beleive it has helped my knees a great deal. Yea I dont like em pinching in back or starting to smell like fidos arse or how it looks but who gives a chit. Ive always bought good ones as all of my tools and these are as important to me as my best saw or gun. We need for you guys to take over when us old riffs cant put up our dukes any more. So seriously think about it you will be glad later on.



I wear them somewhat frequently, not as much as I should though. I have a kneeling pad I use sometimes so. I just haven't been able to find a pair that doesn't slide down my leg every 5 minutes. I can't bear to work without ear protection either. I need to be better about eye protection though. I wear it often, but this time of year I tend to skip it sometimes because they just get fogged up with sweat.


----------



## Warren (Feb 19, 2005)

When I was 19, I was hanging drywall on the second floor of a house. We were hanging the ceiling in the 2 story foyer when I apparently stepped off the end of the bench. I can remember being in the air and grasping wildly for a wall that was no where near me. I landed head first, had a seizure, and stopped breathing. A coworker resuscitated me and EMS was called. When they arrived, I regained consciousness, but had suffered some memory loss. Spent the night in the hospital for observation.


----------



## Framer87 (Dec 27, 2014)

aaron_a said:


> I wear them somewhat frequently, not as much as I should though. I have a kneeling pad I use sometimes so. I just haven't been able to find a pair that doesn't slide down my leg every 5 minutes. I can't bear to work without ear protection either. I need to be better about eye protection though. I wear it often, but this time of year I tend to skip it sometimes because they just get fogged up with sweat.


Blaklader is your friend. Small price to pay imo


----------



## Youngin' (Sep 16, 2012)

I've already done a number on my hearing. Had a band when I was 16. We were loud. 

I've got all the basics covered now though. Don't want knees like my old man by the time I hit 40.


----------



## pritch (Nov 2, 2008)

CO762 said:


> What's funny is all those 1099 'jobs' out there. The pay is lower than most would get as an employee doing the same thing. But I guess having the "independent contractor" title or "businessman" is worth it to some folks.
> 
> Maybe you could have sued the homeowner that hired a contractor that didn't have insurance that hired you that didn't have insurance? I'm starting to believe there needs to be a lot more lawsuits in construction/remodeling/handyman work. Homeowners and building inspectors need to be held more accountable as they are the first line of defense. On the contractor end, licensing for EVERYTHING and bonding/insurance requirements would help a lot.


See, that's the part I didn't understand. I didn't realize that I could have sued the owner of the condo's we were building, and probably the City also for allowing an uninsured (and, for all I know, unlicensed contractor) I thought my only recourse was with the guy I was working for. Shame on me for not making inquiries, I guess. I felt lucky that I was able to go back to work after a few months. The owner was rich, too, and a sitting member of the County Commission. He probably woulda settled for a bundle to keep his name out of the papers. 

A few months ago, a colonoscopy revealed what the doc's had been warning me about, those 2 or 3 800mg Ibee's I been eating every day for the last 25 years have caused ulcers in my colon. They ain't worried about them, but I'm off any pain relief and I'm hurtin'. I suppose the next step is some kind of narcotic, but I think I'd rather just hurt for now. Besides, I'm saving golf and heroin until I'm too old for anything else.:laughing:


----------



## aaron_a (Dec 18, 2013)

Michaeljp86 said:


> Ive got a few stories, one that still surprises me was when I was trying to load the trencher on a trailer. We bought the thing at an auction not running so I never drove the thing up the trailer before this. It had really low ground clearance and would hang up on the edge of the trailer, just a fuz more and it would clear it. I had the bright idea to use the backhoe on it to give it a little push. so Im trying to drive the piece of junk and push with the backhoe at the same time. The machine is really loud and my dad walks up next to the trailer to tell me something. Not a good place to stand when someone is loading a machine. Anyways the slopped out hydraulic controls must have hit the swing function or something because next thing I know the machine flipped off the trailer and was sitting right where my dad was standing. Some how it didnt flip over but my dad had to be crushed under the machine. Then in the panic of OH %#[email protected]&%$%#* I noticed my dad standing on side of the trencher. He must have did some fancy leg work to avoid that.
> 
> Another one was I was helping a buddy load up free logs for firewood that the power company was taking down. He had his backhoe out in the dunes where the logs were. I would hook a strap on and he would pull the logs out of the words with the loader. Anyways he swung the backhoe around and I moved my head when I seen it coming, missed my head by an inch. He says they must have taught you how to dodge bullets in boot camp. Time to find a new helper.
> 
> ...



Just made me remember a story from back when i worked for a roofing and siding contractor. We were doing a flat roof repair in a not so great part of town. I heard a sharp crack then something whizz past my head. A few weeks later we were working on another roof directly down hill from that one. Found a rifled .45 slug on the roof.


----------



## CO762 (Feb 22, 2010)

Sorry Aaron, but getting shot/shot at is just one of the costs of doing business in some areas....



Warren said:


> I can remember being in the air and grasping wildly for a wall that was no where near me. I landed head first, had a seizure, and stopped breathing.


I believe you are the top dog in this thread and therefore have won the NBA award--Nothing But Air--to help you when you needed it. All joking aside, you were very very very very lucky.


----------



## Calidecks (Nov 19, 2011)

I was framing a clubhouse, while nailing a long heavy Guage Simpson Strap on a block line on the ceiling, it flipped me off the ladder. I fell broke my wrist. After surgery, I ended up with 3 plates 12 screws and a piece of my hip in my wrist. Took a full year to recover.


----------



## CarpenterSFO (Dec 12, 2012)

aaron_a said:


> Just made me remember a story from back when i worked for a roofing and siding contractor. We were doing a flat roof repair in a not so great part of town. I heard a sharp crack then something whizz past my head. A few weeks later we were working on another roof directly down hill from that one. Found a rifled .45 slug on the roof.


----------



## Youngin' (Sep 16, 2012)

Californiadecks said:


> I was framing a clubhouse, while nailing a long heavy Guage Simpson Strap on a block line on the ceiling, it flipped me off the ladder. I fell broke my wrist. After surgery, I ended up with 3 plates 12 screws and a piece of my hip in my wrist. Took a full year to recover.


Thanks for that Mike. I'm never climbing a ladder again.


----------



## aaron_a (Dec 18, 2013)

CO762 said:


> Sorry Aaron, but getting shot/shot at is just one of the costs of doing business in some areas....
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Yeah, warrens is pretty scary. He got lucky on that one.


----------



## aaron_a (Dec 18, 2013)

CarpenterSFO said:


> Not a work story, but some years ago my brother and I went on a canoe camping trip starting on Stillwater Reservoir in upstate New York. It turned out to be the first day of deer season, and the woods were full of hunters. Came evening, we figured that a little island was the safest place to camp overnight.
> 
> 
> 
> Soon after dark, after the hunters got drunk, they started firing at the island, because they knew no one would be out there. We scrambled with out tent down into a little hollow and listened to bullets whapping into the trees and zipping by, from all directions, for a couple of hours. Except for the first 30 seconds, we were probably safer than they were, what with all their cross-fire over about 1/2 mile of lake.



Nothing is scaring than idiots with guns. I hate public land on opening day.


----------



## SuperiorHIP (Aug 15, 2010)

wnerfr said:


> No I couldn't pull that off as I am now 62. I should mention that about 3 years ago I hit some ice and slid off the roof. It was 13' to the ground and I landed on my feet. The shock to my backbone was the worst pain I've ever felt...I was hyperventilating. 15 minutes later I was back on the roof.


I had a close friend work for me many days and one fateful Saturday trying to finish a job he fell no more than 7 or 8 feet off an extension ladder and shattered his ankle because he landed a bit off. $50k later he was as good as new with some titanium screws and plates and a life full of aches and pains in his leg. But ya know, **** safety equipment.


----------



## CO762 (Feb 22, 2010)

aaron_a said:


> Yeah, warrens is pretty scary. He got lucky on that one.


You need the c3 to breath, so that's how high up it was. Don't tell him this, but injuries like this can set someone up for another one later, when they donk their head on something, or even sneeze. An example of this is when a football player goes down with seemingly light head contact--the prior injury/ies were there and this was the magic touch/hit. 

I did a non construction face first off a first floor roof once. Warren must have been disoriented with surprise as I saw the ground coming to my face, so stuck my arms out to break my fall. Cut open forehead, concussion, and broke both arms but kept breathing, so shock absorbing appendages worked...

All these injuries add up over time.


----------



## Kowboy (May 7, 2009)

aaron_a said:


> Nothing is scaring than idiots with guns. I hate public land on opening day.


Statistically, many more guys die of heart attacks on opening day than by firearms. A couch potato suddenly decides a ten-mile hike in the woods is a good idea.


----------



## aaron_a (Dec 18, 2013)

Kowboy said:


> Statistically, many more guys die of heart attacks on opening day than by firearms. A couch potato suddenly decides a ten-mile hike in the woods is a good idea.



Oh I know. I hunt a lot. I know the statistics, but just seeing the dumb crap people do I can't help but be a bit apprehensive.


----------



## BucketofSteam (Jun 16, 2013)

we were putting trusses up on a second story, wearing harnesses and all that. The last trusses we put up slipped somehow, and landed on the safety rope attached to my harness. It was enough of an impact to make me lose my balance but not deploy the fall arrest part only reason I didn't fall is because I was still on holding onto the trusse and newtons laws do sometime work in your favor.


----------



## JBM (Mar 31, 2011)

I washed a roof in December, after I took off the roof brackets and plank. It was only an 8 pitch right. Anyways the water froze under my feet, I slid/ran down the roof to a valley and popped into a window opening. 

My planks fell because I didnt have an inside cross brace on, went straight down 15'. Tore up my knee and ankle.


----------



## Rio (Oct 13, 2009)

Some wild stories here, just remembered a close call that was no problem but could've been catastrophic. Had a rental and a good friend was staying there as we did an addition, helping one day a week for rent. 

He was always forgetting to put on the safety glasses I'd provided and I always reminded him. One day I forgot to remind him and we were framing up some forms and I missed hitting a 16d sinker with my plumb axe and it bounced off his head. All I saw was him grab his face and bend over. 

I thought the worst but then he looked up and pulling off the glasses showed me the scar where the nail had glanced off the lens, best feeling all year was when I knew I didn't take out my friend's eye.


----------

