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Be Careful Out There


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Came a pube hair away from having my legs crushed by about 18,000 lbs. last night. Really, Really, Really close. Too Close. I got out of the way just in time. Fuck. Half a second later...

Protect what you have people, limbs don't regrow.

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Moving some steel. We were trying to get it "unjammed," It got unjammed when my partner pulled on his chain fall one click, which is not much at all but it was apparently enough to move the load. Problem was, instead of rolling forward, like it should have, it rolled sideways directly at me. I was in a bad place and jumped out of the way, just in time as the load smacked against the wall. I just walked away counting my blessings.

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WEIRD TIMING!

I had to go offsite and see a client. As I stood at the corner of Elgin and Laurier waiting for the light to change, I noticed it had but cars had not finished going through. Some pedestrian started to bolt across as a mini-van was heading straight for him not 7 feet away. I set my mind to it and VOOM, the van took a hard left and missed this dude by and inch or two.

That's right. I just figured out that I do in fact have Jedi powers. Now all I have to do is find a mentor.

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Shit, glad you made it out ok Chris. I damn near lost a leg a few years back in a box factory of all places ... was pushing on something and had my leg extended out a bit too far, fucking trolley came across the rails (driver looking elsewhere) and I got munged underneath it and pushed a good god-knows-how-many-feet along the track.

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There was a boilermaker (my profession) killed last week down around Hamilton when a crane collapsed. I love my job but it can be really dangerous. The most seemingly mundane task could end up in serious injury at any given time.

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My friends in construction have had a lot of close calls. Definitely take care of yourself.

From the news today

A 46-year-old man is in serious condition in hospital after a three-metre cement column fell on him Thursday morning.

The man was working at a construction site on Richmond Road at about 7:20 a.m. when the falling column struck him on the back and legs, said a news release from the Ottawa Paramedic Service.

The worker suffered a fractured leg along with pelvis, back and internal injuries.

His co-workers quickly removed the column and he was treated by paramedics before being sent to hospital.

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My dad lost the top of his finger due to a very similar scenario to that of the one you described. He's lucky that was the only thing that happened to get "in the way" and squished.

Crazy part is, they were able to reconstruct it. Initially he was just going to get the bone filed down, and have a shorter finger, but the doctor he was dealing with was a bit of an arrogant prick. So he went to someone else. They ended up opening up the finger beside the injured one, inserted the injured one into the other and sewed it up for a couple of months. He had this big boxing glove type cast.... Couple months later they cut the two fingers apart, and I guess the skin must have "grafted" (or whatever you call it) onto the injured one, and he literally had his finger back. The nail even grew back! Crazy shit!.... Somehow I don't think the procedure would go so smoothly for a leg however...

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Chris,

grateful to hear you're save & sound, though suitably shaken up!

As a coop teacher, a HUGE part of my job is teaching Health and Safety to students before (and during) their placements. I have so many stories to tell to them (there are really countless, tragic stories of preventable workplace deaths) and so many GREAT resources to draw on:

Prevent It

Young Worker Awareness Program (if anyone is interested)

the stats are staggering though....42 workers injured EVERY DAY in Ontario alone!!!!

Take care people....the biggest safety problem out there, I believe, is that attitude of indestructibility many teens have...."Nothin's gonna happen to me!"

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Thanks for that CJ. One thing, as a journeyman tradesperson, we are always on the look out for our apprentices as they are often unaware of the dangers that face them everyday. Some worksites I go on even go so far as to make apprentices where brightly colored hard hats so everyone knows they may require help, especially in areas of saftey.

Everyday, at the start of our shift we try to review and discuss potential hazards. We discuss "OPEX" (operating experience) so we know the types of accidents that have happened in the past so we can learn to avoid them. We have to stay on our toes and sometimes you just get lucky (or unlucky).

Surprisingly, I wasn't as shaken up as you would think. I was actually quite calm, I just took a breathe and said "guys, I'm going for a little break now, umm bye bye"

On a side note, the same night I was offered to split with someone for a card in our card draw (write your name on the back of a card and they draw a card from a bag...). Anyway, I said "no thanks, I already have a card." So buddy bought a card and subsequently WON!! $6000!!!! Oh boy. people were ribbing me. The way I looked at it though was "well, I have my two legs so I used up my luck for the night on that, so whatever, $3000 could never replace those."

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