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Shake Hands with Danger

Truck Shop

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WWW.
The irony of this thread, two hours ago I was up at the yard checking the trailers making sure those were all running and noticed the life flight chopper taking off{the truck shop is located at the air port].
20 minuets ago I received a call that my best friend Steve was loading a 20,000 gallon tank and something went wrong. It rolled over him crushing him. His son called me and didn't have many details
so I'm kind of in the dark about what happened other than the local hospital said he suffered many broken ribs, dislocated shoulder and a crushed pelvis, but he was coherent. Steve is a real good guy
and tries to help anyone he can. He was flown to Spokane.
 

AzIron

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Az
Sorry to hear about your Friend truck shop

One of the most over looked and underrated safety things I see is excavations especially in the current labor market I see plumbers getting into 10 foot deep ditches without shoring in class c material and they think there is nothing wrong there are 2 companies I quit digging for for these reasons

My dad talks about the 70s when he was working on an underground crew 20 feet deep no shoring or benches he had to recover more than 1 body from a cave in after he dug 2 guys out alive he quit the following week as an operator I never want to dig anyone up alive or dead I draw the line at digging graves
 

John C.

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Sorry to hear about the accident. I wish the best for your friend on his recovery. I hear the hospitals in Spokane are very good.
 

Truck Shop

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Thank you, apparently they have him plugged in with chest tubes and this morning will put pins in his pelvis. Fortunately the internal bleeding is minimal, they did find fractured vertebra in his
lower back also.
The only good side of this is Steve is a real tough old bird and i'm sure he will overcome this, he is an old logger, he knows adversity all to well.
 

DMiller

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Hermann, Missouri
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Cheap "old" Geezer
Wish no one serious injuries, hope for the best from here. I saw this video at St. Charles Quarry in 83, had similar vids played when in the truck leasing shops. The nuke was brutal for safety programs, a safety meeting per crew minimum once a week with some form of video and unless signed were there would have to watch it over again. Safety Stand downs anytime ANYTHING close call occurred and when a injury happened the whole plant was in stand down except the control room and essential personnel.
 

JD955SC

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Mar 13, 2011
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The South
Truck shop that’s terrible but I hope your friend makes a full recovery.



As far as safety goes I have trust issues when working with most people. I’ve nearly been flipped off of jack stands, nearly hit while someone else was operating controls to line up pins, etc people get into too much of a hurry when the machine doesn’t respond as quick or they get frustrated with a job that isn’t going as quickly and smoothly as they’d like.
 

kshansen

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Mar 11, 2012
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11,129
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Central New York, USA
Occupation
Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
As far as safety goes I have trust issues when working with most people. I’ve nearly been flipped off of jack stands, nearly hit while someone else was operating controls to line up pins, etc people get into too much of a hurry when the machine doesn’t respond as quick or they get frustrated with a job that isn’t going as quickly and smoothly as they’d like.

I'm that way too. When installing buckets or hydraulic cylinders and such on equipment at the quarry I always liked working with Norm. He I trusted 100%.

We could almost always manage to install things like that with at the most a dead-blow hammer. Way too many times working with other people the first thing they would reach for was a 12 Lb sledge and start beating away.

And besides doing the job with out resorting to the big hammer we could get it done in half the time others would take!
 

92U 3406

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Wrench Bender
Safety? First thing people need to be aware of their surroundings and alert. A friend of my brother went to work on the pipeline in Alaska. It's a wonder the man can walk to this day.
He was working on a paddle wheel scraper when the next thing he knew he was being pulled through the frog. A moron climbed into the cab ignored the red tag out of service used
at the time-you can guess what happened. Another incident only with a 988-that guy was lucky he didn't get crushed, the guy who climbed in the cab wasn't so lucky though, he got
his head and a$$ beat all to hell.

Around here these days that tag isn't good enough and your story there showcases why. Before we even lay a wrench on a machine we have to have it locked out. Its such common practice that 99% of the machines in this region have lockout kits on their battery disconnect switches.

Yes I realize that someone can bypass those disconnects relatively easily on some machines but it takes a lot more effort to do so than simply ignoring a tag on a steering wheel or joystick. Even when I worked on trucks I'd take the keys and tuck them away inside my toolbox or pocket.


Oh and I wish your friend a speedy recovery as well. Very lucky fella.
 

Nige

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G..G..G..Granville.........!! Fetch your cloth.
Around here these days that tag isn't good enough and your story there showcases why. Before we even lay a wrench on a machine we have to have it locked out. Its such common practice that 99% of the machines in this region have lockout kits on their battery disconnect switches.

Yes I realize that someone can bypass those disconnects relatively easily on some machines but it takes a lot more effort to do.........
We go further than that and actually double lock everything. The master switch gets a blue Departmental Lock on it. The key for that lock goes inside the "Work Area Lock Box". The WALB is locked with a second Departmental Lock that is kept in the Lockout Station cabinet (which is also locked). Anyone who works on the machine puts their red Personal Lock on the WALB. So after the last person takes his lock off the WALB it can be opened for the key to take the lock off the machine and power it up again. Overkill for most operations but when we have 50+ people on every shift covering a 24/7 operation you can't be too careful, especially when you might have multiple trades working on the same machine at the same time. It's instant termination for anyone working on a machine without locking out first.

upload_2019-11-21_10-9-7.pngupload_2019-11-21_10-9-35.pngupload_2019-11-21_10-10-50.png
 

92U 3406

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We go further than that and actually double lock everything. The master switch gets a blue Departmental Lock on it. The key for that lock goes inside the "Work Area Lock Box". The WALB is locked with a second Departmental Lock that is kept in the Lockout Station cabinet (which is also locked). Anyone who works on the machine puts their red Personal Lock on the WALB. So after the last person takes his lock off the WALB it can be opened for the key to take the lock off the machine and power it up again. Overkill for most operations but when we have 50+ people on every shift covering a 24/7 operation you can't be too careful, especially when you might have multiple trades working on the same machine at the same time. It's instant termination for anyone working on a machine without locking out first.

View attachment 205607View attachment 205608View attachment 205609

A lot of the mine sites up here are the same way. Safety is good but it really irks me when they put all these policies and procedures in place, add extra paperwork etc and then not quote the jobs to reflect all the extra stuff they want us to do. Can't expect a guy to do an hour job in 1 hour when you add 30 minutes of extra work to the task.
 

Nige

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G..G..G..Granville.........!! Fetch your cloth.
A lot of the mine sites up here are the same way. Safety is good but it really irks me when they put all these policies and procedures in place, add extra paperwork etc and then not quote the jobs to reflect all the extra stuff they want us to do. Can't expect a guy to do an hour job in 1 hour when you add 30 minutes of extra work to the task.
I see your point. However the dealer guys we have working in our shop are paid by the hour not by a quoted price for a job, so your issue of added time for the "paperwork" does not apply to us.
As I said before it's the complication of large numbers of people potentially comprising half a dozen different trades in the immediate vicinity of a piece of equipment. The middle photo of my post #33 the WALB has 5 personal locks on it. When we're doing major work on a big excavator I've seen the WALB with hardly a spare hole left in it (it has 30). It's not one/two mechanics working on a piece of equipment like the situation you most likely find yourself in. Horses for courses, what works for us is not necessarily what will work for someone else. I think you also have to bear in mind the 3rd World location and lack of safety awareness in the local culture. That has a lot to do with the systems that are put in place, it's trying to protect people from themselves.
 

DMiller

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At the Nuke we had Tag Out Lock out "Workman's Protection" we called WPA, had four tag programs, Informational(Blue Tag), Caution tagging(Yellow Tag for Equipment protection), Local Controls for Trades(Pink Tags) and Hold Offs where NOTHING could be manipulated or moved(Red and White Tags) that we restrained with large Colored Nylon Ties(Called them HooHaws) cables and locks dependent of location and mechanism type. Had personal lockout devices for those conditions where trades used Local Controls and could locally lock out components. We had to remove as much energy source as manageable for Hold offs, leak-by of liquids or gases would shut the tagging down. Cranes were further restrained by seismic locks then energy sources to release those locks also restrained, man lifts had batteries disconnected, vehicles also had batteries disconnected and cable end covers zip tied on.

STILL Had idiots would manipulate up or downstream components or try to reconnect wiring or try to start systems with partial tagging removed. Repair outages would get scary as to managers getting impatient working to clear protection in pieces to gain time on system recovery, almost steam cooked two welders by doing that in '01. Every repair outage/refueling we went thru the old hands called them Refuel One revision umpty squat as always trying to improve on that first one but never quite getting there. My last was revision 21.
 

kshansen

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Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
Steve is doing fine by the way.

My other safety issue is the way people use jacks. Some don't seem to understand that it takes more than a pop bottle cap and a gum wrapper to hold things up.

Wish I had a picture of the blocking done by someone a couple miles from here a car that is being worked on outside.

If I recall front of car is supported by two cement blocks laying on their side and a a 2X4 across them. I might try to find a reason to drive past that place and get a picture!
 
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