Crazy/Insane Shop Accidents

I'm not even sure where to start.
The engine stand broke once holding a packard straight 8. I was nearly crushed as I was on the floor at the time. All kinds of things in my eyes, bondo, laquer thinner, liquid nails. I had a tiny scrap piece of metal stuck to the white of my eye when I worked in a machine shop that made boat parts. I've set quite a few things on fire while welding including myself. But I think this is my best: While sanding the roof of a car on a step stool, I slipped and fell off and my arm went through the glass of the sandblasting cabinet!

 

I started reading this thread and had to stop...too many missing digits and close calls with death for me!

 

I worked in a Chrysler-Plymouth-FIAT dealership in 1979. I worked in parts at that time. FIATs tended to rust as soon as they were loaded on the ship in Italy, plus their reliability then was dubious, at best, so our service department stayed busy with FIAT repairs, plus Volares...wonderful piece of Malaise-Era Chrysler engineering.

A friend in high school had a new '77 FIAT X1/9. Neat little car. He received it for a high school graduation present. Two days before he was to start class at the local college, a new '77 Plymouth Fury crossed the centerline and used him as a ramp, killing him and obviously totalling the X1/9. The car sat untouched in a local salvage yard for a year and a half, then it came to the dealership to be used for repairs on several other X1/9s that customers brought in. This is the story of Christine's Italian cousin...

First, the wrecker dropped off the car inside the dealership service department shop. Our FIAT guy went right to work on getting the car apart. The back half of the car was intact, so the plan was to pull the engine, trans, and the back half of the body. He was sitting on the floor, with the car on stands, pulling the bumper when the car slipped off the stands and crushing his ankles.

Next, the body shop guy sliced his thumb off while cutting the sheet metal off the back of the car...

And, the other FIAT mechanic slipped and cracked his tailbone while he was pulling the engine...that's not all.

The engine went in one car, the transaxle in a second car, and the back half went on a third car. The car that got the engine from this doomed ride, caught fire in the owner's garage and burned up. No one was hurt, but the car and garage were gone. The car that got the transaxle, got in an accident while the owner was driving out of the dealership, taking the front end out and totalling the car. The car that got the back half was wrecked a week later. And the scrap guy that picked up the remains of my friend's car got in a wreck a mile away from the dealership.

During the entire time my friend's X1/9 was in the dealership, I stayed far away from it. I realized whose car it was when it came in, and it gave me a huge feeling of dread. That car was not right from the day it was built, I'm pretty convinced.

 

I was catching up on this thread since I hadn't read any of it since last year.

When I was working in the steel fab shop I saw this same kind of thing happen. I was at the far end of the shop painting and one of the helpers was straightening some huge beams heating them up with a very large rose bud tip. He ran out of oxygen so he disconnected the bottle and started rolling across the floor on its bottom, "kick-n-it" if you know what I mean... He gets to the cage where the bottles are stored and takes the protective cap off the fresh bottle and puts it on the empty and heads back across the floor "kick-n-it" and really showing off... when he looses control and drops it.... valve hits on a beam laying on the floor and snaps right off. That bottle left the shop just like a rocket. Went at least 60 feet across the building knocking shit from hell to breakfast and punched a hole right through the side of the steel building. Hit in the ditch along side the railroad tracks and turned pure white with frost. The fact that no one was injured or killed was a miracle as most of the time there would have been several guys in the area it went through. Not only did it punch a hole it the building it broke a good 4 inches of concrete off the top of a 6 x 6 inch curb running around the perimeter of the building. To this day I do not move cylinders so much as an inch without the safety caps and always make sure they are securely stored.

But onto another story about how tuff those safety caps are. A local farmers employees are headed down the road in a one ton truck towing a big 'ol GI trailer loaded with a compressor, welder, bottles, tools and tractor parts. Probably weighs over 4 ton. A guy comes around a curve way too fast and hits them head on. Broke the hitch off the truck and the trailer flipped over on its top. Tallest thing on the trailer was an oxygen bottle with the cap on it. Cap made a big 4 foot long divot in the asphalt and didn't look any worse for wear.

 

not too crazy , but pretty stupid lol

i couldnt slide the jack under a low car i was working on so i drove up on some wood first and got the jack under and did whatever job it was

when finishing up i lowered the car back onto the wood and tightened the wheel nuts , the car started to roll off the wood and my foot was right there and the wheel slowly rolled onto my foot lol so i was trapped , managed to push it off and no harm done , was pretty emmbarrasing though

 

had something happen today that I'm calling weird. A buddy of mine stops by and needs to borrow a grinder to cut down a basketball pole. I needed a break from the shop so grabbed my grinder and went to help him. He dug around the bottom of the pole to get below grade as I ran the extension cord and hooked up the grinder. I started the cut and got about 2" in and I felt what I thought was pressurized air coming from inside the pipe. It wasn't much but it was also dusty. I shut the grinder off and thought made someone had filled the pipe with concrete during installation. The pole was not a kit it was homemade 4" dia 1/4" thick walls all welded up. I took my pocket knife and stuck in the kerf and the pipe was hollow. So I thought what the heck and grabbed the grinder to finish the cut. I get about 3/4 of the pipe cut and BAM, a flame shoots out of the cut. Scares the shit out of me. I had my left glove on and the right hand glove on the ground so my knee wasn't in the mud. My right was my trigger hand and it actually burnt some of the hair off it. Now I'm thinking this thing is sitting on a gas line. We grab the pipe and bend it down and break it off. Looked in the pipe with a flashlight and did not see a thing. Measured down 30" to the bottom of the pipe and it was dirt. So somebody dug the hole stuck the pipe in and poured concrete around it. My guess is that some sort of gas from the earth just got trapped inside the pipe. I need help with this one, what do you guys think?

 

While trying to break the front axle nut loose on the wifes fwd ford probe i had it on stands and the axle would spin. So i decide to put my 24" pry bar between the lugs and wedge against the floor. Still too darn tight so i get the big breaker bar out and start bouncing up and down on it with both feet. The pry bar is flexing against the ground and flys out hitting me in the temple! knocked out cold,i have a scar to this day and i won a trip to the emergency room for a scan. DUMB..S! At least my family asked if i was ok before the all laughed at me!

 

Lets see, when I was about 13 I drug a hack saw across the joint of my left thumb causing it to get a spur that likes to punch through whenever that thumb gets hit. I've caught fire 3 times welding, none bad but just enough to get your heart rate going.

Was tightening the battery terminals on my dads car once and was in a hurry so I didn't take my ring off(which I no longer wear). I was tightening the + terminal when the ring grounded on the block and instantly melted to the wrench. When i yanked my hand out and pulled the ring off it sounded like a fajita coming out at a mexican restaurant.

Another time I was working on my Buick with a wire wheel on a grinder and like an idiot wasn't wearing safety glasses. Felt something hit my eye but didn't really think much of it until later. Went to the bathroom and as i walked by the mirror I noticed something in my eye. On closer inspection it was a strand of wire thrown from the wheel embedded in my eye. Luckily it was in the sclera and didn't do any damage. Eye story number two was while using a carbide bur to clean up the flash castings on a cast iron part. I had safety glasses on but still managed to COVER my left eye in metal dust. It didn't really start bothering me till later in the day so once I figured out that it was metal in my eye I got a pocket magnet, covered it with a piece of tissue and blotted my eye. I got a good bit of metal out so I figured I got it all and the pain was just from the scratches left over. Eventually (1 in the morning) I realize there must be more in it and head to the E.R., 5 hours they flushed it out numbed it and picked the rest out with a large needle.

Had my arm get pinned between a tow dolly and truck bumper, put it in park but forgot to put the transfer case in gear. got a cracked wrist out of that one as well as candy cane stripped scars down the arm where the bumper was bouncing down it.

Last but not least, a few months ago I was grinding on a part while wearing a hooded sweatshirt. I had been flipping the draw string over my shoulder whenever I started grinding but they fell down at one point and got caught up in the wheel causing it to run up them. When it happened either I yanked my head down or it pulled my head down but either way if I hadn't done it down it would have ate out right at trachea/jugular area but as it happened just slammed my jaw and ate out an area under it. The grinder still has bits of string caught up in it and as soon as I got home I cut the draw strings off the rest of the hoodies I have.

 

I'll start off with crazy then go on to stupid.

Crazy- One day at work I was cutting some steel using my oxy/acet. torch. I always try to keep my back to the tanks and blow the molten metal away from them. This particular time was no different, accept I noticed while I was cutting that the shop instantly got alot brighter and I saw my own shadow on the wall in front of me. I turned around to see a ring of fire, Literally. The rental acetylene tank was on fire. The fire was not coming from my gauges, but from the base of the valve itself. I threw my welding jacket over the tank and luckily the fire went out. Then I put the tank outside and took the rest of the day off. That could've went alot worse.

Stupid- I accidently dropped my fathers pickup off the lift yesterday, luckily it was only about 6 inches off the ground.

Stupid- While doing a brake job once I had an open Mountain Dew sitting next to an open bottle of brake fluid. There is one taste that I never want again.

Stupid- Held my face over a brake bleeder while bleeding the wheel cylinder.

Stupid- Not chocking the tires on a customers trailer while putting it in the yard.
Even more stupid- pointing the trailer in the direction of another customers pickup.

I got tons more, I'd rather stop myself now....

 

was working under my 40 ford sedan delivery and the rear axle kicked forward knockedout my jack stands and it wedged my arm between the body and rear crossmember and broke my arm then i had a cast on for 2 months the day after i got my cast off i was working on a ladder at the shop and it slipped out i fell 12 feet onttop of a 67 BMW and crushed my hand between the ladder and the car...one fingertip has 8 seperate breaks in it i had 5 stitches in another finger and a 3rd finger the bone was broken into the jiont i had to have surgery on and a screw put in my finger....also caught my chin on the top of the ladder and had 10 stitches in my chin

 

I was 17 and building a '51 willys station wagon with a 327 chevy in it. Had the tires up on concrete blocks (AKA jackstands). Leaning over grill in engine compartment, dropped wrench and murphys law demanded that it landed perfectly aligned to cross the starter solenoid. It was in gear (of course) and low range no less.

Engine cranked, rolled off blocks, hood fell on top of me and drove into work bench.

Not much blood but my dad was pissed about his work bench.

Note to self: unhook battery terminals

 

A few years back, at my first day on the job. This was in a recession in the oil patch, basically if you had a job you were very lucky.
That being said on my first day, I didn't want to say no to a task I was given, and in this gloriously unsafe (typical oilpatch) workplace I was given a grinder with no guard, no handle and a general grinding wheel to cut the welds on this service body. As I had to make a Ford designed one work on a Chev 3/4 ton. They had no faceguards or anything of that sort

Holding the grinder as best I could in this orgami like position, I was trying to hold it in place when the 1/4" deep welds I was cutting out grabbed the grinder disk and shot the grinder at my face.

So I had this 5.25" grinder with a wheel still turning at 10k RPM cut a whole in my lower lip, and propel itself upside my cheek, leaving a deep gouge. Surprisingly it didn't knock out any teeth, but still needed 5 stitches to close to initial hole. Thankfully it healed quite nicely (Vitamin E works great)

Phenominal way to start a first day at a new job.... fuck sakes.
Several more things of this sort happened to other people, so I called OHS over, and they were charged heavily for other related offenses. That place was amazing in the worst way.

 

My son was standing about 6 feet behind this truck with his back turned when this happened.

 

I would like to say that I am an ER nurse and have also worked in a couple of trauma centers, I could write a book about the things I've seen. People who have accidents get their story retold, people whose "accidents" are caused by stupidity get their story retold more often and always prefaced with "I took care of this one dumbass who . . . "
Please be safe.

 

Over 25 years ago, I was taking an evening car mechanics course at the local Vo-Tech. The instructor was an old-time mechanic who knew his stuff.

He wanted to demonstrate why removing a coil spring without a compression tool was a bad idea. He jacked up the front of a car, and removed the wheel and brake.
He had us all go outside the shop and look in through the armored window in the shop door.

With a small hand sledge hammer, he smacked the coil until it broke loose. The coil rocketed out hitting a cement block wall 10 feet away. The coil compressed on impact, rocketed back across the room hitting the opposite wall, re-compressed and made the return trip! It would have killed anyone in its path.

I never forgot that lesson!

 

Not me (I did enough dumb shit mayself as a kid). Went to my fave junkyard in summer about '74.

My buddy came out & said they shut DOWN for the whole day, 'cause one of their guys got burned & knocked shitless & sent to the hospital. He's been trying to save time on cars to be crushed by using a cutting torch (still with me?) to remove gas tanks.

Duh.

 

no way! crazy, hope the shop has insurance? how does this happen? back end too heavy?

 

Holy shit! that sucks for him, probably spent the entire rest of the day off in the shower, trying to get clean. "It won't come off!, dammit it wont come off!!"

 

So this weekend I was working on welding something for a friend out of some scrap steel he brung over. One piece we wanted to use had a 3/4" bolt through it.

The head and nut were both through ends of tubing so I couldn't grind it off or cut it off.... I thought well maybe I can burn the head off and let it drop out the bottom. I fire up the torches and go to town. Since the head is in the tube sparks are flying up in the air around me. I have the torches about 15-20' from where I'm working. Low and behold a spark flies by the acetylene tank. I look over my shoulder and there is about a 2" flame shooting from the valve.

I ask my buddy to grab something and put it out, and he just stands there.....I drop the torch and grab my adjustable wrench to shut off the tank, low and behold the wrench is fouled up. I finally grab a rag and smother it and all is ok.

Just scared the crap out of me, all is good now, and next time tanks will be around a corner/wall somewhere.

I'll be having a chat with the rental guys who rent the tanks about the leak.......

 

I was playing back in my head last night how much it would have hurt to drop a ford 9" 3rd member on my face after my left arm became numb from the weight. Luckily, I got it up in there. I'll have to come up with a different place to have my face next time.

 

Once I watched a kid at a shop using a chain as a spring compressor on a custumer's beautiful chevelle. Needless to say, the chain gave way, spring came out like a rocket along with ripping off the fender, it bounced off the ceiling and cratered the hood of a newly restored F100, before coming to a rest five feet away from its starting point! Luckily nobody got in the path of the slinky from hell! !!

 

Back about 25 years ago, when most of my "jackstands" were concrete blocks, I had a '65 Fury wagon up on three blocks on each corner, as we were removing the rear 8-3/4" axle assembly and the automatic transmission. We had just finished under the car, and not two seconds after the two of us were clear of the car, the rear blocks popped and collapsed, and the fronts immediately followed!

We never used blocks in that manner again! And I went to the store and bought four top-quality stands that I still have to this day. NEVER trust a concrete or cinder block to hold a car.

 

i was in the garage putting new wheel bearings and race's in my old 89 f-250 4x4 tow rig and was working on getting the race's in the hub. started pecking around the outer edge and it started crooked....so i started pecking on the side that was out furthest....wouldnt you know that B!tch sprung out of the but and smacked me right in the mouth.....busted my lip, and cracked one of my front teeth all the way up into the root...needless to say a dentist trip later that week rusulted in the tooth coming out in 4 peices.......

 

One of the last days of May this year, I snapped the two middle 'metacarpal' (the long ones in the palm of the hand, going down to the knuckles) bones in my left hand when three(!!!) spring compressors slipped off the spring I was holding on to...For a few seconds my hand was twice as wide as usual XD . It kinda hurt a bit after a while (after first going into shock feeling nothing, and then nausea and dizzyness) . One month off work, and they had to open up my hand and put some titanium screws in it. I promise to be more careful in the future
Got a cool scar from it....

 

Just had a torqueflite fall off the tranny jack and bust the case. Torque convertor was stuck in the pump and when it came loose....away she went!!! boss got his hand fouled up when the convertor became part of his hand...

 

sent to me from a friend.







I have seen alot of weird stuff working in the biz, but this one took the cake.

 

Damn!!!

 

Huh? Please explain how this came to be. I'm intrigued.

 

That had to take a shit load of energy..
if it was flung thru that tire and wheel..

or was it driven over in some strange way?

 

apparently that wrench that you loose in the engine compartment sometimes makes its way back into your shop. just dropped and bounced right I guess.



as for my own dumb story. I was working on my 1980 vw rabbit at work . cant remember what I was doing but I needed the key in the on position. opened the door reached in and turned the key..... now I had jumped the clutch safety switch at one point as a cheep repair (who needs those right) well I bumped the starter that mother started right up in first gear. door hit the lift post, I got pinned between door a the car and the great thing is that thing sat there and smoked the tires with a crushed me holding it back..... I managed to get the key off before I got crushed to death. it hurt alot, but I survived .