Terrible accident at work today

a reply to: network dude

Hmmmm. You call coke pop?

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
Here's a really s#tty story...

I had a HS buddy who was killed several years ago in a mining accident. He was operating a Caterpillar D10 (one of the largest bulldozers Caterpillar makes, about a 190,000 lb. machine). He was working a night shift at a coal mine.

Nobody knows what happened for sure, but somehow he backed over the ledge of a steep slope and tumbled down a 60 degree embankment about 300 yards into the bottom of a large mining pit. He was killed from blunt force trauma (crushed basically). He had been a heavy equipment operator for several decades (you have to be in order to be allowed to operate one of these monsters).

On top of the ledge he was working there were two light plants (basically trailer mounted generators with a mast and some stadium lights on top) in the area. One of the light plants wasn't working. The dozer had flood lights all over it for working at night, but those things have huge blind spots no matter how many lights are on them.

Seemed like a cut and dried case of employer liability, and his family was going to be taken care of for life.

BUT...then the toxicology report came back. He had traces (just traces) of Oxycodone in his blood from a minor ankle injury a week before.

180 degree about face...family received nothing and the findings were 100% operator error. All his family got was whatever his union pension was.

Sad, but true, story.

Ok, that is majorly messed up. Was he cleared to work after the ankle accident? or was he still taking medication when he shouldn't have? That sounds like a nightmarish accident.

originally posted by: JinMI
a reply to: TinySickTears

Up in Michigan they're fork lifts or fork trucks.

or Hi-Lo's

originally posted by: lakenheath24
a reply to: network dude

Hmmmm. You call coke pop?

people in ohio do

i say soda cause i came up south

I feel empathy for the victim of the accident.Being single and not having to support a Family when I was a younger man and being the exploratory type of person I did a lot of Industrial and Trades focused jobs everything from Wareshousing to Petroleum Plant Construction to Oil Rig work to Metal Foundry work to INdustrial Crane Manufacture and so on.

I was single and I was a Maverick who Blueflamed every single Job I tried....bar none...I was extremely outspoken and if I saw a safety issue I would not stop politicking or fighting or fixing until it was safe...I soon learned that employers in MANY Industries like to throw down the gauntlet to everyone and challenge them to make waves about safety especially if it cost the Company money ...then 86 them ASAP and Blackball them within the Industry in many cases.....so I voluntarily and sometimes with extreme predjudice left a lot of jobs no man would walk away from....the older I got the less I fought and the more I walked because the reality is that no one is changing a dangerous work environment on their own and it is career suicide to try in most cases...any Man or Woman supporting their Family WILL NOT BE ABLE TO TAKE THE RISK...so it up to those who can do to do.....and I did.....my advice is for people who can fight for Safety to do so and for everyone to work together to survive when things are dangerous and cannot be formally changed....talk it out...fix things...have a bake-sale and buy a seatbelt....do what it takes to get home safe every night...full stop.

originally posted by: lakenheath24
a reply to: network dude

Hmmmm. You call coke pop?

What sound does a bottle make when you remove the bottle cap...its not a trick question....just that aluminum cans came along and changed the tune.