So I get a call tonight from a friend and coworker of mine with a story. He had his neighbor helping him build a fence. This neighbor is a FORMER employee. Not the sharpest tool in the drawer, hence the former status. Dull neighbor gets in the Cat 287 and uses it to stretch the fence. He gets out, fastens the fence, cuts it, and gets back in the Cat. This is where I get a little lost. He calls my friend for help, saying he "smashed his foot with the bucket of the skid steer". Now keep in mind he is working alone, when he had been told by my friend to wait until he got there to help. My friend tells him "There is no way you can smash your own foot with the skid steer by yourself". That would be my first reaction as well, but no, we were both wrong. Seems he crawled most of the way into the cab, sat partially on the seat with his feet sticking OUT of the front of the cab (a position I could not get into even if I tried), lowered the lap bar, unlocked the hydraulics, (all the safeties WORK on the machine) and proceeded to lower the boom until he smashed his feet. ointhead Oh, I forgot to mention, doing this was easier because of the fact he got out of the machine, and then back into it while the boom was raised in the air, another no-no. So now the neighbor has a smashed, possibly broken foot, and I guess is somewhat lucky that is all. My question is how in the world a grown man can be so dumb?????:Banghead:Banghead:Banghead There are 3 seperate safties to make sure you can't operate this machine unless you are sitting in the seat, and to intentionally get past all of these then lower the boom onto yourself takes a special kind of stupid. I have rarely been happier that someone no longer worked for me. He could have done that or worse on the job, but instead did it at a friend and neighbors house.
Okay, I can see somebody getting in with the bucket up; I can imagine someone sitting with their feet out cause I sometimes run my trackhoe (for a few minutes)with my feet propped on the windshield frame above my waist and my behind almost out of the seat(BUT NOT A SKIDSTEER!); but, to do both?! ON A SKIDSTEER!??!! Okay, for the sake of disscussion we assume this is done, BUT HE LOWERED THE BOOM ON HIS, OWN, STUPID FEET???!!! Either he is such a cowboy he revved it tight and slammed it down or he is so stupid you better watch he doesn't forget to breathe. Congratulations on the excellent business decision.
natural selection. people that stupid walk with a limp.
HEY NOW! PLAY NICE! My limp is from birth. If you don't watch it I'll join that Truckdriver Tiny in his war against you.
Well, you failed to mention something JDO...as you mentioned, the idiot had to be partially in cab, with the leg/foot he had no great concern about hanging out into the mean old world of loader arms and bucket, and he had to depress seat switch, had to let seat bar down, can't be comfortable by now, had to depress "enable" button on left console (is he a contorsion artist by now?),,, And... he had to grab the joystick control to make the boom come down and mash the foot he had no great concern about. This fellow had to be as twisted up as a pretzel at this point. I'd be afraid to let him borrow my truck. He could probably manage to drive it up a Mack's exhaust stack with little effort. Some people are too dumb to breath air. I sure hope he dosn't try and sue your bud for his own stupidity.
We had a guy on the job (operating a Case skidder), who noticed that one of the bucket latches was not fully engaged. He slid his butt down in the seat far enough that he could reach out to kick the latch closed, without ever raising the safety bar, throttling back from full speed, or taking his hands off the controls. When he kicked, he inadvertantly lowered the arms and caught his leg with the crossmember. He got away with a nasty bruise to his bone, but didn't break anything. Another couple of inches, and who knows what might've happened. It's true--You can't fix stupid.
The local garbage company uses two cat skid steers to push all the recycling onto the conveyer belt for the sorting plant. One of the "operators" noticed a piece of trash stuck in the bucket pin. He decided, in all his wisdom, that if he raised the bucket he could pull it out from the bottom without leaving his seat. Unfortunately he couldnt reach so he stretched as far as he could, hitting the joystick and bringing the bucket down on his arm. It folded him drug his arm and shoulder down so far that it broke his shoulder. I was there getting a load of woodchips and saw the whole thing, I thought he was dead. When the paramedics got there the boss had to crawl in the machine on top of him to raise the bucket and free him.
People that stupid should be required to wear a sign, so the rest of us could stay a safe distance away from them. On another note, the idiot in question got fired because when he was on flagman duty one day, he was found laying down on the edge of the road, with the stop/slow sign leaning over on something, taking a nap! Its a good thing it was the slow time for traffic.
Now you guys need to give him credit, at least it was his own foot
and we wonder why they put lap bars in them:Banghead i saw a guy get completely,thrown to the ground from a 1845c once.
There was a guy here running an old Hydromac in a salvage yard. He was very good operator and "didn't need to wear no seatbelt" and no lap bar in those. He pitched himself out over the top of the bucket. Not too bad except they had foot controls and Hydromac was well made. They had cast iron "shoes" over the front of the pedals. They were just like the ones you see in factories on control pedals for shears and such. Nice idea so you couldn't step on the pedals by accident when getting in or out. He went out the front but his feet stayed. Two broken legs and I cringe every time I think of it.
owwww!
Now not that one should or would be casting aspirations on this ????operators character but would that funny stuff that some people smoke have any bearing on this "accident"..?
Actually he was a good operator, not really a cowboy at all, just that sometimes confidence will bite us in the butt.
It wasn't a factor in the one I posted either. Now, that's not to say that he might not have done that on the weekends, but I don't think he ever did it at work. The kind that do that on the job are seldom in a hurry, and this guy was always in a hurry. He was just a careless type in general.
Well, not having been there, I could not say, but I am pretty sure a lot of his brain cells got smoked over the years.
Jerry what did he have to say for himself when you found him napping on the job?
I wasn't there (good thing, I didn't get in trouble that way) but the foreman told me he said he was tired and had asked to be relieved. Everyone was busy, so he decided to just take a break anyway. Besides, he said, the sign was still sticking up, so it should be OK. Granted it was the slow time of day on a private road, but if we didn't need a flagger I sure wouldn't have had one there. That was just the final straw. He had done some questionable stuff before, but I had let it slide, but this was just showing too much of a pattern. I fugured he would hurt himself or someone else, or both, sooner or later. Looks like I was right. Just glad he was not on the job still when it happened.
A farmer in our neck of the woods bought a skid steer to clean out out his cattle feed lot, as well as using it for other jobs around his farm. Unfortunately, I have forgotten all of the details, because he did tell me, but it was quite a few years ago. He was either putting the bucket or forks on it and he got out to line it up, when somehow the skidsteer drove forward and pinned him. The end result was that his leg was smashed up quite badly and resulted in a lot of time in hospital. He eventually gave up farming and the few times I did see him, his leg still wasn't fully recovered. RnR.
My farmer brother in law was cleaning up around a bale feeder and reached out of his Bobcat to pull some straw that was stuck on the back side of the bucket......hit the boom down foot control somehow and dropped the bucket on his hand pinning it against the top rail of the feeder. Spent a few days in the hospital and had several surgeries and it will never be right. We had another farmer in the area was using his skid steer to pick rocks out of a field. Don't know exactly what he did but he managed to flip a rather large rock in on his legs breaking both. He did have the presents of mind to drive to the nearest road where someone stopped and called 911. While he was in the hospital his wife sold the skid steer. Rick
One winter I had a cicken farmer ask me to build him a shavings bucket to load his shavings into his spreader truck. I asked to have him bring the loader in to let me get al lthe geometr and measures right. I told him it would be tied up 8 hrs max. e refused so I made the bucket to fit on my little Case When I delevered it he complained that when it was all the way curled back it would come witing a 1/2 inc of his loader arm or cylinder. Well his houses were pretty old and his loader had the cab clipped on it and all the safties off. Well iI get a call from his wife that Im getting the medical bill. He had leaned out and was using is hand as a feeler gauge moving it back till he felt it. At which he hit the curl pedal and smashed his hand. I didnt have to pay for it long story short but I pick more of my customers now. This is the same farmer that was greasing his loader and ad the boom raised to greas the lock pins on the QT. They werent taking grease so he took a broom stick and hit one lever back to slide the pin to grease. When he did it again v the bucket was tilted down a bit and as he was under it with the broom stick he pounded it back and it dropped a light bucket on him. I also know of a man that had an 1835 Case that he was moving with the arms up easing it backward by holding the handles with the bar down. He was backing it into his shop like this when it hit the lip of the shops apron and te back wheels of the loader eased up it pushed the controls to him. It caused the machine to run backwards faster than he could walk. when it get too far he didnt let go and his hands then pulled the levers forward. It ran far enough forward to knock him over and he never let go of the handled till the belly pan was over his feet then he dropped the controls. e was pinned till his wife got ome.
There was a logger here that used a skid steer to load with.They had risers on them to keep the logs from rolling over top into the operator.Bought a new one.Before the risers were put on he wanted to try it out.The last time he loaded logs.One went over and killed him.
Guy over by Underwood Mn did that a few years back with a JD tractor, no cab, loader with a large bucket and a round bale. A witness saw the bale roll down the loader arms and right over the guy. He will not do that again....it killed him. On another note....my (at the time 16 year old) son and I were helping a friend chop hay. Across the road antoher farmer was picking up round bales with both the loader and a fork on the 3 point. Then he was running across the field in road gear bouncing around with 2 bales on and the loader way up in the air. When we stopped for lunch my son (who didn't know much about any kind of machien at the time told me "dad that guy is stupid" and told me what he was doing. No one got hurt but I was pretty happy that a 16 yo boy could see that the guy was nuts. Steve and I went down and watched this clown. He told me it wasn't worth the time to try and tell the guy anything "he treats all of his equipment that way". Rick
Dumbccident... I have had a couple my self but nothing like whats posted above.
LOL I could write a book on just what one of my brother in laws has done. Really hard to believe he's still alive, much less able to continue farming. He's so bad that his kids give him rubber knives for Christmas every year! He has stabbed himself through his hand more than once, almost gotten a 5 bottom plowed dropped on his head, been trapped in the clamshell of a round baler, crushed his hand with a skid steer, broken both thumbs while driving nails and been sucked into a 1000 RPM PTO shaft (shirt ripped and he was only knocked cold). And I was in the Army from 74 to 96 so who knows what I missed through they years! He is a great guy but he could be a poster child for safety! Rick
I say take all the safety warning labels off of everything and stupid will vork itself out over time!!!
I never take the time to look back at old threads, but I always enjoy ones like this when they are revived! LOL
Safety equipment seeks to foolproof machinery. I say keeping fools from machinery is more effective. Every time there is advancement in idiot proofing, selective breeding produces a better idiot.
This exact think happens quite offen either legs get it or about mid back when someone reached our to pick something up. These skid loader are cute little toys arbt they...... If they where thought up today no one could afford the insurance to manufacture them.
No injuries but I had an interesting tie with I think the first skid-steer I ever worked on. Forget the model number but it was back when they used V-4 Wisconsin motors and the drives were mechanical clutches, not the hydrostat like today. Not even sure if it had a seat belt! We were doing some major work on this one and had the bucket ROPS and lift arms off it. Needed to clean it up good so I drove it down to where the steam cleaner was set up. I managed to get it washed off and was coming back to the shop with it. I believed I stopped to let a customers truck go by and then I pushed the drive levers forward. Did that a bit too much and with no bucket or weight from the arms it popped a wheelie. Of course that tossed me back hard in the seat which caused me to pull back on the drive levers. I'm sure you can imagine the next couple steps! Fortunately I did have the presence of mind to let go of the control levers and just brace myself in the seat and let things settle down. Then I cut the throttle to idle and slowly drove it the last bit into the shop!
About five years ago maybe longer, I was cruising along hwy 12 4 lane near Pasco/Snake River. I was driving my pickup passing a semi, I look over to the right at it because something just wasn't right. It had a low pro fifth wheel-the pin wasn't in the jaws it was caught in the rear cross support for the slider. As I passed driver was on the phone just'a yaky pooing at 60 mph. I did manage to get his attention. He acted as though this happens all the time-no big deal.
I knew a farmer who owned a big spread over a wide area, that he ran by himself with just occasional help, including his wife. His wife went to the city for a week, and he was on his own all that time. He drove across the highway to another property he owned, where he kept one of his trucks in a shed. The truck had a tipping tray, and he usually fitted bolt-on sides to it, to haul grain. The sides were off the truck, and he went to the shed specifically to fit them, using a torque-converter drive Chamberlain tractor, fitted with a front end loader. He hooked chains to the top of the bucket and to the truck sides and lifted them into position - then he backed the tractor away, and got off the tractor without pulling on the handbrake - and left it idling in 1st gear. It was not moving at this point. He stepped in front of the tractor (which still had the bucket raised to a little over waist height), and proceeded to bolt up the truck sides - with his back to the tractor. While he was doing this, the tractor crept forward (in gear, at idle still) - and the bucket hit him in the back, and pinned him to the side of the truck. No-one knew he was there, and no-one lived or worked within earshot. His wife came home a week later, and went looking for him. She found his carcass still pinned to the truck, and the tractor still idling in gear. They reckoned he had scratched and dug holes like a rabbit with his feet, in a desperate attempt to free himself - but the pressure from the Chamberlain tractor FEL was relentless. What a horrible way to die, and all because of a casual attitude towards tractor and machine safety.
Heard about a fella who was doing some suspension work on a truck, alone, and managed to pin a finger between some blocking and the truck frame. Couldn't reach the jack to bring it back up and ended up having to remove his own digit to get free. I'd hate to be in that situation.
I know a guy that was putting the floor board back in his skid steer while it was running . It didnt have any safeties it pinned him between the arms and front of the skipsteer he lived but was messed up. The amish started getting skid steers . One of them tryed to move a teem that was pulling a disc while driving his skid steer. Something happen to the horses and he didnt let go of the rains it drug him out of the seat hurt him bad.
Broken motor mounts. The owner of a shop I worked for had both his legs a pelvis broken, this happened in the late 60's. He was leaning over the front of a Ford Galaxy and snapped the throttle, engine jumped because of broken motor mounts forcing the shift linkage. Pinned him against the bench.
An old fella I worked for was showing a newbe around a hay baler, the type with it own engine. He was doing this with the engine idling and clutch engaged. He said to the newbe, don't ever put your finger in this hole with the engine running and gave him a practical demonstration. Lost a digit in the process. Kinda blew me away, thought bosses were smarter than that. Handed in my notice a few days later.
The term for that is--Elective Amputation. Ever wonder why it was called a radial ARM saw.
Way back in the 60's, when I first left school, and went into the contracting business with the brother, we initially lived in a rented farmhouse in the wheatbelt. The farmer had recently bought out a neighbouring farm, and he told us the episode of events that enabled him to acquire that farm. The neighbouring farmer was running a hay baler pulled by a McCormick-Deering-International, I think it was an AW-6. He had his 10 yr old son helping him. The baler developed a fault, and the farmer got off to examine the baler innards to see what had caused the fault. He needed to see the innards of the baler moving, so he got his 10 yr old son to sit in the tractor seat and engage and disengage the foot clutch, so the farmer could watched the baler innards working. The son engaged the clutch, the baler spun, and the farmer saw the problem. He told his son to just hold the clutch down to stop the baler spinning, while he reached inside the baler to fix the problem. After about 5 minutes of trying to hold that strong old International clutch spring disengaged, the young fella's leg got tired, and he couldn't hold the clutch down any more, so he let it go. The baler promptly started up, the farmer got dragged into it, and got decapitated on the spot. The young fella saw it all happen, and as a result, he suffered such major shock and trauma he became mentally unstable, and had to be placed in a mental institution. The widow had no-one to run the farm, so she sold it cheap, just so she could get away from the scene of family devastation. Just shows what can happen when you ignore that big message in the front of virtually every manual - "Do not try to adjust or repair any machinery while it is motion" (or while it can be put into motion).
When I worked automotive machine I worked with a guy named Frank who had gone to machinist school in Boston IIRC. The school supported it's self by turning material for ship yards. He told me that he got to school early most days and one morning the police and coroner where there. He happened to enter the work area through a side door, only to see a red stripe up the wall. Seems the instructor forgot to remove his tie.
YIKES!!!!
I worked at ASV one winter putting hours on Pre-Production skidsteers at their test track. Terex owned them at the time, one day we were told to stay away from half the facility for the afternoon. Turned out they were getting sued for pretty much that exact thing. A guy had taken the door off of an RC-30 and hardwired the safety switches and managed to get his legs pinched between the loader and frame. There were 2 techs, 4 engineers, about a dozen lawyers, going over an RC-30 all afternoon, I never heard what the outcome of the law suit was.
Saw a old man working at Mack in STL with a number of busted up, not quite right parts, arm, hand, leg, he explained to any who would listen get ANYWHERE near to a brake lathe, engine lathe, drill press or mill, tuck in your shirt, make sure your belt is fastened and do NOT let sleeves dangle or wear cuffed gloves. He managed to survive ALL three machines over a year's time.
Same applies to PTO driven ag equipment. I reckon there's more people mamed or killed with that stuff than anything else. It's been that way ever since I can remember and still DF's don't learn.
Who can recall the incredible Caterpillar forklift lawsuit incident many years ago? (STR it was late 80's/early 90's?). A forklift operator had rolled his forklift, doing something stupid with (turning fast with mast raised, possibly uneven ground). As the forklift rolled, the operator got flung out (no seatbelt), some part of the forklift (probably cabin leg), landed on top of him, he lost both his legs. He took Caterpillar to court over the basic instability of the Caterpillar forklift design (hey, I thought all forklifts with a raised mast become unstable, but let's not ruin a good lawyers story). Caterpillar got into top gear with their best lawyers and company experts, they were going to laugh this case out of court. One senior Cat manager was so enthusiastic about getting the defence right, he even took the same model forklift for a drive, and carried out the same foolish manoeuvre to prove up the forklifts great stability! Guess what? The forklift rolled, the Cat manager got flung out, the same forklift component landed on him, and the manager lost both his legs!! Caterpillar dropped their forklift instability defence, and settled the lawsuit out of court. The Cat managers accident was never revealed outside Cat, but like everything, the incident became known amongst certain people in the industry.
There are forklift operators much like shellfish, hatched without a brain. I know a facility, they open the overhead doors just enough. In winter, it's very cold. they have 900,000 BTU boiler & 140,000 BTU of radiator. Nobody wants to open the door all the way. A few times a winter, somebody roars out the door at 15 MPH with the mast too high for the half open door. Upper panels are quite dirty, bottom two are always shiny new.
If I open a door partially in winter, for that reason, I only open it about 4 feet so no fork lift will even attempt this stunt.
If I had a dollar for every door frame or door that I've seen hit with a raised forklift mast (even when the door was fully open!), I'd have enough to buy myself a decent forklift.