Working in the mud kind of sucks. Over the years I have been faced with some of the most miserable conditions possible. I worked on gravel crushers early on and spent many frozen days/nights out in the elements. Typically we would work even down to -20 degrees. The boss would attempt to get the crusher going in the frozen conditions. Steel behaves strangely at those temperatures and normally we would break a bunch of things trying to get the equipment running. We then would spend hours fixing everything we broke and still not get going. I've seen 4" power cables which were froze into 6"-8" of ice. Spent hours with an ax trying to free the cables from the ice prison. As a grunt laborer I would spend hours squirming into the screening plant and beat the frozen dirt and rocks out of the plugged screens. One time they didn't tell the operator I was in there and they started up the crusher. I barely escaped with my life on that one. If I had been a second slower I would not have made it out. Being beat to death/ chewed up in a screening plant would not be a good way to go.
I was helping on an asphalt plant once and we were attempting to get the hot asphalt pump going. The oil was stiff in the lines but in the tank it was at 400-500 degrees. We had been hovering over the pump for quite a while trying to get it going. As soon as we crawled down off the tank where the pump was the main feed line came apart and the 500 degree oil was spraying every where. None of us (luckily) got hit by the hot oil but it was very close.
Another crusher instance found me attempting to chain up 5' to 6' boulders which were stuck in a jaw crusher. After fishing a chain around the rock a large loader would come up and pick the rock out of the crusher chute. This platform was 15 feet or so above ground. I would always step back as the rock was picked up, but on the exposed platform there was no place really safe. A chain snapped as a rock was picked and the pin that holds the hook to the chain shot off like a bullet, just grazing my neck. Had it hit me straight on it would have been like a 45 caliber bullet hitting me. The hot steel shrapnel went down my coveralls and found its' way out my pant leg. We were 100 miles from a hospital so help was not close.
I have been fortunate to have been working the past 20 years with people that have more focus on safety. Construction is inherently dangerous but the risks can be minimized by proper knowledge and techniques. Entry level young people are very much at risk as are old school workers who have developed bad habits and run out of luck. One such friend of mine was gravely injured a few years ago just before retiring. He was the kind of guy who thought that "it won't happen to me" but he performed an improper dangerous task he had done numerous times before and it got him. He is now wheel chair bound for the rest of his life. A young son of another friend lost his life a few years ago due to a lack of knowledge of proper techniques when working high above ground. All it takes is just one wrong move or lapse of good judgement.
Working in the mud kind of sucks. Over the years I have been faced with some of the most miserable conditions possible. I worked on gravel crushers early on and spent many frozen days/nights out in the elements. Typically we would work even down to -20 degrees. The boss would attempt to get the crusher going in the frozen conditions. Steel behaves strangely at those temperatures and normally we would break a bunch of things trying to get the equipment running. We then would spend hours fixing everything we broke and still not get going. I've seen 4" power cables which were froze into 6"-8" of ice. Spent hours with an ax trying to free the cables from the ice prison. As a grunt laborer I would spend hours squirming into the screening plant and beat the frozen dirt and rocks out of the plugged screens. One time they didn't tell the operator I was in there and they started up the crusher. I barely escaped with my life on that one. If I had been a second slower I would not have made it out. Being beat to death/ chewed up in a screening plant would not be a good way to go.
I was helping on an asphalt plant once and we were attempting to get the hot asphalt pump going. The oil was stiff in the lines but in the tank it was at 400-500 degrees. We had been hovering over the pump for quite a while trying to get it going. As soon as we crawled down off the tank where the pump was the main feed line came apart and the 500 degree oil was spraying every where. None of us (luckily) got hit by the hot oil but it was very close.
Another crusher instance found me attempting to chain up 5' to 6' boulders which were stuck in a jaw crusher. After fishing a chain around the rock a large loader would come up and pick the rock out of the crusher chute. This platform was 15 feet or so above ground. I would always step back as the rock was picked up, but on the exposed platform there was no place really safe. A chain snapped as a rock was picked and the pin that holds the hook to the chain shot off like a bullet, just grazing my neck. Had it hit me straight on it would have been like a 45 caliber bullet hitting me. The hot steel shrapnel went down my coveralls and found its' way out my pant leg. We were 100 miles from a hospital so help was not close.
I have been fortunate to have been working the past 20 years with people that have more focus on safety. Construction is inherently dangerous but the risks can be minimized by proper knowledge and techniques. Entry level young people are very much at risk as are old school workers who have developed bad habits and run out of luck. One such friend of mine was gravely injured a few years ago just before retiring. He was the kind of guy who thought that "it won't happen to me" but he performed an improper dangerous task he had done numerous times before and it got him. He is now wheel chair bound for the rest of his life. A young son of another friend lost his life a few years ago due to a lack of knowledge of proper techniques when working high above ground. All it takes is just one wrong move or lapse of good judgement.
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