Posted by Gil Huguley on November 07, 1998 at 18:27:13:
In Reply to: Safety, the glovebox section of the Power Wagon Page, Snatchblock Basics. posted by Merrill Fish on November 07, 1998 at 12:53:59:
All,
Merrill is right on target. Our equipment generates tremendous forces, the mis-application of which will produce results that astound the inexperienced. Also when that mis-applied force comes into contact with flesh and bone, people are maimed and killed in the blink of an eye.
I remember working for an electrical contractor one summer before my senior year in high school. We were pulling 4160 volt cable through trays in a factory ceiling. We had a winch truck with a large winch in the back pulling maybe 5/8 wire rope. I was manning the 8-foot diameter cable reel outside the factory. The winch truck was on the other side of the building. Something happened and the reel fell off the supports so it could not turn freely. I started running through the factory (another safety violation) to tell the winch operator to stop pulling. Just as I got out the door on the other side, the cable parted at the building exit point. The truck was about 200' away from the building and I watched that much line arc over the top of the truck. Took the winch operator's arm off deep in his shoulder, cut the top of the cab in half, broke the windshield and creased the hood down onto the engine. The operator bled to death before the ambulance got there. I can see that event from 1961 as if it happened yesterday.
I am amazed at the casual attitude I often see at a vehicle retrieval when people do not think to stand clear of the recoil path when a piece of rigging is under strain. Get out of the line of fire! When it breaks, the remains are going to accelerate to a fantastic speed.
It can happen so quickly, so easily. I try to be very careful, but just last weekend, not 30 seconds after I had advised my son to be cautious, I almost had a disaster. I was stowing the cable back on the winch reel, using my gloved hand to guide the wire rope neatly onto the reel. At the end, I put the hook on the end of the bumper and bumped the winch a few times to take up the last slack. I pinched my gloved finger as the 6000 pound winch tightened up. Fortunately, all that was cut was my glove. My finger got a bruise/blood blister that was painful for several days, but nothing worse. A half inch more, and I would have lost the end of my finger. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS "TOO CAREFUL!"
Think Safety!
Gil