In the twenty plus years that I have been working on coaches and that is hundreds. I always thought that I was working as safe as I could. But 10 days ago I found out that I will have to do better. I was putting the rear cap on a coach. I set the ladder up and went up to the top, And was steeping off onto the roof. That isthe last thing that I remembered. The ladder slipped or did somthing I landed on my back on the cocreat. Busted my head open and every bone and thing hurt so bad that I have been just laying and trying to let the sweling go down. I was the luckest pearson alive if I had went down face first I am sure that I would have broke a arem or lage. So from now on I will onlyset up my ladder on the grass were I can stake the legs down. . So there are a lot of thing that can get us nut in troubleThe ladder is one be very carfull. It will take me another two weeks to be able to walk enough to get back up on top to finnish the rear cap. Fred
Fred,
Thank you for giving us a heads up and the safety reminder about the ladders. I will definetly keep that in mind! I'm very glad to hear you are now on the mend, and that no serious injuries occured.
Kind Regards, Phil
Fred,
OUCH!
Glad it wasn't worse and thanks for sharing your story.
Its always the stuff we are comfortable with that gets us. :P
Our Best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Cliff
Cliff, Don't you have a funny story about ladders and caps? ;D ( Not that Fred's was funny) Glad you weren't seriously injured
Fred,
Hope you heal quickly!
One can NEVER take safety for granted! Sometimes we think we are doing things with safety in mind, but just stop for one minute and think of how it could be done safer. One minute might save you time in the hospital or even worse, pushing up daisies!
BE CAREFUL IN ALL YOU DO!
Happy Trails,
Paul
Dreamscape
Fred, real sorry to hear that. And you didn't even have snow and ice to blame it on!
I've always thought that as bad as the injury could be, I've been concerned as much with the downtime something like that would cause.
Gary, I think, had a great post awhile back, something like, "How can I avoid hurting myself today..."
Hope you heal up soon.
Chuck
Ron,
Yeah, I thought about MY cap story when I read Freds.
For those who had not heard it:
I was trying to decide if I needed help to put on my front cap.(for a 10" roof raise)
Being of the Male gender and a Busnut the answer was of course, NO!
I got under the cap and lifted on my back, and then tried to go up the step ladder, but the cap hit the front of the bus before I could get on the ladder.
I then put up a small step stool with a 2X12 over to the first step of the original ladder(very smart)
I climbed up, crossed over and up the first ladder(man am I smart, and pretty good balance too)
Slid the cap slowly off my back and on the framework. As I backed down the ladder out from under the cap it started sliding down,
I was pinned between the cap and the framework with four fingers holding the cap from sure damage if it fell to the concrete floor.
I was trapped, but then it came to me, use the quick dial on my cell phone to call Julie in the house to help me....A TOUGH call to make. After she stopped laughing, she came out and asked me if I could wait until she got her camera....NO!
She held the cap, I crawled out and the rest is history.
Thanks for the memory Ron! ;D
Cliff
Fred,
I am really sorry to hear about your accident but sure glad you are mending. I can stop work on the Eagle anytime, If I can be of any help to you until you are better give me a call or email and I can be there in 6 hours. Don't take chances but I would take this as an omen about what you have been thinking of doing and finally retiring from the bus converting thing and just enjoy going around and maybe giving seminars at various camp grounds for us bus nuts.
Get better but If you want to take advantage of that offer be sure to call or email, take no more chances now, life too short.
Gary
Cliff:
Don't we hate it when we have to admit to our wife that she was right. Funny how they stand back and see the stupid things we do. Reminds me of Jan 1, 1986 when I had a old diamond plate flat bed trailer hoisted in the air so I culd cut it up and salvage the diamond plate. She said don't do that, I went ahead and did it. Hook bent straight, trailer fell on me and put me on the ground so I wound up going to the hospital trussed up like a hog. After she made sure I was OK she laughed and then wanted to kill me. Broken collar bone and a bad back. Would have been cheeper to sell the trailer for scrap. Boy it is hard to admit they are right.
Fred glad you were not hurt anymore than you were. One day we will learn to work smarter and not harder. GET WELL FAST.
ED
MCI 7
Egads Fred...we're getting too old for these sort of antics! Happy to hear that you're going to be OK but the healing pprocess for both body and spirit will take some time. Best wishes for a fast recovery from both Jackie and me.
Why am I not surprised that one of the treasures of our group, Gary, would volunteer to go down and be of whatever help he could be? In the same spirit, I'm not that far from you, Fred, and although we've not yet met we've talked many times and I missed you at Arcadia. My problem. If I can help out...let me know...I'm in Bushnell for the winter.
And yet another of our brotherhood came close to having a similar problem! "Twinkletoe's", also know as Cliff, the 'Florida Cracker'.... Cliff, m'friend, had I been a mouse in your pocket I might have needed to change my 'depends'....and don't blame Julie for her moment of mirth..but happy that it worked out well.
Now, Ed...and others...even though I'm guilty of standing back and chuckling at our collective mistakes and sometimes injuries, I am in total sympathy for those who are injured...but we need to remember that these posts are read by the fairer sex and our mishaps might come back to haunt us if we're not careful. If nothing else registers: WORK SAFELY!
The BusGods might smile upon us favorably, because of our efforts, but they (unfortunately) cannot absolve us from pain!
NCbob
Fred, best wishes for a speedy recovery!
Thanks for the reminder to THINK first & ACT second.
I have my very own 'stupid trophy'.
We decided to save money on heating costs & burn wood in a wood stove (that was 2 years ago & we have alredy saved enough to cover the stove & etc costs).
I stumbled across a very nice wood splitter at a great price.
I brought my new toy home & began splitting wood. Those things are efficient.
Problem is your finger ain't nearly as hard as wood AND another problem is that I thought my finger wasn't near a pinch point.
The small log twisted & took my hand for a ride. :o I lost the pad off my index finger. (15 minutes after I got it home, I was calling for a ride to the emergency room - hey, I didn't want to leak any of my own hydraulic fluid in my car! ;D )
I am reminded of my brain fart whenever my hand gets cold & I am thankful for the reminder that there ain't no 'do-overs' in life, so make sure you are as safe as possible.
My kids have more respect for machinery now too.
I can't believe the emergency room bill was so high! But I'm glad they were there.
Hello Fred.
Glad you are ok, and thanks for reminding us that we have to keep on thinking, especially on jobs we've done a bunch of times!
Gets me thinking we're all prone to using ladders for everything up high because we have them.
We all might think to add a few pieces of scaffolding to our collection of big boy toys, both medium height and taller pieces, and buy the proper floor pieces to go between, not a bunch of 2x boards.
Good for working around the house and shop. Since getting some, though it takes more time and effort than a ladder to set up, I feel better working on it and less so on the ladder.
happy coaching!
buswarrior
I bought a used drywall type scaffold off Craigslist to work on my bus. Mine cost $95 and is a Biljax. Chinese models cost about $150 new.
The only disadvantage is they only go to 6 feet high, but 6 feet was just right for installing alucobond panels over my windows. One of the better investments I made. I thought I would sell when done with panels, but I'll keep it for now.
Brian Elfert
I learned a few years back that ladders should be checked out periodically - like before every use. I was raised around orchards and some people would say I must have been born on a ladder. But on this particular day I learned something. My son, age 15 at the time, and another youth had spent much of the summer washing windows to make money, and were busy as well as successful at it. But what I didn't realize was that in the process they literally wore the feet off of my aluminum extention ladder. So when I went to use it that winter to access the roof to shovel off some snow, it failed miserably.
I placed the ladder on the deck ln order to reach the roof, but when I got to the top, shovel in hand, and began to clear a spot on the roof to gain access, the bottom of the ladder kicked out, and down I went. I had earlier cleared the snow off of the deck, so there wasn't much there to stop anything, including me. The ladder's bottom end hit a railing post, the top wedged against the house at about 5 feet above the deck, and I landed on my back in the middle of the ladder, which bent, and then rebounded, tossing me over the rail where I landed in about 4 feet of snow.
I was lucky I landed where I did, but had a very sore back from the impact on the ladder, and was able to find my glasses in the spring when the snow melted. The ladder was wedged so tightly between the rail and the house that I had to cut in two to free it. I had been up there in this fashion and shoveled snow many times in prior years, but have never done it since. But I have had occasion to use one or the other of the half-ladders on rare occasions.
Check your equipment frequently and take nothing for granted.
tg
Hi Fred,
Been there done that, only tangled with the ladder and feet and went down head first dragging the ladder behind me.
Ouch.. Well at least I landed on my head....
I now use extra tough bungee cords at the top of the ladder to the drip rail so try to keep the ladder from doing a side-slide and so far that works. Haven't taken the dive lately...
You know come to think of it, that was 10 years ago, Maybe I did do some brain damage after all.. ::)
( that would explain me collecting buses and more junk... ;D )
Be safe...
Dave....
Ouch!!!!!!!
Sorry to learn the mishap but glad to hear from you about getting recovering & getting your strengths back to normal soon as possible.
Thanks for informing us about being more alert about using ladder wisely.
I too have many very close calls on extension ladder & step ladder...learn many "don't do" or "don't skip safety procedure".
I learn & use "16 x 60" span. For each 60" height equal 16" away from vertical plane will result a 15º degree or 75º incline slope angle. Also make sure ladder's shoes & prongs are in good condition & proper position on surface.
http://www.wfrfire.com/website/articles/ladsafe.htm
Perhaps we need to recheck our ladder condition for repair before the next time!
Hope Fred continues speedy recovery. The older we get the longer to heal & suffering.
My prayer is you keep getting better every day.
Sojourn for Christ, Jerry