Not a accident in the common sense but costly nonetheless.

A freind of mine was a mechanic at the "motorpool" of a local sand and gravel outfit here in Tucson. He was servicing the CEO's vehicle as the guy was driving up to Phoenix that day. It was 110 + and the vehicle broke down in the middle of nowhere. turns out my buddy had left the drain plug off the differential and it lunched the rear end. Unfortunately this was NOT the end of the story. Right before he left work that day he was walking across the shyop and stepped on something, fell and broke his elbow. Guess what, IT WAS THE PLUG, HONEST TO GOD. Lost is job and broke his elbow.....................what a day huh!

 

irony aint it great

 

our first day of autoshop the teacher showed us all the ways we could get hurt or die on the stuff out there. It made all of respect them. Especially the spring compressors.

 

I've heard of this happening to more than one person including myself.
Never remove a driveshaft without first blocking the tires and/or setting the parking brake. Being run over by a coasting vehicle isn't fun.
mike

 

thats a good idea, who knows how many i removed with no blocks, just used the parking brake, which really isn't enough to trust on any vehicle your crawling under.

 

blkbeast, been there done that. Ever wonder how fast you think when the truck starts to roll, you use wrenches or any lumpy item to jam under the wheel as the roll starts? As always the zerks will face up when ya lube the driveline and the slip yokes 180 out.
.................................................. .....................................o&o>......... ..............

 

ALWAYS block the wheeels when jacking a vehicle. whether or not your getting under it. An aquaintence of mine died when his Z71 fell off the jack when he was walking behind it pinning him between the tail-gate and the garage door.

 

I recently started a post called "tips/tricks not in books", and while a lot of other posts apply (electric to remove rust, throttle body coolant lines, etc.) this is kind of what I meant by tips...I didn't realize how old this post was at first, IMHO, it should never be taken down.

And just to add--I don't think anyone in here needs to be reminded to do this, but maybe WHY would be helpful. ALWAYS wear goggles, preferably something that conforms to your face, and especially when looking up at something producing a lot of sparks/dust, etc. I recently was using regular glasses while cutting rusty exhaust out of my truck, and caught a piece in the eye, it only looked like a speck, and only felt like an eyelash right after you wake up.

Have you ever seen the tool they use to get imbedded particles out of your eye? They call it a probe...I call it a 6" long death poker...straight, needle-like point at the end. Ever had it done? I almost passed out and puked during the procedure, and the Doc claims he numbed my eye. When I went in for my check-up a week later, the other Doc took a look, and I joked with her saying, "no more poking right?"...she said, "no, no, Dr. so&so is so brutal when he does that, I use the drill and it's so much more efficient and quicker."

THE DRILL?!?!?!? I almost puked again, and stopped at the store to pick up face forming goggles on the way home.

 

Wow, how's your eye doing now jd?

 

it was fine just a few days after they removed the junk. It was only a little speck, and it bothered for a bit after (they said it would because it was a hole now) and it healed up real quick with eyedrop antibiotics. None of it really hurt, except for the removal. For the record, the Doc knew it was rusty metal without me telling him...if you're gonna get something in your eye, you may as well go for the gold, none of this wuss eyelash crap.

it's doing very well now faroff, thank you for asking

 

JDMORG I feel your pain! I have also had an eye injury, although mine has never quite healed. I still use cream every night to prevent it from tearing open when I open my eyes in the morning. We even tried a contact lens for a month at a time and it would still cause me problems within a few days of taking out the lens.
The funny thing about this, I always wear safety glasses and hearing protection. My injury was from crawling under a desk and falling into a keyboard tray.

 

sory to hear that, and thanks for the heads up on the pain aspect of it, i wear gogles now, but i think i am gonna start duck tapin em to my head!!!

 

i got a piece of metal in my eye while die grinding and it was right in the area where the eyelids meet so it didn't really bother me and didn't realize it was in there. then about a month or so afterwards it really started bothering me and had to go to the doc. he dug around a little and then used a little drill with like a real fine brush on the end. never really hurt. just had blurry watery eye for a couple days.

 

There is no replacement for safety glasses, but a bottle of eye wash in the garage is worth the $5, even just for blowing dust, etc.

 

don't pull the hood release in your truck to let the engine cool off as you pull into the driveway, and then forget to work on your truck and close the hood all the way.... and then drive down the road at 45mph and remember too late what you forgot to do the night before as your hood is flying open and smashing your windshield.