Today I had an accident

[Sandy]

Bowler Hatted Turner,
Thanks for raising this issue, timely reminders on such matters can never be untimely, and the responses received underline this!

Seventhdevil,
I read most of your comments in posts with interest and respect for your knowledge but would never agree with your comment:
     "I don't have a first aid kit as i don't need one".

Having trained in engineering and worked in the manufacturing industry all my life, in small companies through to very large global organisations, I make the following points:
   > They all took H&S (and EHS) very seriously (as they should have done) with constant focus and routine checks to ensure adequate training and resources were always available.
   > I worked with several colleagues who had had the misfortune of having a part of one or more of their fingers missing (as an example) and none were caused through deliberate actions!
   > As an engineering manager, and being in the right place at the right time, I hit the emergency stop and comforted a machine setter who had badly injured himself on a rotating hydraulic arm. I won't give the details here, but the 'accident' was caused by his own actions, which were not deliberate.

Apologies to you if your comment was a joke, but I didn't take it as such, and I don't see the need for it if it was.

H&S is no joke, and no-one should ever treat it as such - as anyone who has been on the receiving end of an accident would tell you, if they're around to still be able to tell you!

With regards to all
Sandy

[seventhdevil]

it does sound a bit blase doesn't it and i'm sure the day will come where i'll need a bandage or plaster (this is yet to happen to me) but in my defence i've never had an accident that needed a first aid kit.

two things have happened to me in 11 years of turning. 1, a bowl exploded and hit me in the face at about 125mph and took 3 teeth out. off to A&E for stitches to my bottom lip.

the second was another exploding bowl which hit me in the left pectoral and tore the flesh but it did not need stitches and the bleeding stopped in minutes.

i've also been a joiner for 17 years and never had a problem there either.

i guess i'm just not a guy who has slips or perhaps i'm lucky...



that's why i made the statement but i hope people don't take me too seriously.

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

Apart from when I was in the Armed Forces I have worked in wood related industry all of my life. I can honestly say that i have seen some accidents that makes the blood run cold.Most were "accidents" as in nothing could have prevented it from happening but most were negligence which in the long run could have been prevented. But negilgence is a huge net which could include lack of sleep, concentration or maintenance.It could also include lack of training which in my book is the most serious. Ignorance is no excuse. Steve I think you have been incredibly lucky not to have had some sort of accident,please be caerful. I know of a woodturner who had to have an ear stitched back on just because a bowl brock loose from the chuck. I have had 2 machine accidents in my time, both were caused by my own fault, one through not using the guards properly adjusted and the other by not being careful.
Nick i didn't think your comments were aimed at anyone in particular, no offense taken, but hasn't this proved to be an interesting and eye opening discussion?

[Sandy]

Seventhdevil and The Bowler Hatted Turner,

Thanks for getting back promptly and for the comments from both of you.

I too have been largely accident-free but I don't view this as being lucky, more a case of being fortunate and also by being vigilant (to an extent) mainly by getting more life experience behind me through getting older like everyone else.

None of us is perfect but being aware and vigilant is a large part of H&S, as in all aspects of life, as the posts from yourselves and others all testify to.

Sandy

[seventhdevil]

thanks for your concern john and sandy but i should say that i am careful hence the lack of accidents, i think???

a careful worker will not always get away with it and perhaps i have been lucky but i've had people say "doing it that way is dangerous" yet they are the ones who have had accidents not i. i guess it comes down to working to your strengths and perhaps not doing anything unless you know how to do it as this will result in far fewer incidents in the first place.


i'm only 35 so i'd be interested to speak to myself in 35 years time and discuss whatever incident have taken place.

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

I know it is a month since the last post on this thread but I thought I would update a little more. The finger healed well within 4 or so days but has left a very faint scar. No loss of sensation, just the opposite actually. Apart from the restrictions caused by Arthur Rightus it bends as it should do. This was an accident caused by my own stupidity, (waving my hand in front of the chisel whilst talking) but the fact that my tools are always extremely sharp probably aided the healing process, a clean cut instead of a ragged one.
Further to this I now have a nicely stocked first aid kit.