Safety first

[Teleguy61]

^ Slightly better than using milk crates.

 

[West R Lee]

You'll think I'm kidding, but no exaggeration whatsoever. 40 years in a large chemical plant and we very regularly worked in mid summer, in flame retardant coveralls that don't breathe at all, on steam turbines, with turbines both sides, and live steam blowing on us. It was almost each and every day. In winter, you didn't mind working on turbines at all. In summer, you'd work about 15 minutes and get out and cool down. And that's not the hottest. The hottest was a July, working on and standing next to a 60" flu gas line right next to a boiler. Always in all the garb, which also included steel toed boots, thick leather gloves and a hard hat. Then there were the countless "firesuit" jobs in which we dawned the silver asbestos suits, with the fire department covering us as we repaired live gas leaks..... Red Adair type stuff without the fire......trying to prevent the fire. It paid well. I can't tell you how many teachers quit teaching to work there. I've got good friends who still work there, almost live there for the overtime, and probably make more than some area doctors.

Then there were the 3 years, starting at 18 years old, here in Texas, working on the floor and in the pit of the open hearth at the steel mill. The two plants are about 30 miles apart.

Thank God my last 10-12 years at the chemical plant were spent in relief supervision, training and maintenance job planning/scheduling and finally, reliability. The best job I ever had was being sent to Kuantan. Malaysia to a plant the company built there, to train young mechanical technicians. I hated it when I got there and didn't want to leave when I came back home. But those 43-44 years are why I never really felt guilty about buying a guitar. That hell hole put two kids through college, paid every medical bill all of my adult life, and gave me the ability to retire at 62, and man am I enjoying retirement.

But pictures like these.........every safety meeting, and they were daily.





Just a couple of the videos we studied over the years. Many you won't find on YouTube as they were restricted to within the petrochemical industry, but were shared to learn from mistakes. It gave careful a whole new meaning.

West

 

[GGJaguar]

 

[Midnight Toker]

If the wind catches that mattress, it's right turn Clyde!! (Then again, I'd likely feel safer being strapped down by that ham hock then even standing on one of those chairs that old truck is propped up on!! )

 

[The Guilds of Grot]

All four wheels are on chairs!

How else are you going to get underneath it?

 

[JohnW63]

The title of the old time photo was. "Changing a street light from the roof of a Ford Model T in Newark in 1926."

 

[GGJaguar]

 

[GAD]

I swear half of these photos must have been evidence for insurance claims.

 

[Midnight Toker]

I swear half of these photos must have been evidence for insurance claims.

Surely benefitting the insurance companies while the only claim is stupidity!

The other half, like the guy on the roof/ the highly unstable ladder, they look to be candid shots from befuddled neighbors!! "HARRY!!! You gotta come see what crazy Bill next door is up to!! AND BRING YOUR CAMERA!!!"

 

[walrus]

This one (like a few others) is setting my vertigo off...

walrus

 

[Midnight Toker]

There were at least 2 or 3 episodes of Married With Children that started like this....and ended with Al in a full body cast!

And for the record, I have had to get up on A frame ladders on a roof, but I at least went out and bought 2 rubber ramps designed specifically for leveling ladders on an inclined surfaces. 1st rule of A frame ladders. If your upper body weight extends past the front feet of the ladder, you're toast!! Rule 2. Always have the steps of the ladder on the low side of the incline. If you can't climb it without tipping back towards you, get some damn ladder ramps!

 

[davismanLV]

This one (like a few others) is setting my vertigo off...

walrus

Mine too!! BIG TIME!!

 

[Nuuska]

This one also begs for the question: Is there ANYTHING ON TV worthwhile even opening it - not to speak risking your health/life for it ?

 

[Nuuska]

 

[GGJaguar]

 

[Teleguy61]

Or not ^ .

 

[davismanLV]

SO close!!! They need one of these...

 

[GGJaguar]

 

[Teleguy61]

SO close!!! They need one of these...

This perennial problem in Boston,, and signs like this were installed at low underpasses.
Trucks just hit the signs and still got stuck in the underpasses.
I guess it went something like this:
Truck driver: "Did you see that sign? What did it say?"
Passenger in truck: "I dunno, I was looking at my phone."
BAM!

 

[GAD]

This perennial problem in Boston,, and signs like this were installed at low underpasses.
Trucks just hit the signs and still got stuck in the underpasses.
I guess it went something like this:
Truck driver: "Did you see that sign? What did it say?"
Passenger in truck: "I dunno, I was looking at my phone."
BAM!

The problem with Boston is that the street layout was designed for horses by an insane city planner high on mushrooms in the 1600s.