Monday, January 30, 2006
Job Hazards
I should make another spin-off blog for work related injuries and incidents. Yesterday I was cleaning, caulking, and painting inside a bowl slide.
The bowl is like 10 ft. tall and 20 ft. across with a 6 ft. hole in the middle where you drop out into the pool (these measurements are just guesses, I don't really know exactly the height/width) . The pool was covered with planks and pallets so that we could walk around inside the bowl and walk up the sides and stuff. The sides aren't that steep - maybe like an 8/12 pitch or something until you hit the edge where it curves up into the wall of the bowl (It's really more like a shallow funnel shape).
We have a pair of suction cups that are designed for carrying large panes of glass. We use them for carrying fiberglass and for climbing around on fiberglass (like inside the bowl). They're really pretty cool. They have a thumb pump on the handle that creates a vacuum between the cup and the fiberglass and a button to release the suction when you're ready to take it off. You can get quite a bit of suction out of them so that they work very well for foot and hand holds on the fiberglass - as long as the seal doesn't leak, they could easily hold several hundred pounds. The only problem with them is that they don't work if the fiberglass is curved very much. They can handle a little curvature like on the base of the bowl (funnel shaped part).
So I had been using these suction cups to keep myself from sliding and falling down the bowl - the fiberglass was a little wet from some rain the day before, so it was slick. But then the sun came out and dried the glass off pretty well. Also, the reflection of the sun off the shiny fiberglass raised the temperature quite a bit. It was probably 60 deg. outside, but inside the bowl, in the sunny area, it was probably closer to 75 or 80 deg. So I was working in there barefoot (gives the best traction on dry fiberglass), and in a t-shirt.
As the fiberglass started to dry, I abandoned the suction cups because I could move around pretty good barefoot.
Then Pat, the other guy who was working there at the time (there was just the two of us) came in and he was cleaning off the lower section of the bowl that you can reach while standing on the pallets.
I was talking to him, working, and walking around the bowl. Then I walked onto the shaded side, which happens to be the side I started on before the sun came out to dry the glass. And because it was on the shaded side, it wasn't completely dry. I took a step and lost my footing - imagine trying to stand on an ice skating rink that's tilted to 30 deg. The whole panel was wet, so there is no way that I could stop myself. As soon as I lost my footing I yelled "I'm coming down!" Pat happened to be standing right at the bottom of the panel that I was surfing.
He didn't get out of the way. Just behind Pat was an Aluminum ladder. I think that he tried to catch me or something. So I tackled him into the ladder. My leg broke the slats on the pallet where it hit (they're some cheap junk that may break when you step on them). My face hit Pat's head. He twisted his thumb. I nearly split my lip (it's not as bad as I first thought that it would be).
Neither of us were hurt too much. I got back up there and my legs were a bit wobbly for a few minutes. I used the suction cups on the wet side after that.
The bowl is like 10 ft. tall and 20 ft. across with a 6 ft. hole in the middle where you drop out into the pool (these measurements are just guesses, I don't really know exactly the height/width) . The pool was covered with planks and pallets so that we could walk around inside the bowl and walk up the sides and stuff. The sides aren't that steep - maybe like an 8/12 pitch or something until you hit the edge where it curves up into the wall of the bowl (It's really more like a shallow funnel shape).
We have a pair of suction cups that are designed for carrying large panes of glass. We use them for carrying fiberglass and for climbing around on fiberglass (like inside the bowl). They're really pretty cool. They have a thumb pump on the handle that creates a vacuum between the cup and the fiberglass and a button to release the suction when you're ready to take it off. You can get quite a bit of suction out of them so that they work very well for foot and hand holds on the fiberglass - as long as the seal doesn't leak, they could easily hold several hundred pounds. The only problem with them is that they don't work if the fiberglass is curved very much. They can handle a little curvature like on the base of the bowl (funnel shaped part).
So I had been using these suction cups to keep myself from sliding and falling down the bowl - the fiberglass was a little wet from some rain the day before, so it was slick. But then the sun came out and dried the glass off pretty well. Also, the reflection of the sun off the shiny fiberglass raised the temperature quite a bit. It was probably 60 deg. outside, but inside the bowl, in the sunny area, it was probably closer to 75 or 80 deg. So I was working in there barefoot (gives the best traction on dry fiberglass), and in a t-shirt.
As the fiberglass started to dry, I abandoned the suction cups because I could move around pretty good barefoot.
Then Pat, the other guy who was working there at the time (there was just the two of us) came in and he was cleaning off the lower section of the bowl that you can reach while standing on the pallets.
I was talking to him, working, and walking around the bowl. Then I walked onto the shaded side, which happens to be the side I started on before the sun came out to dry the glass. And because it was on the shaded side, it wasn't completely dry. I took a step and lost my footing - imagine trying to stand on an ice skating rink that's tilted to 30 deg. The whole panel was wet, so there is no way that I could stop myself. As soon as I lost my footing I yelled "I'm coming down!" Pat happened to be standing right at the bottom of the panel that I was surfing.
He didn't get out of the way. Just behind Pat was an Aluminum ladder. I think that he tried to catch me or something. So I tackled him into the ladder. My leg broke the slats on the pallet where it hit (they're some cheap junk that may break when you step on them). My face hit Pat's head. He twisted his thumb. I nearly split my lip (it's not as bad as I first thought that it would be).
Neither of us were hurt too much. I got back up there and my legs were a bit wobbly for a few minutes. I used the suction cups on the wet side after that.
