silly accident

Yeah it does suck a bit. Just hoping can get back to work soon. Still due a months wage from the last guy I was with plus also got a tax return to do. Next year or when I change my puplic liability I will be adding accident insurance. If it was upto me I'd back at work on Monday. Just need to be sensible as I'm not insured to drive. Work can easily get light duties. As long as the risk of infection isn't there when I go back I'm hoping I get the ok. Obviously will be still tender to the touch. The ironic thing is I'd be looking at some of the layher saftey products for access to working at heights. Their was a couple of solutions I fancy like thier extending battens and mobile towers. For my own personal use maybe start another thread on some of their soloutions

Sorry to hear and hope you heal quickly. Just don't beat yourself up about this as I did.

I grew up on a family farm working with power equipment all my life, and still do. Farming here in the states is often called one of the most dangerous jobs one can do and never had an injury being very aware of those dangers. As as a manager of a technical group of one of the largest worldwide companies I had to do a lot of corporate based safety training to the employees, and make sure they followed the rules.

Yet, at home when I was having a problem with a piece of equipment I knew very well while I was extremely tired at 1:00am and I did something I would never expect to do, got the tips of two of my fingers smashed. In reality I was luckily that I didn't loose my hand or even including part of my arm as others have with that same equipment. It ended up being the last bone in both fingers broken into bits, one dislodged fingernail, and a little skin missing. And yeah, it was more painful over the days after then I ever imagined it would be.

Over the next 15 years when I would get together with safety trainers in my company occasionally we would talk about dumb things we did even though we all knew much better. There were stories about some actions that changed my attitude that I was the worst person in the world to provide safety training to I wasn't that bad. One story was how after a safety meeting the group had to get a wheelchaired member down a flight of stairs at 10:00 in the evening that didn't go too well.  Alcohol was involved. I just sat there thinking how did this group of safety pros do something this poor, not thinking how easy it would be to go wrong. The only one in the group that thought this was a bad idea was the one in the wheelchair, and no one else listened. Three of the five safety pros ended up at the bottom of the stairs injured.

The point I'm trying to make is no matter how careful and accomplished we may be, there's a moment. We may be tired, we may think we know the equipment and its dangers, we may be stressed with an issue and think we can handle the equipment, or add in any other situation. We're human and make mistakes or do not think of ALL the things that can go wrong.  But we can try to use the experience to try to make sure this is the worst thing that we ever do. What I did that night could have changed everything I do in life if it took everything below my elbow.

I know that what ever I now do, woodworking, farming, vehicle repairs (especially on my dozer!) I look at my distorted fingernail and start thinking what can go wrong with what I'm about to do. Since then I haven't injured myself yet, but I continue to think in terms of YET, staying aware of my own human weakness and so far have done better then I did in that one moment 20 years ago.

And harp on safety issues with my grandkids at the farm way more then they care for.

Aaron - sorry to hear of this accident. You were lucky and I wish you a very speedy recovery. It is amazing how quickly something like this can happen.

Some pics of my lost meat, after the morphine wore off.

That nasty
Thanks for posting guys it is easy to get complacent when your using these tools every day

For the record my case was not a power tool accident. It happened unloading some large mdf cabinets off a truck for install. A two man carry. Despite me talking through the dangers involved and how we should go about unloading the cabinet, my partner decided to suddenly jerk the unit to one side without saying. This knocked me off balance and knocked those two fingers off when the cabinet landed on them. Every action we do, no matter how many times we may have done it in the past, requires ALL of our attention. Anyone have a chisel slip and jam into their hand? Or an olfa knife? Or a drill slip out of a screw and into your fingers? I've done all of these things, and it's not fun.