Kletis

This is the true story of a gentleman and how his entire life was changed by not taking 30 seconds to do something right. He wrote this story for us so we could read it at our weekly safety meeting. It is long but I hope you will take the time to read it.


"Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share with your safety meeting. My Industrial safety accident happened on April 29, 1992. (Maybe some of you will remember that day. It was the day of the Los Angles riots, and the courts acquitting the police officers of the Rodney King beating.) It is my personal thought if I can help just one person from going through this type of accident, it will be worth the investment. Ladder Safety is NO Accident! You need to be defensive, always thinking, never dropping your “safeguard”!


The following is a little history before my accident:

• 38 years old, Married for 16 years, father to Daughter (Sarah), age 12, and Son (Timothy), age 7.
• Enjoyed outdoor camping, hunting, fishing, even scuba diving.
• In good health most of my life, never a broken bone or major illness.
• Life was good, as I was working full time for a large Aggregate company. In their Prestress Division, for 15 years. My duties were operating a boiler, performing other work in the yard as a licensed Limited Maintenance Electrician,(as of 1978) as well as other miscellaneous items at the plant. The first 6 years working by myself on the graveyard shift curing the Prestress / Precast concrete produced at the plant. Then in the recession of the 80’s hit, and moved to swing yard for another 4 years. Working and going to night classes to become a Journeyman Electrician. Again, most of the time alone. In 1989, I was able to start working days supervising the yard maintenance here at the Prestress plant.
• As you can see by now I considered myself as a safe worker, as I did work alone and nothing ever happened to me, in the way of an accident.

The accident ~ April 29, 1992

After completing an update on the concrete batch plant with a new computer system, that operates a 6 cubic yard drum mixer and a 2 cubic yard drum mixer. I needed to replace a small micro switch that was shorting out due to condensation on the 2 yard mixer. This faulting would open the discharge gate dumping the mixed concrete at times when a deliver truck was not there, causing the loss of materials as well as a big mess to cleanup. It was up to me to change out this limit switch.

On the morning of the accident, I kissed my Wife good-by, telling her that I wasn’t looking forward to the day’s job that was ahead of me, as it was raining lightly, and it would be a dirty job. After performing some other duties, I barrowed an extension ladder from our truck shop, and headed to the batch plant to replace “The Micro Switch”. I had a service van with my tools in it as well as a cutting torch. I went up the ladder (about 12 feet) and cut off the bracket that held the micro switch with the cutting torch. I then went down the ladder to get the cutting torch out of my way. Then went back up to see where I could relocate the replacement switch. This is when the footing of the ladder slipped out from under me. As the footing slipped out from under me I fell backwards landing on top of the ladder, one of the rungs of the ladder broke my back (at L1 to L3). I also broke my left (Radius & Scaphoid) arm. I remember thinking as I was falling, what will I do with a broken leg or arm? I didn’t even thinking of the back and the possibility of becoming paralyzed. I had the long ride to the emergency room and then to surgery. The doctors had to fuse my back and having Harrington rods tied in that parallel my spine, and then a week later I had surgery to my left arm. It took 21 days to become stabilized enough to be sent to a nursing home where I spent 1 ½ months, before being able to return to rehab to learn how to live life from a wheelchair. After leaving rehab I had 6 weeks of out patient rehab. My next step was to go back to school to learn a new skill that I could use from my wheelchair. I was asked by the Plant General Manager / Vice President & Chief Engineer if I might want to work as a draftsman. This was an opportunity that I could not pass up. I guess most of all I did not want to spend the rest of my life sitting at home and letting my children see how their Dad just gave up. I then went to a Community College for 2 years before returning to full time employment. I returned to work in October of 1995. I will always have issues with my health. I have a distinctive opportunity of being able to continue working where I had my accident. It’s now a change of attitude…instead of saying “I have to go to work, it’s saying I get to go to work”. My view of life has changed!

I didn’t know how this affected my family till sometime later. My wife has told me that my son could not sleep at night for fear of falling, thinking that if this happened to me it could happen to him. At age 7 he was too young to understand what was happening to his dad. I wanted to be a part of his life at that time, and I will never get to. The dreams of doing the out door actives were taken away. My wife has been the most understanding person in this world that could ever be. She had to and is still doing all of the things that I did before the accident, you know the yard work, washing the cars taking out the trash and all of the other things I had done. The Doctors told my wife many things that were not told to me. They didn’t know if I would be able to sit up. One of the Doctors told her that this just took 20 years off of my life. Another told her that the odds were that she would not be able to take the strain of the different life style that we would now have to endure, and the divorce rate is very high when an accident of this magnitude happens.

Ok, you now know what happened to me. How safe are you when it comes to climbing an extension ladder. If you have to climb a ladder, check the surroundings make sure that the footing of the ladder is firm. Looking back here are some of the things that I did not do.

1. I did not tie off the top of the ladder.
2. I had my service van in the wrong location. I could have tied off the bottom of the ladder to the bumper of the service van.
3. You have to look out for your self. If you can not tie off the ladder and you must do the work have someone hold the ladder. Ask them to watch you and for any unsafe things that they my see.
4. Oh yes…I forgot to tell you, the ladder that I used was aluminum. Electricians don’t climb aluminum ladders, now do they!
5. If the area is too hazardous, and you feel it is unsafe discuss the project with your supervisor to work out a safer plan of action.
6. Take an active responsibility of your safety and those around you at work and at home!

As I said from the beginning of this letter. Ladder Safety Is No Accident! Everyone needs to work together, so we all go home to our families each and every night, and not to a hospital or the unthinkable not at all. I hope that you will take this information and remember what happened to me just might happen to you if you don’t think about working safely each and everyday! It has now been over 16 years for the date of my accident. Do I think about it? Yes, Every day! We get a safety sticker to place on our hard hat for the years of being safe. The hard thing about this is my anniversary date is now April 29th. This will be a constant reminder of the mistakes that I made, for my safety.

Best regards, for your safety!"





Poor guy...it sure makes you think though!! I hope the rest of you get something out of this as well!! Everyone have a safe day and go home to your families tonight!! Take the extra time to be safe!!

Kurtis

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Kletis...

TOOL_5150

Thank you for sharing that. During our work days, I am sure we all take little things for granted that could wind up changing our lives for the worse.

Ladder safety will be the discussion monday morning.

~Matt

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Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.

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headrec

The accident I saw at work the other day was a reminder to me to be safe while working. As they say, 'Work safe and work hard.' Be careful out there.

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-Jay

Kletis

Yeah I thought this was well worth sharing. It makes you think!!

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Kletis...

sparky970

There was an apprentice that got fried, in a high voltage, on an aluminum ladder years ago. It was break time and he wanted to do one more thing to impress his journeyman.

paul d.

does OSHA allow aluminum ladders on comm/ind jobs anymore? have'nt saw one in years. which is a good thing.

dowmace

I don't believe they do, a company i worked for a while back had an aluminum "little giant" ladder and they were issued a citation for using it on a job. I remember specifically telling the JW that was foreman on the job that i didn't think they should be using an aluminum ladder. He obviously did not listen.

MechanicalDVR

I had a slip and fall at work, crushed several discs, lost feelings in my hands and legs for a time, had many surgeries, had a multi level spinal fusion and I get my butt out of bed every morning and go to work. I had no control over the accident but, I try and have control of my future. No one was gonna pay my bills for me. Sometimes bad things happen.

gilbequick

This gets me thinking...does anyone here have insurance like Aflac? Something that will pay your bills if you get hurt and can't work.

kbsparky

Over 22 years ago, I was working on an eight-foot Aluminum step-ladder, installing MH remote ballasts at local university. Too lazy to fetch my fiberglass ladder from the truck, so I used one that was already there.

Standing near the top, and lifting that ballast up high, the ladder simply buckled sideways, and I went straight down to the cement floor. My whole body went numb on impact for a couple of moments, and for a little while I didn't know if I was alive or dead.

I was able to compose myself, (felt myself up, etc) and get up and walk away from that accident. Luckily for me, that heavy ballast missed me, but left a 1-inch gash in the concrete floor!

I had side effects for months after that, body all bent out of shape, etc. I could not even bend over to tie my shoes without my fingers going numb!

It took over a year of therapy with a chiropractor to get me bent back into the right shape.

At least, I learned a hard lesson the easy way --- always use my own ladders (NEVER an aluminum one). Since then I have stuck to this rule -- turning down offers to use the nearby aluminum piece of junk instead of using my own type 1-A fiberglass ladders.

Even if it means having to go up/down several flights of stairs, etc.

sparky970

I have AFLAC, also have the cancer policy. Cost me just under $100/month through work.

Kletis

I don't have Aflac but I do have something similar that will pay if I can't work.

It sounds like a couple of you have had latter accidents as well. I have fallen but never too bad of a fall. The one constant is that it was ALWAYS from not taking all of the proper precautions. I have learned to take the time to make sure I will be safe.

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Kletis...

gilbequick

WOW holy moly that's a lot more than I thought it'd be. How much without the cancer?

sparky970

Each policy is about $50/month, all pre-tax. Considering 5 of my immediate family members have died from cancer, it's just a drop in the bucket.