- Never ever stand next to a loaded chain or a rope when something is being towed or dragged. - If, and eventually when, that thing snaps it will cut you clean in half or cause a very painful injury;
- When messing with wires that might be powered never use both of your hands. - If you get shocked you reduce chances of serious injury significantly;
- Never wear gloves and too long sleeves when working with rotary tools. - If a tool catches your apparel it will pull the rest of the hand into it;
- Don't enter steel containers that only have top hatch (like boat anchor chambers and similar). - Process of rusting is consuming oxygen. Entering such room which has no ventilation is deadly. There's no time to even notice something is wrong and you'll just pass out and die;
- Avoid painted parts on the road when riding anything on two wheels. - During the summer this is not a problem, but making a habit is a useful thing. The very first rain or frost will make painted parts be as slippery as ice;
- Always assume everyone in traffic will kill you. - There are no safe assumptions. If a person has turn signal on, only certainty there is that they have turn signal on. Don't assume they are turning. Wait for them to start their action, then react. This is especially important if you are cycling or riding a motorcycle;
- Always obey the traffic rules, even if there's no one close by. - Rules are set in place to make everyone behave in predictable manner. The fact you didn't see anyone doesn't mean there's no one around and doing something unpredictably can kill you. One stupid example is when someone lets you merge but they have right of way. Doing such a thing makes it a very dangerous situation to everyone else who have no idea what to expect.
this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2023
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Wholeheartedly agree with the last point specifically. I once had a dude stop on an intersection to give me the right of way... while I was waiting for a RED STOP SIGN. This dude stopped in the middle of an intersection to allow me to run a red light, like this wasn't a multi lane thing where he was the only lane giving me a 'pass' to run a red. I just looked at him until he decided he'd waited long enough.
Dude. Just go. The light will go green for me, I can wait 20 seconds.
I had that during my exam for motorcycle license, except it wasn't a stop light, just regular intersection and we were both joining road with right of way. He was so set on letting me pass before him because I was wearing highvis vest with L on it and had a car behind me. Good for me, and him, I knew better not to listen to him and didn't do anything until the cop from the car said it was okay.
Excellent instinct I'd say!
Thanks, but I think it was mostly common sense and I have heard a lot of stories how someone failed their exam because of silly things like these. I had a friend who failed because he "endangered cyclist" on the road, but he claims he left enough space when overtaking. In reality law only states that you should leave enough space for cyclist so they are not hindered. In my head that means change the lane, others thought it was okay to pass closer.
For your second point: If you suspect lines are live, you shouldn’t be messing with them at all. And don’t trust those little AC detector probes that light up and beep when they detect power nearby. Electricians call those widowmakers, because the apprentices will trust it, it fails to detect power, then the apprentice gets shocked because they think they’re working on dead lines when they’re actually live.
If you absolutely must check it without a proper multimeter, use the back of your hand, not your palm. It will cause your muscles to clench when you get shocked. So using the back of your hand will cause you to flinch away from the shock; If you use your palm or fingers, there’s a good chance that your muscles will contract around the wire and you’ll be “stuck” to it until someone else kicks you off.
Lastly, if someone nearby is being shocked, don’t grab them to pull them off. For the same reason as stated above. Your muscles will all lock up as soon as you grab them, and you’ll get stuck too. Kick them off instead. Kick hard. Like a full blown Sparta kick. You need to kick so hard their hands are ripped away from whatever they’re locked onto. Or if they’re not in a place you can kick them away, take off your shirt, twist it up, loop it over their shoulders, and pull. And again, you want to pull so hard you knock them completely over and rip their hands away from the electricity.
Quality.
A lot of people forget about not wearing gloves with rotary tools. All of those diy channels on youtube wear them when using a drill press and it makes me die inside.
Indeed. Sometimes when I watch people working with wood I honestly wonder how they still have all the fingers.
With regards to your container bit: don't enter ANY confined space, regardless of where the egress is, without a lifeline and someone on the outside watching and ready to pull you out, preferably two or three people. Make sure THOSE people do not enter after you to get you if something goes wrong - chances are they'll just wind up dead as well.
Yeah, plenty of gasses can accumulate on closed spaces but I've seen far too many documentaries about people dying with simple rust causing lack of oxygen.
Use jack stands for your car. If your body will be under the car for even a second, there should be jack stands. There were five different people at my high school who were in a wheel chair because they thought the jack was enough.
I don't care if your jack costs $100,000 made of pure titanium; do not trust it.
Related pro tip, if you're changing a flat tire and don't have any jack stands, place the spare/damaged wheel under the car while you're working on it. Better to have the car fall on the wheel then potentially your leg
I do this anytime I take a wheel off, even with jack stands. Doesn't hurt anything and I'll take anything extra between the chassis and my head I can get.
Why would you be under a vehicle to change a flat? You just sitting at the wheel legs under the car?
They really need to print this one on the spare tire.
I lost a coworker when his beloved 70s Camaro fell on him while he was alone at home. His partner had to come home and find him, and he was never quite the same. I tell everyone to use jack stands or a block or a wheel.
That had to be a HUGE wheelchair
Similar to this, once you have a vehicle on jack stands, shake it lightly to make sure it doesn't fall easily. Better to find out now by shaking the car before being under it.
There was a waiter at my second job who was crushed by a car that fell off a Jack. Same, he was in a wheelchair. But then he (probably partially from continuing to do meth) had a heart attack and died 6 months later.
I was not expecting that ending
We weren't either. I guess being in a wheelchair is hard on your heart already. He was only 45 too, and a really chill and nice dude.
If you have to secure something heavy to work under/beside it, secure some more.
My dad nearly lost a hand to it.
Never ever EVER walk under a forklifts raised load (the pallet it's carrying).
Things can fall from it, the hydraulics can giveway, the operator may not see you and lower it on you.
Especially an 'order picker' as the operator can not see under them.
Cutting down trees of any real size is incredibly dangerous. They can kick or barber chair and instantly kill you.
For anyone like me who didn't know what barber chair meant in this context: https://youtu.be/9O7H9qWdquk?si=KvGhTKrfYVUN84Pw
It's when the tree rips in fucking half and tries to murder you specifically as an act of final revenge.
Investing some time in properly learning how to fell a tree is important. It doesn't take long but can save a life and property damage.
Loosen (but do not remove) lug nuts from a wheel, before jacking up the car.
How would failing to do this kill you?
I prefer to jack the car until the wheel is barely touching, then loosen the nuts while the wheel still doesn't rotate, then jack it all the way up. Have I been risking my life somehow?
If the nuts are too tight you risk rocking the car off the jack when you undo them.
The least you'll do is possibly damage your cars bodywork the worst is to injure yourself.
Always cut away from yourself (and others).
Gasoline is explosive. Do not poor it on a fire. If for some reason, you decide that a fire needs gasoline (first, rethink what brought you to this point) poor it on the unlit material and then walk about 20 meters away making a small trail of gasoline away from the material to be lit. Liquid gasoline is not explosive. The vapor that comes off of liquid gasoline is what is explosive. When you go to light you trail of gasoline, stand away from it toss your match or whatever at the trail. The vapor will ignite before the flame hits the ground and then race to whatever you poored the gasoline on. It will then explode and shake the ground under your feet because you thought "if a little is good, more is better." Better yet, just get some actual lighter fluid that was designed for what you're doing and not for propelling a ton of steel down the highway.
Oh, that's one I forgot to write. Empty gas cans are more dangerous that full ones because of room to form vapors. Any source of fire or spark can easily light the fumes enter the container and shoot a jet of flame or even worse explode. I have a relative whose whole front of the body had to be transplanted skin due to him poring gas on a BBQ.
House or apartment, make sure carbon monoxide detectors are installed NEAR GROUND LEVEL.
So many slumlords do not even give a fuck, and many homeowners think they are just some other kind of smoke detector.
EDIT: bus_factor has pointed out to me that this is actually a common misperception. CO actually more or less evenly dissipates in a room and does not settle near the floor.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21536403/
Im now going to think about my life choices that lead me to this moment, and more importantly:
Go out for a breath of fresh air =P
My stepdaughter at 12 years old accidentally bumped into our gas stove and turned on one of the gas burners and then went to bed. Our cat came into the bedroom and started howling at 2AM and woke us up, alerting us to the smell.
Little dude saved our lives. The whole house was filled with gas.
I replaced the spring on a garage door.
It's officially the most dangerous thing I've done. Even if the door hadn't almost crushed me it would still rank way up there.
I've worked on the Water with little LEO presence. I've carried a rifle for my queen. I've taken the crowchild to Glenmore exit in full drift in winter. I've fallen on my head, been run over, almost lost my arm, separate incidents. Swapping the spring on the garage door - in a rental no less - is still the riskiest and dumbest thing I've done.
So far.
taken the crowchild to Glenmore
What?
What makes Garage door springs so dangerous? I feel like the spring on a car shock absorber holds way more energy, and I've done that dozens of times with spring compressors of dubious quality. Just don't put your body where the spring would like to go.
Garage springs become a lathe, spinning really fast. I'm sure you can find examples of lathe accidents on NSFL channels.
Additionally, it's under tension. When suddenly not under tension, it has to release all that energy somehow - and these things have a LOT of potential energy wound up in them, it's like your engine throwing a rod - except you, since you're working on it, have a tendency to potentially wind up as the engine block in the analogy.
Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.
Don’t smoke in bed