Anybody ever had a really bad fall from the scaffold? (1 Viewer)

VancouverLeedsLondonBoy

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In all my years of scaffolding I have never fallen off (touch wood), well not properly, fallen down ladder access' and fallen down where there was no inside board, was just wondering if any of you guys have ever fallen and a.) Been injured or b.) been saved by the harness?

When and where would be good to hear.

A good friend of mine say's harness' are not there to save your life, they are just to stop you making a mess on the floor lol.
 
One of the blokes i laboured for fell from 25ft about 20yrs ago,i started working just after he had come back to work after his fall,he had suffered breaks in both legs and arms,jaw,and fractured an eye socket,very very lucky, the guys still scaffolding and i can honestly say he is one of the best i have worked with,lucky ba5tard..
 
Days of 'Bombing' 1980's striking off 1 board, raggy board band, as it was launched, caught my glove, off balance off the scaff headfirst but managed to tangle meself round the lift below:wondering:
 
Only fell from a seconf lift once whilst splicing some ledgers, my own fault, stood on the tube, went to turn, lost my footing and went down like a sack of sh!t. First thing I did was look around to see if anyone saw me do it then walked around the corner and rolled up in agony!!, every tube I hit on the way down was covered in concrete from the pours above.....sore as hell.

On another note...
I did see a guy fall off a loading bay we were striking years ago, he fell off 40', hit the scaffold below, bounced off the handrail then hit the ground. 2' to the left he would have been impaled on a tube, 2' the other way it would have been straight down to the ground (concrete), he got away with rutured spleen, major internal bruising etc, quite lucky really. He was stood literally about 2' from me when he went over the side, nothing I could do to stop him, he assumed the handrail was there, went to lean on it and whoompf!! gone.

He shouldnt have been on there in the first place, site managers fault, asked him to quickly lift off some plant after we started to strike. Site manager just went white like a sheet and went to peices. I ran down to the guy, rang the ambulance and sorted the guy untill the medics arrived, all this times the manager was a gibbering wreck.

The guys ok now though, back to work and sorted with a massive payout.

Dave.
 
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Fell 16' after a tube I was clinging to was forced over but managed to land properly and roll... avoided injury.
 
yep twice, NO i'm not a clumsey b.....! 1/ working on "Binns" shop in Newcastle city centre, stood a load of long up against the independant from the Fan, went for sandwich for breckie, came back with the other two lads climbed up the inside upto the fan climbing up the outside of the independant got level with the long turned round to look at some bits of f...y grab hold of loose 20' f..k away i went let go of the tube hit the fan at about 90 mph :eek:tube shot over the side missed everything and everybody, carried of to hospital in protest (daft site agent with first aid vest) quick check over and back following day :embarrest:RED FACED plonker lol ha ha.
2/ again city centre opposite office block with loads of lasses in the windows:) you know the crack, the mate was at the lower end of a Fan protection that was covered with tin corrogated sheets two lengths (endto end overlapped) these were held with screw nails, I went along the top pulling the nails with a crow bar while he followed along below me but a couple of nails behind:noworry: not this stupid twa. he bypasses me below I pull out a nail woooosh eddie the fu...n eagle eat yer heart out I shot down the fan on the tin sheet legs up in the air, the tin sheet stops against the standard i keep going and go straight through the scaffold down about 18' or slightly less belts the small bone above yer arse checks FFFFFFu..in hell I ran into the street pulled me pants down to check for damage or blood, looks up to see about 40 lasses laffin there arses off me standin with pants round the ankles, no luck on fans LoL
 
when i was learning worked with a guy called wally roberts, he was kirk scaffolds top price man, back in the day with no hard hats or harnesses, he used to wear white pumps, working on a church roof, a ladder up to lower ptched roof, then a line of hilti bolts & a ledger in then a 2 lift job up to higher roof, he had a cat ladder wedged into stone gutter, slipped doing last hilti bolt, slid down roof trying to dig his finger nails into slate, fell about 25-30ft, shattered both his ankles, never scaffolded again, he took up instructing but he turned to booze, havn't seen him in a long time.:eek:
 
when i was learning worked with a guy called wally roberts, he was kirk scaffolds top price man, back in the day with no hard hats or harnesses, he used to wear white pumps, working on a church roof, a ladder up to lower ptched roof, then a line of hilti bolts & a ledger in then a 2 lift job up to higher roof, he had a cat ladder wedged into stone gutter, slipped doing last hilti bolt, slid down roof trying to dig his finger nails into slate, fell about 25-30ft, shattered both his ankles, never scaffolded again, he took up instructing but he turned to booze, havn't seen him in a long time.:eek:

Some decent blokes lost from the game in similar circumstances.

One of the best scaffolders I worked with, quite a few years ago now erecting a scaffold on the front of a house finished the handrail and then jumped over it to climb down, his bootlace got caught round a double and he couldn't stop himself and came down head first. he put his hands out to stop himself and ended up shattering both his wrists.

After this he came back to work in the office as a supervisor, but everytime the firm got busy (only a small company) the gaffer would have him back on the tools and lo and behold his wrists shattered again.

He made the decision and left the industry and became a prison officer.

A Cracking scaffolder and a loss to the industry!!
 
Working at red bull wind tunnel in Bedford I Went through a rotten board fell down to the lift below managed to hook myself on to the tranny below which saved me falling 5 more lifts. Had the biggest bruise I have ever seen on my ribs and arm. Had a few near misses too . you know the ones . when you scuff your feet and lose your balance and your heart go's like the clappers.
 
had my own firm in the early ninetys,and did some subby work for gkn,was in the new university lecture rooms on oxford rd manchester,big bird cage,borded from centre out,to get measurment from walls correct,so no trannys under outside yet.im stood giving lads a lecture on watching out for traps,then tell them to start work,they both walk off,and i go down,they were stood on the boards and i had walked onto a trap,fell threw boards landed on trannys below,thought im ok,then boards came over and hit me,ended up with gash in my arm about six inch long.(prat or what)
 
When striking a four storey block of flats in St Neots, my lab bombed a system board, the hook caught in his pocket and pulled him down

All we saw was him landing in the centre of a skip full of sand
and I said "its a bigger jump than you thought?"
to which the white faced shaking w*nke* said
"I didnt jump, I fell!":eek:

It took him nearly an hour to stop shaking
and the same for us to stop laughing :blink1:
FAF (Funny as F*ck)
 
during the 90's in the resession i was working for some brickies loading up for them cash in hand at huddersfield . It was a friday and we all liked to be in the pub by 1pm so the information given was knock about we want to be away... It was putog scaffolding built by banner. 3 lifts .. after loading out 9 packs of stone it came to the very last pallet . The folk truck driver placed it onto the loading bay and as he was pulling out i felt the scaffold moving i shouted stop but to late he pulled the lot out of the wall . I went directly down the front of the house from 3 lifts against the stonework which was already built.( massive noise as it went and the stone with me) . I landed on my feet and the stone that landed if you had looked at me you would have thought id would have been placed around my leg causing bruising and a small cut . Within 5 mins there was 2 fire engines and 4 ambulances pulling up on site as the site agent just rang 999 as soon as he heard it.. To the firemens amazement all they saw was me chasing the folk truck driver with a 5 ft tube to which i was swinging for his head... they all cracked up laughing to which i did about 2 weeks later after the bruising calmed down.To the pub i went. To this day i say somebody must have been looking up for me as they knew i loved me friday swill.
 
during the 90's in the resession i was working for some brickies loading up for them cash in hand at huddersfield . It was a friday and we all liked to be in the pub by 1pm so the information given was knock about we want to be away... It was putog scaffolding built by banner. 3 lifts .. after loading out 9 packs of stone it came to the very last pallet . The folk truck driver placed it onto the loading bay and as he was pulling out i felt the scaffold moving i shouted stop but to late he pulled the lot out of the wall . I went directly down the front of the house from 3 lifts against the stonework which was already built.( massive noise as it went and the stone with me) . I landed on my feet and the stone that landed if you had looked at me you would have thought id would have been placed around my leg causing bruising and a small cut . Within 5 mins there was 2 fire engines and 4 ambulances pulling up on site as the site agent just rang 999 as soon as he heard it.. To the firemens amazement all they saw was me chasing the folk truck driver with a 5 ft tube to which i was swinging for his head... they all cracked up laughing to which i did about 2 weeks later after the bruising calmed down.To the pub i went. To this day i say somebody must have been looking up for me as they knew i loved me friday swill.


Lucky boy Steve, how did you get on with that Canadian firm we were talking about?
 
Hamlet Cigar Experience

Working for ASL out of Lowerstoft on a hook up off Yarmouth in 93. The job was winding down, nice summers day, there was about six of us stripping scaffolds on and under the spider deck about 30' above the sea. We were walking the tubular braces to bring the material back to a location below the platform crane. I was attached to an inertia reel, which was positioned about 15' above the laydown platform, I would set off along the tubular brace, get to a node point midway then change direction and proceed along to pick up some kit and return to the laydown area.
Mid afternoon, I set off again, but this time when I got to the node, instead of walking to the connection point, I stepped across ( cut the corner ) this sudden change of direction activated the inertia reel, next thing I know I'm off the tubular and swinging back through the air with every expectation of aleast two thing happening.
1) My b****cks were about to disappear up my arse
2) I'm on my way back to the beach courtesy of the stand by vessel.

The surprising thing was, when I came to a sudden stop (inertia reel has done it's job ) my b****cks suffered no trauma, and I have'nt hit the water ( things are looking up )
Here comes the Hamlet moment, me taking my safety glasses off and putting them in my top pocket. I'm the carmest person around, the guys in the FRC are screaming at me to get into their boat ( they can f**k right off). The scaffs above me have now decided to winch me back up using the inertia reel, one problem, their are lowering me down towards the sea. At this point, I'm no longer the carmest man around (start screaming like a girl ) and tell them to put a 21' dropper alongside me and I will climb back up. It was around about this time when a nice little swell came through and soaked me up to my waist, great!. I climbed up the dropper and went to get changed, pride only thing that was hurt.
 
In all my years of scaffolding I have never fallen off (touch wood), well not properly, fallen down ladder access' and fallen down where there was no inside board, was just wondering if any of you guys have ever fallen and a.) Been injured or b.) been saved by the harness?

When and where would be good to hear.

A good friend of mine say's harness' are not there to save your life, they are just to stop you making a mess on the floor lol.

our old man fell 225ft at scunny steel works in 1970 and lived broke most bones bone out of leg hole in the back
 
Sake Korky, you chose that story for your first post, Put me right off my noodles. 225ft that must be the highest survived fall in the industry. Did he make a full recovery or is that a daft question?
 
yes man he is still here he fell from a youngerman board wire slung as he hit the scaff on way down it knocked him out and he fell like a rag doll got arthritus in is knee later on had a couple of replacements then it got infected and he lost is leg just before christmas poor sod
 
Look after him korky.

---------- Post added at 10:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:24 PM ----------

I hope he got a massive pay out.
 
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