To all stump grinder operators

[Peasgood]

A shocking tale!

I wish you all the best.

[Dillinger86]

How awful, grateful my hydraulic powered grinder shuts off the moment I let go of the joystick. Probably saves me doing something daft...

[Sviatoslav Tulin]

This one left me stunt,I wish you to recover,   ,don’t give up.

[Mark Bolam]

Sobering stuff, and a very valuable heads-up.

Thank you for such a brave post.

 

All the best for your recovery.

[carlos]

wishing you the best on your road to recovery, and thank you for thinking of others by taking the time to write the details of your accident (not easy iam sure)

all the best carl

 

[Conor Wright]

That's rough. Hope you heal well. Stark reminder to us all how easily it can happen.

 

[marne]

It takes my breath read this horrific story and glad to hear you survived and they where able to tinker your leg in some way, at least you can keep it and maybe some hope:

Many year ago, my leg was smashed and the doctors told me I could be happy I can keep it but it will be disfunctional my whole life. The good news, they where wrong and it recovered in over 10 years to about 90% of it's previous state. I hope the same for you, give it time and courage. 

 

But like in aviatics, talking about possible problems and errors is the safest way to handle danger.

For sure shutting off the wheel is most important and honestly so many thanks for bringing it back on top, like you, I'm guilty a thousand times but never again.

Even shutting off may not be enough, as there for example was a case in which the switch from an electric clutch went (wet) bad and in idle cough the operator, who was walking backwards in the wheel, that was intended to be off. 

Another grinder once said: On  velociraptors and stump grinders, never turn your back. 

As English is not my native language, I hope you don't get me wrong, I ask in full respect. 

But can you guess or reconstruct what actually happened in the seconds before you got in touch with the wheel? 

 

I hope your recovery will go on fast and you can slide back to everyday life soon. Enjoy the time with your baby you have now even with pain, but not daily chasing money. Your still here and those days and years with your child are unique in life, you have them exactly once and they never come back. 

Edited February 3, 2023 by marne

[dangb93]

6 minutes ago, marne said:

But can you guess or reconstruct what actually happened in the seconds before you got in touch with the wheel? 

For the benefit of all the details;

I was grinding out a row of leylandii stumps along the edge of a driveway. 
I started on the stump closest to the house, and space was restricted (as often when grinding next to a building/fence or whatever)

I would also add that I was generally really tired and also really stressed out mainly with lack of staff and being unable to find staff. And to make the job more stressful I discovered a gas pipe running alongside the stumps very close. I spent 2.5 hours digging by hand and cutting through roots by hand to expose the gas pipe so I knew exactly if it’s whereabouts. That further made me start to rush a bit because I had already spent longer digging by hand than the whole job would take. 
It was a fairly windy day and one of the Stein 3 part grinding guards I was using kept blowing over despite me pushing them in the ground where possible. 
One of them blew over closest to the house. 
I would normally leave the grinder running with the cutter wheel spinning and walk around to the outside of the guard, picking it up by the top and standing it back up towards the machine which is silly enough, but on this occasion there was no room to stand the guard back up from the outside because the house was there and the guard had fallen into the house. So with my mind on other things (and also really tired that day) I walked between the machine and the fallen guard, reaching over to the top part of the guard and standing it back up. Had I thought about where I was for a moment, I would have realised how close I was to the machine with my back to it. As I turned to my left , to walk back to the controls, the machine grabbed my leg and spinned me round and threw me across the lawn a good 6 feet…and the rest is in my main story original post. 

[difflock]

Thank you for your honest account of how simply these dreadful accidents happen.

Tiredness and or stress and distraction is absolutely  deadly when working with machinery.

I have seen myself do stupid stuff, like I akinda realize what I am doing, but continue to do it, in some kind of disembodied way.

Marcus

Edited February 3, 2023 by difflock

[marne]

Honest and professional, thank you very much. The only way to defuse risks.

And as you described the situation, it very likely could have happen to me and many others I guess, especially the added up stress and unexpected topics on jobsite. I know this very well, especially the blown over stein guards, which I still rate high, heavy and solid.

Anyway, your baby has a Dad, the only thing that counts.

Have you any kind of accident insurance jumping in?