What could possibly go wrong?

[Ken Hughes]

Not disconnecting the power cord to the sander when changing the disc,sander started and cut through the overalls, jersey,t shirt,and singlet AND THEN SKIN,but thankfully not the last layer of skin,got a nice scar now.
Also the time a mate and i were out shooting and we were walking side by side until a narrow spot and he went in front of me ,shot gun loaded barrell closed,NOT cocked and the bloody thing went off,finger wasnt on trigger either!,missed my mate thank goodness,we tried later to set of the shot gun and it wouldnt do it.
Dont shoot now!

[guyvapeur]

I think it was my last year of high school when I went to work for my uncle on the farm. Being a city slicker I got a lot of rubbing from my cousin who worked the farm also. I was always trying to show my uncle that I was alert and could be counted on to find and solve what might be dangerous situations. One day, I noted that I had a good sized rock in my rear dual wheels. This I pointed out to my uncle. He told me not to worry and that the rock would find it's own way out. The next day, we each took a load of grain into the flower mill. Uncle followed behind me all the way. As we entered the weigh scale, I desembarked from my truck and went to the rear. It is then that I noticed a fist size hole through the passenger side windshield of my uncle's truck. He never admitted to me that the rock came from my duals but when I looked on the seat of the cab, I saw a rock sitting there....and it looked much as I had seen it the day before.

[Robin Craig]

I guess I could state once more that there are many old pilots and many bold pilots but very few old and bold pilots.

I am human as is everyone else here. We all make mistakes. Those of us who are lucky get to learn a lesson and our friends are not hurt. Others are not so lucky.

I have had some accidents which were CAUSED by errors I made, they did not just "happen".

Steel tracks on a steel deck nearly cost a friend his life during load up. I had experienced the same a few years before and offered snow mobile tracks for grip. . . . .

Sadly, those of us who have grey hair are not always listened to by others.

That child driving the APC is negligence, period.

Should not have happened.

R

[warren brown]

I bought a whipper-snipper (line-trimmer thing) - fired it up first time, lowered it into the grass and it hit gravel shooting a stone about a quarter inch big through the back window of the Land Rover - smashing the glass to smithereens. They are one dangerous power tool! Very glad it didn't hit someone though - it'd be like being shot with a .22.

My other close call was a hill start with the Blitz - I was in the cab talking to the local copper in the main street, the truck pointing uphill the policeman standing next to me - unbeknownst to me, while we were talking, two friends of mine decided they'd stroll behind the truck (on the hill!) and stop to have a chinwag.
Said goodbye to the copper, revved engine, released the handbrake and moved forward - fortunately I'm not bad at hillstarts - but they jumped 30 feet in the air. Frightened the living daylights out of me too - could have been catastrophic. Note to self - always bloody check!!!!!

We do have to be careful if we wish to continue with our vehicles.
Some years ago the Veteran Car Club went on a run to the NSW Southern Highlands and a 1910 SCAT tourer was cleaned up on the expressway - several people killed. At the newspaper where I worked, there was (naturally, in typical Australian knee-jerk fashion) a call to ban old cars from our roads.
A similar discussion to the Blitz on Anzac Day tragedy.

It's probably fair to say modern traffic is way too fast and thick on our roads now and there are a lot of very agressive drivers out there. The other weekend I happened to catch up with a few vehicles from the AMVCS returning to Sydney on the expressway - slow of course - and vehicles like the M37 Dodge with its high canvas tarp were easy to see. Not so the WWII jeep however - tiny and slow compared with the rest of the flat-out Sunday arvo traffic doing at least 110 kmh. Cars roaring up behind - the stop lights suddenly on the brakes hit hard, swerving into the overtaking lane...Very, very scary stuff. My blood ran cold.

[Howard]

Always make sure the ignition is OFF before trying to free seized ignition points.

[Mike K]

lawn mowers :

When I was a kid in the 1960's a friend two houses up had a very lucky escape .

His old man was mowing in the back yard , as my friend walked out onto the back verandah , a blade flew off the mower ( probably a Victa 2 stroke foot chopper ) , the blade embedded itself in the wooden verandah post about 10 inches from my friend, at head height

[Ganmain Tony]

Originally Posted by Howard

Always make sure the ignition is OFF before trying to free seized ignition points.

Its a bloody shame there was no footage of that incident.

I still promise H, that will be the only time I will be very pleased at your misfortune....at least it meant we'd found why we had no spark in the old girl

[warren brown]

Mike - I remember there was supposedly a wing in Sutherland Shire Hospital called the 'Victa Ward'. For lawn mowers in thongs (flip-flops, not G-strings) who finish up a few digits short.