Watching accident videos

[Agent_zed]

Every now and then I'll see an accident video on youtube. I never watch them out of morbid curiosity or desire to see someone injured, but I often find they have a valuable lesson in them.

This one popped up today and was a good reminder, whilst thankfully not resulting in much more than some bruises.



Out of interest does anyone else choose to watch this type of video or do you actively avoid things like this?

 

[Adam W.]

No, I don't watch stuff like this.

It's numptyism of the highest order.

 

[Against_The_Grain]

It used to be photographs, and I remember vividly being shown the aftermath of an incident where an individual had fallen face first into a PTO-driven bench saw.

Not pretty.

 

[Bingy man]

During my 30 odd years with the gas industry accidents were often used as a learning tool for other engineers , often these were in the form of what happened next or what would you have done differently . While I,d not watch such videos for ghe gore or to see horrific injuries we can all learn from the mistakes made by others as it only takes a split second to injure yourself or others ..

 

[Agent_zed]

No, I don't watch stuff like this.

It's numptyism of the highest order.

I guess the question is how would you just know this otherwise?

I wasn't even allowed to use bandsaws at school so no one has ever told me not to do this. I might think it through and realise but otherwise I'd be oblivious. Thankfully I'd probably get away with it as my bandsaw is way too underpowered to do this, it would bog down.

 

[Adam W.]

Well, I think if you didn't know it, you shouldn't be anywhere near a woodworking machine.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I doubt any pupil would be allowed to use a bandsaw at school now. I was allowed to use it and the lathes unsupervised in the fifth form but I was the only one at the time and that was 50+ years ago.
A friend of mine got a job for a major construction firm as a H&S inspector. In the pub everyone extracted the urine mercilessly but he came in one day with a large folder full of A4 pictures of horrific accidents and injuries and after everyone had seen them he made the point - every single one of them was easily preventable.

 

[Bingy man]

Accidents happen all the time for a variety of reasons , many involve the operator of a tool or machine and others can involve hundreds of people - trains , planes and ships etc . My point is safety is not improved just for the sake of it , it’s improved due to injury and the fatality’s of others . From 1 or 2 upto hundreds of people . Lessons are learned due to the misfortune of others .I’ve had my share of accidents excluding power tools / hand tools so the one I did have with a 9 inch angle grinder has been the only one involving power tools .

 

[Ttrees]

I watch all I can, which for the tablesaw is pretty much required reading/watching,
seeing as so many, especially across the pond, have a terrible attitude towards safety,
and hold a place in their hearts for unsafe machinery.
Those guys and the hot dog sawyers youtubers have clogged the internet.

Roy Sutton made a video, probably in the 80's.. "safe wood machining" on YT
which is amusing to see how many folk don't play by the rules,
or infact dismiss them for various reasons...

I think a good dose of seeing other accidents is required for one who makes excuses,
of which there are many...
want for space, cost, time, you name it.

I make no such excuses, oooh I can't be at that malarkey for months,
Expect to loose yer fingers then, for the machine would have no sympathy for you,
so why would one have sympathy for it, if it's not up to spec in that regards.

And worth noting, those rules change, like the floating crown guard being mandatory nowadays.
Working on getting my saw up to date, isn't a stroll in the park, to do well, that is.
Take the ubiquitous TS 275 with the American style twin rail full length fence,
with no provisions for an extrusion.
Be a shame/adventure to go drilling the fence, but it's junk otherwise if it can't be made safe.
I don't think there will be a museum full of these things, but yet the mention of such distasteful
bodgery might irk some folk.

Going back to the bandsaw, what happens if a blade comes flying out of the machine,
I've seen quite a few mentions of this before, likely a problematic machine might be reason,
i.e what's not a Centauro CO that can actually be set up accurately....
but, if proven that being not the issue, and that a blade can still exit the machine,
it could make a change to the HSE advice.

Don't see many folk using the other side of the fence, but I question if that's the reason.

So yeah, perhaps those youtubers, the honest ones, that is...
(some dishonest unscrupulous YT'ers business models are based on bad advise to get folks hurt)

might get enough stick from doing unsafe things, that they won't do anything but,
and that's where we can learn...
For those who need to see to believe. eventually there will be an index of things,
of what might be a lesson for the complacent, been doing this all my life until yesterday types.

 

[screwpainting]

Wise words.
'Only remove the safety device, by taking it off'

 

[Nick Laguna UK]

I saw this vid when it popped up last week (somehow I think YT knows I watch Laguna machines..) & in fairness I think this guy put out a good vid explaining the danger to those who don't know - I agree with you @Agent_zed although many of us know not to do it, it's certainly not a bad thing to highlight the dangers to those that don't.

@Adam W. with respect - I don't disagree, but I'm pretty sure quite a few people 'got into woodworking' during lockdowns & bought our machines without having a clue what they were doing. Yup, I know that by some of the e-mails I received

20+ years back I did something similar to this - casually cutting a 4" log into slices at a trade show on an Elektra Beckum bandsaw, it caught, snatched, flew off like a missile and scared the sh*t out of me I will admit.

 

[TRITON]

It just shows how fast things happen and how little etime you have to get clear. By the time you do the accident has happened and the injury has occurred. AND it can happen to anyone. One slip in concentration and bingo, send out for new undies.

Thankfully Adam is infallible .

 

[Bingy man]

My wee industrial accident(26 stitches) was at aged 15 in a college/school placement on a metal shaping machine(might be called a metal planer) I used a hand to sweep away the metal chippings because i didn't have a brush.
I didnt have a brush because the lecturer who was supposed to be overseeing us along with an assistant, and also the store-man were in another room where they had a card school going.
My scream brought them running back in though

I spoke to my parents about this decades later and they said the college blamed me, and dear parents, knowing little else followed their lead.
Of course nothing was mentioned about us(12 in total) being unsupervised,and certainly not a jot about the reason including their card playing skills, or I'm more than sure sackings and written final warnings would have ensued and with quite a lot of HSE involvement.

It was quite disappointing actually to find out all those years later I got the blame, despite my young age and lack of supervision, which in itself given the reason for it would have been at the top of the incompetence scale.

Hence I suppose my near religious attitude to machine safety.

All those years back ( sorry if I make you sound old ) but it was a different culture . Nowadays a public building , a 15 year old student and a major accident would bring the hse and probably a police visit all crashing in to establish what caused it .you were lucky and no doubt learned a valuable lesson . It reminds me of an accident at a similar age of 13 or 14 delivering papers after a massive down pouring of snow -I was literally running to get done asap and as I ran up the 3 steps to get into the block of flats I pushed the door to open it but didn’t realise it opened outwards . Well next thing I recall was tumbling head first through a fully glazed door - there was no centre bar and the glass wasn’t wired . I think a large piece of glass slid down and cut the top of my left hand - 13 stitches later and back doing the same round a few days later . The door in question had been changed to one with the rail halfway up . By todays standards I would have been awarded ££££££ as the local council would have been responsible as would your colledge lecturers etc . How the world has changed ..

 

[TRITON]

By todays standards I would have been awarded ££££££

Yeah me too and thats the bit grates the most Bloody useless parents

Its worse because this was about 1983, so not back in the dark ages or anything. Full supervision should have been No1 on their list and an investigation, including speaking to other students who were there.

 

[Bingy man]

Yeah me too and thats the bit grates the most Bloody useless parents

Its worse because this was about 1983, so not back in the dark ages or anything. Full supervision should have been No1 on their list and an investigation, including speaking to other students who were there.

Exactly , my mom was not one for making a fuss , so no complaint raised . Unlike todays generations who will kick up the amount of fuss and drama because their little son / Daughter fell over and bruises their shins . I think 1882/3 would be about the same time as my accident as I left school at 15 but definitely early 80,s ..

 

[Adam W.]

It just shows how fast things happen and how little etime you have to get clear. By the time you do the accident has happened and the injury has occurred. AND it can happen to anyone. One slip in concentration and bingo, send out for new undies.

Thankfully Adam is infallible .

Actually he's not infallible, which is why he doesn't have or go near a bandsaw or table saw.

Strangely, he knows the limits of what he can and cannot safely do. Unfortunately this cannot be said of the chap in the video who was clearly not paying attention to the task in hand........Silly billy.

No training = No bandsaw. No wakey = No Worky.

 

[Daniel2]

In all fairness, I think that is a useful video.
Even for regular bandsaw users.
Whilst it is clearly a mistake (and the guy owns that), I think
it offers a good reminder, and may enlighten someone who
simply hadn't anticipated that that could happen.
Also, a well documented event that wonderfully demonstrates
the sheer speed at which these accidents occur.

 

[Owd Jockey]

Many many years ago I started watching a VHS video called "Faces of Death". Quite frankly it was horrible and I switched it off after 5 minutes, not that I am squeamish, more it bordered on voyeurism, watching someone die. I suspect it is something that would appeal to the morons who watch those short vids of people, including children, falling over and banging their heads and then proceeding to laugh.

 

[Sideways]

Back in the day I used to shoot for sport.
As a novice to the shotgun I read a book by an American police instructor whose chapter 1 was photographs of corpses in the morgue showing exactly what a SG can do.
It is essentially the same thing. A very forceful lesson to never, ever, f*ck up.

 

[Agent_zed]

Well, I think if you didn't know it, you shouldn't be anywhere near a woodworking machine.

I don't mean to pick specifically on you but I find your view interesting and would like to understand a bit more.

I'm unsure how you are meant to know everything there is to know about woodworking machines and every possible point of failure, whilst not watching things like this or using literature to learn. Where would a hobbiest for example gain this information otherwise?

Take a bandsaw for example, mine cost about £200. I'm unlikely to spend a couple of days and I guess £400+ to do a training course (even if I could find one). Even then would that course teach me everything I could possibly need to know and all possible accident scenarios? Of course I'd then need to take the table saw, router, drilling, grinding, lathes, ladder/scaffolding, plumbing, electrical etc etc training

I'm not saying losing a body part is worth saving a bit of money but taking a training course for every aspect of the things I do doesn't seem practical somehow. Which for me is why I watch things like this as well as how to use the machine properly videos and continually look to improve my knowledge.

If the above statement draws the argument that it is then my fault for not doing training then to counter this it is similar perhaps to driving. I have learnt from videos and some practical experience how to drive in snow/icy conditions and have fitted 3 peak M/S tyres to my car, but how many people have gone on a training course? I could argue that it is even more important to do this training as you are more likely to injure others with a car than a bandsaw.