Freak fencing accident

This is really just to show that "you can't be too careful". It's true...I am acquainted with the unfortunate person, indirectly.

Scenario (irrelevant details omitted):

Rather nervous horse has to be moved to a new stable, a few miles away. Two people do this...one to keep company on another horse.

On the way, they stop for some reason. Nervous horse is temporarily tethered to a fence post. The fence is made up of a series of posts linked by five strands of wire, stapled on as usual.

Horse gets spooked by something and pulls on post, tilting it quite a bit. Posts on either side hold firm, but the strain on the wire pops a few staples. One of the staples hits the guy right in the middle of the eye, and goes quite deep.

Rushed off to A&E, but eye is destroyed and has to be removed.

(Eye protection while riding???)

Reply to
Bob Eager
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Stupid idea tying it to a flimsy fence in the first place. Some accidents can't be predicted or prevented.

Reply to
harry

Small point of order... barbed wire fences should only be found on one side of a route used by horses (road/bridleway) and, if intended to retain stock, should be stapled on the field side of the supporting posts. I am struggling to envisage how tethering to the post would create a *bowstring* of the wire. Now tethering to the wire and the wire on the wrong side or horse actually in field....

Reply to
Tim Lamb

Not barbed wire. And of course it wasn't his fence. But silly to tie to it. Not easily predictable though.

It didn't create a bowstring per se. The horse just effectively pulled on the wire, popping staples off adjacent posts.

And it wasn't in the UK, as it happens.

Reply to
Bob Eager

In the recent gales there was news item of a person merely walking back from the shops and a chard of what they think was broken glass went into one of her eyes and blinded her. I'm afraid freak things do happen. There are events for which no real blame can be attached that cause life changing effects but to attempt to avoid every conceivable one would be impossible. Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

Ah! Small frisson of worry and a quick mental run through of my fences:-)

Reply to
Tim Lamb

Ooh I dunno... crash helmet, foam lined padding & springs sticking out everywhere would avoid many accidents. Busy pedestrian areas would be chaos though!

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

I don't know the current situation but, visiting America about 20 years ago, I was interested in the differing attitudes to safety in their school playgrounds. Oh yes, we get several broken bones a year, so what of it?

Imagine a head teacher saying that here!

Reply to
Tim Lamb

Many in the US have the same odd attitude to people shooting one another. Even in schools.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

I think the USA attitude to safety is very different to ours. National Parks often have notices of how many people have died in them due to walking off trail, walking through narrow canyons in flash floods, falling off whilst climbing, drowned whilst canoeing kayaking etc etc.

The attitude is far more pragmatic about self-protection and awareness of dangers in such environments. Yet it contrasts markedly with the litigious nature of the society for other matters where there is always a fault to be found and damages to be claimed.

Reply to
Mark Allread

All the springs would intertwine with everyone else's. No one would be able to move. They should definitely introduce this at foopball matches.

Reply to
Tim Streater

Well they'd have said it 50 years ago. During my time in school I think I saw one black eye when a girl got hit by a shinty ball, one broken arm and one broken nose. That's it.

Reply to
Tim Streater

Gym teacher broke his neck, and one boy got three broken ribs being kicked by a horse on a cross country run...

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Very nasty, but pretty unlikely. One advantage of wearing glasses (now that they are all plastic).

Jockeys of course normally wear eye protection.

Reply to
newshound

I have a picture that shows an America Cowboy as protected according to OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health, a USA government body). Such things as an all-enveloping protective ring around the horse's perimeter, safety belt for the rider, warning bell, etc etc. I'll try and find it, and post it somewhere.

Reply to
Davey

+1

If I am doing something that I know is likely to produce a specific eye risk then I always wear the relevant eye protection. However, if there is only a minor risk (like soldering) I will generally just rely on my glasses but ensuring they are on properly and that I'm not looking over the top of them etc. ;-)

I've had angle-grinding sparks get inside all sorts of goggles, albeit that with less chance of a direct 'hit' on my eyes etc.

I think I've had more 'near misses' on my eyes when not doing something that would normally require eye protection, like when you nearly walk into the end of a twig or something sticking out from a tree or plant or that thing that just fell over / down.

I remember once coming up behind a skip lorry on my motorbike, just after he turned out of a yard and spotting a clump of mud caught between it's back tyres. Faster than I could back off it came loose, flew though the air in a nice arc and hit me on the chest.

No harm done (I had nearly come to a halt by that time) but a good reminder about staying vigilant. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

We have some very spikey plants in our garden that I have to be very careful about when gardening near them.

I have also had a twig cut me right next to my eye - just walking home in the half-dark, from a council owned tree, overhanging the pavement on a residential street, from a verge. I have often thought that the council should mount a number of hedge cutters on a wheeled frame and push it along pavements - anything overhanging, whether theirs or from private land should just be chopped.

More recently, I was working on my kit-car and removed the rear-mounted spare wheel. Ten minutes later, while kneeling on the floor, I bent over to check the size of the nuts on the back of the numberplate bolts and put a great big cut and bruise right on the edge of my eye on the end of the thread that the spare wheel mounts to. After that I taped a bundled up rag over the end while I worked.

I've not had that, but I have had having to overtake a gritter on the motorway while driving the kit-car with the top and sidescreens off. Luckily, I do wear glasses when I am driving.

Reply to
Steve Walker

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