Skil saw kickback (kickoff)?

[phildcrow]

Imagine, gentlemen, if you will, a perfect storm of poor judgement, stupidity and bad conditions that led to about 2 inches being the difference between a 'Holy S**t! WTF was that!?' and an OSHA recordable.

A crew of form carpenters is forming a fairly substantial slab. It's

3 pm on a Friday, and the crew is winding down, getting ready for their weekend. As the last few form boards are getting set, one of the crew members measures the remainder on the form, and calls it out to the "cut man."

Sawhorses? Nah, those are all the way over there. He props the 2x10 on a steel shoring beam that is about gut height. Wait, don't want the saw to catch THAT. So, he moves the form board over onto a more yielding surface: a stack of 2x3x3-foot stakes (sitting atop the shoring beam). About halfway through the cut, apparently one of the saw teeth caught one of the stakes, because it shot out across the workzone at a pretty considerable rate of speed. Had it not hit one of the other workers (the pointy end) a glancing blow on the shoulder, I'm sure it would have traveled 30 feet before hitting the ground. 2 inches to the right, and that guy would be in the hospital with a 3- foot form stake sticking out of his neck. All of this literally right in front of the foreman and the PM, who were having a discussion while looking out over the site. Nothing was said, no reprimand, nothing.

I'm so glad I'm outside the chain of command here.

Phil

[Lee Michaels]

Back in the day, there was something called a safety engineer. I knew a couple of them. I don't know if there is a modern day equivalent. If not, there should be. If safety is not a concern of the crew, then stupid things like this happen. Safety consciousness may be a PITA simetimes. But if it prevents injuries, deaths. etc., it is worth it.

[notbob]

Sounds like that ancient high school safety film shown in most shop classes back in the 50s, where a student sets the table saw blade way low so the cutting force is pushing horizontally instead of high so the teeth are pushing the work down onto the table surface. Anyway, the low blade grabs the finished rip, an approx 2"x2" cut, and flings it across the shop where it impails another student, the student's stomach entrails grossly wrapped around the protruding spear. A classic in its day. ;)

nb

[MikeWhy]

The eloquence of the action and reaction needs no more elaboration. He either is a skilled workman, now also wiser for the near mishap, and an asset to the team, or he was a barely worthwhile liability waiting for the crew to expend its last bit of patience. What isn't said is sometimes louder and clearer than what is said.

So now we have an illustration of the distinction between "nearly hit", as perhaps yelled by an oversensitive motorcyclist nonconversationally into an open convertible, and a "near miss". There's just no mistaking the two, even though the outcomes are largely not much different. One makes you more aware of your mortality and appreciative of your time on this planet, while the other brings out the excitable girlie girl in the man.