The Truck Almost Killed Me

[bluec10]

Here is a textbook accident:

I needed to change the rear transmission seal on my '76 GMC so I backed it on to the ramps, set the parking brake, and got at it. It's just a little job, so I wasn't careful enough. The second I removed the driveshaft the truck rolled off the ramps, as my driveway has an incline. The rear axle caught the back of my head, giving my neck a vicious twist. In trying to stop the truck I did a real muscle-twisting number on my left arm.

I must have slowed down the truck by holding it because I managed to get my head under the rear axle and free. The truck then rolled off the ramps and down the driveway and I was left lying there.

To make a long story short - neighbors called the ambulance and the x-rays checked out OK, but the pain over the next 3 weeks was intense. Physio and massage therapy have helped the torn/strained muscles in my neck and arm a lot and I'm finally getting better.

I CAN'T EMPHASIZE SAFETY ENOUGH!! BLOCK YOUR WHEELS, MAKE SURE YOUR PARKING BRAKE WORKS, DON'T WORK ON AN INCLINE, AND MAKE SURE OTHERS ARE AROUND WHEN YOU'RE WORKING UNDER A VEHICLE.

God bless.

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Aguy I knew in high school had that happen to him ,but the truck rolled over both his leg's(got to hurt) and because he had 2 broken leg's was not going far for help. At least you survived some people are not as fortunate. SAFTEY FIRST....ALWAYS....

[Alexis]

oh sht. Thats some scary sht dude. Glad you're ok.

[SLS]

WOW!!!

Talk about a close call!

I'm glad that you were not more severly injured, or killed, and I hope that your mending time is very, very short.


Thanks for posting this as I know that you and I are not the only ones who take' shortcuts' in order to get things moving quicker. We need a reminder like this every once in awhile to keep us focused on whats really important.

Get well SOON!

[MandarinSixSeven]

Oh man, thats good to hear you are alright.
I was just swapping my tranny this weekend on ramps too, but we made super sure that it was secure, because the exact thign happened to my dad when he was younger, so he made sure it was secured
phew

[lngbed71]

Whew!!! Close call, my cousin was killed exactly the same manner, only he was under a 68 Bonniville. Working projects are great but please think everything out first when safety is involved! I am glad you are okay, keep us posted on everything.

[Longhorn Man]

This happened to me excwpt the injury part.
My first car...a '68 cougar. I had it for 3 days and I just got my first automotive tool at a yard sale down the street. Car ramps.
As soon as I got home, I tossed them in the driveway and drove the 'ole POS up the ramps. The shift linkage was looser than a dallas cowboy cheerleader and I wanted to know why. (you could put it in gear without even pressing the button)
I had it up there, put it in park, and pulled the parking brake handle all the way out. I noted to my self (in my uknowing mind) that it seemed pretty dang easy to pull that brake handle out.
I crawled under and grabbed the shifter arm and wiggled it back and forth, noting what sections were flexing, and then I pulled it front to back.
OOOPS!!!!
That sucker rolled down the ramps, (turned out only the drivers side one was in the indentation on the ramp top) while I was under it. I swear I slowed the sucker down when i grabbed onto the bellhousing and tried to keep it from rolling. I might be wrong, my 16 year old mind may have been seeing things, but I tried.
The oil pan drain bolt came down and hit my right cheek bone and cut it up. If I search real hard, I can still see a scar today.
Luckily, my driveway was not on a hill...but it was not perfectly level either. The car did roll into the street, but it was going slow enough that when I got to the gutter on the edge of the street, I was able to roll out from under it.
As luck would have it, the POS wouldn't start after that and scrawney little me (at least back then) had to push this beast back into the drive.
When i cleaned up and saw the cut was not important enough to warant a trip to the hospital, I started getting ticked that the dang thing tried killing me. (there's that 16 yr old mentality again)
I got REAL p!ssed when i saw that the trip down the driveway killed my 2 hr old metallica T-shirt and 2 hr old Levi's.
I was ready to toss that thing in the creek behind the house by the time the night was over. Quite a few more bad things happened to me that day and I learned quite a bit.



Here is a 68 Cougar for those of you who have never seen one. They are very cool classy cars.

[Longhorn Man]

Man I type too slow...I was responding to this before any responces were showing.

[RAT-AT-TACH]

i had a good one a long time ago.
my father had a 71 international 4 door that he bought a new box for,he had the new box stacked on the old one to bring it home,at the house he put two barrels down for rollers,two guys one the ground to take the weight,my mom idleing the truck forward and me and him in the back lifting it up,it was most of the way off the truck when the truck lurched ahead,i didnt let go in time and i ended up on the ground with both legs under the box up to my thighs,i was looking at my legs waiting for the pain to kick in while my dad and the other guys lifted the box off,amazingly both legs went right smack in the middle of the cut out for the tranny while the other end of the box was still on the barrels,luckly nothing broken only brused.

my guardian angel at its best i would say.

[BillGent]

Many years ago I had a friend who used cinder blocks to set his car on. One broke...then all the rest did too. Killed him instantly. He was 16.

[old Rusty C10]

thats why i keep 4x4 wood chocks right there with the ramps and i keep a set int he bed of each of the trucks glad youre ok but um THAT WAS NOT USING YOUR HEAD!!!!!!!

[progress]

Very glad you are ok! My next door neighbor was not as lucky the day he told me he was going to fix the starter on his Jag. Freed up the starter, it rolled off the stands onto his chest and crushed him. Very sad since he had a wife and three kids. Two other friends died in a similar fashion...one under a '57 Chevy on a rotisserie! BE CAREFUL!!!!!

[Yukon Jack]

Thanks for the reminder to always think about what you are doing. It's easy to get into a repair without thinking safety first. Get back to wrenching full strength soon!

[Zumo]

Originally posted by bluec10

I CAN'T EMPHASIZE SAFETY ENOUGH!! BLOCK YOUR WHEELS, MAKE SURE YOUR PARKING BRAKE WORKS, DON'T WORK ON AN INCLINE, AND MAKE SURE OTHERS ARE AROUND WHEN YOU'RE WORKING UNDER A VEHICLE.

God bless.

Amen 2 Dat Brudda!

P.S. I hate those ramps.

[oldsub86]

Don't feel bad, it is just too easy to make a simple mistake that can cost you big time. Lessons like this are not soon forgotten and you likely won't do that again.

Different type of story but I was doing some woodworking a few years back and took a chunk out of one of my fingers with a biscuit jointer. I had used it for years and thought little about it but it bit me so fast I was just standing there with a bloody finger. In retrospect I realize that I should have clamped down the relatively small piece of wood that I was trying to put the slot into. I also should have had the blade on the machine sharpened as I knew it was getting more difficult to use and thus realized it was getting dull. It basically caught the wood and shot it out of my fingers, which were then in the way of the blade.

I try not to beat myself up over my basic stupidity on that one. I am generally a very careful worker with tools and that one just snuck up on me. I learned from that mistake and am just happy that the damage to my hand was not any greater.

Long, long post but another story comes to mind. Many years ago (like more than 30) I was helping my father haul home a wrecked pickup truck that he had purchased. The body was mostly junk but he wanted the drivetrain. We had a 5 ton truck witha a cable, winch type boom loader that we used to load logs to haul to our sawmill. We used the truck to haul home the damaged pickup and were in the process of dragging it up some timbers onto the bed of the truck using the boom winch to pull. The cable that held the boom up broke under the stress and the 4 inch square tube boom dropped like a guillotine from above me and just about brushed the tip of my nose. I was not wearing a hard hat or any sort of safety equipment of course. If it had hit me I probably would not have been here today typing this. I am ever thankful that I was spared on that occasion.

These incidents just illustrate that you have to be ever vigilant (sp?). Working on our projects is fun but potentially dangerous and will be even more diffiult if we have to start doing it without all of our fingers or limbs. S0 . . . . . BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!!!

[yellowgmc]

i hate rams. had one collapse on me while working on my dakota. i stopped too far forward and the weight on the front of the ramp eventually crushed it. i had just gotten out from under it. now whenever i work under the gmc i put it up off the ground on axle stands. no rolling there!

[my67c20]

I several years ago while in the Military got a first hand vision of what a diesel can do with home made throttle linkage. Seems the battallion before us had been stripping parts of this 20 ton dump with a beutiful detroit diesel. Well in the haste to hide there doings they had the welding shop create the throttle linkage. Which they torch cut from some 1/4" plate. One of my buddys jumps up into this thing to fire up the compressor to release the brakes. Well within a split second this thing goes to full trottle and launches forward. Oh they also messed with the neutral safety device. Keep in mind this thing has the front end on jack stands. It drops off the stands rolls the rear tires over another mechanic broad sides another 5 ton truck that is also gettting its brakes done and continues on for about another 20 feet for a grand total of about 50 feet all within seconds. Friend on the ground ends up with a fractures pelvis guy in the drivers seat needs to clean out his shorts. Moral of the story do not create parts that a safety related or modify them just to be in a hurry. Spending 50 bucks on good OEM parts is cheaper than someone else having to pay for being cheap.

[Custom 68]

I hadnt posted this before but thought about it. About 2 months ago I got my wife a 1980 Triumph Spitfire. She had always wanted something like that. Anyway the day after we got it home she decided to push it out of the garage and wash it. One little push and it started rolling. She tried to slow it down anyway it knocked her down she was scrambling to get away but it just kept coming. It ran over her and pinned her under it against a concrete retaining wall. In the process she lost a finger broke 4 ribs one arm and bummed up her knee. Some how a neighbor heard her (we live out in the country) and came looking he finally found her pinned under the car. He drug the floor jack out and got her out and to the hospital. Yesterday she got to get the brace on her knee off. She will suffer for quite a while on this deal.
An inch or two over and she would not be here today. She is very luck to be alive.
This is a small car but any car\truck once moving is powerful. So yes be carefull as I know most of us are. It is a spooky thing, that is why they are accidents. After the fact there are several things went through her mind as to what she should have done different but that is the way with most of these stories.
Dave

[72MARIO]

That Sucks !

[sbc350gearhead]

I read a story once about a guy who wanted to change the tranny in his truck but he didn't have a jack or stands. He dug a trench in his yard and drove his truck over top of it, then crawled into the trench. The weight of the truck caused the trench to cave in and suffocated the guy.

[lukecp]

When i go to pull the driveshaft, i make sure the trans is in neutral, and the front wheels are blocked with wood or rocks. This is so when i take off the driveshaft, the truck isn't pressing on it and trying to roll forward. I learned this the hard way and ALMOST had the truck roll off the ramds, and the punkin on the rear axle land on my stomach. It scared the sh!t out of me. No where near as bad as some of the other accidents on the board, but enough that i think twice when i'm underneath my truck.

[1969 GMC]

when i was changin the oil and greasin the front suspension on my truck, i thought it was sitting on perfectly level ground. oops was i wrong. i did have a piece of wood chocked under one of the rear tires, but it was rotten. i thought i had left the tranny in 2nd, but i guess not. i was laying parallel with the front axle with my feet sticking out behind the drivers front tire, greasing the tie rod end on the psgr side. it started to move, and the diff popped me in the head and the truck came to rest on my leg(!). that sucked hardcore. the way i was sitting my head was stuck under the diff and my leg was chocking the wheel. i started screaming (it hurt) and my dad came out and pushed it off of me. i got a small cut on my forehead and bruises on my head and my leg. i consider myself lucky.

[nroden]

Glad to hear you made it OK.
I sometimes catch myself doing unsafe things and then think of accidents like yours... enough for me to correct myself.

[71Custom10]

I found myself saying the same thing a few months ago. I kept having a problem with my nuetral saftey switch. Turn the key and get no power, wiggle the plug on the switch and it would start right up. Well one day I hopped in the truck turned the key and no power. So of course my first response was to wiggle the plug. Didn't work. Unplugged it , plugged it in, no luck. So I unplug and use a stiff piece of wire off my key chain to loop of the plug so I could get home. I reach over to start the truck, keep in mind I'm still kneeling on the ground outside the drivers door since I'm messing with the switch. Well the trucks starts right up and starts moving in reverse dragging me with it. Luckily my girlfriend was sitting in the truck and stopped it before it ran over me over.

My uncle had a similar accident with a biscuit jointer. Just two months ago I had a run in with a miter saw. Got two fingers, just barely missed the bone. On finger got stitches, the other was missing to much meat and skin to be sewn up. The have healed pretty nicely though.

Glad to hear you okay.
Andrew